WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:03.801 --> 00:00:04.668 [sigh] 00:00:04.668 --> 00:00:07.108 So I guess we gotta talk about coffee makers now. 00:00:07.108 --> 00:00:07.909 Hi. 00:00:07.909 --> 00:00:13.040 You might have seen a video of mine on the mysterious lack of electric kettles in the United States. 00:00:13.040 --> 00:00:16.423 I made that video mainly because there’s this pervasive idea 00:00:16.423 --> 00:00:18.828 that electric kettles don’t make any sense here 00:00:18.828 --> 00:00:24.661 because our weedy little plugs are too little and weedy which makes them slow at the whole water boily business. 00:00:24.661 --> 00:00:28.140 But the fact is, unless you’ve got an induction stove 00:00:28.140 --> 00:00:31.783 (which aren’t yet anywhere near what I would call “common” ‘round these parts) 00:00:31.783 --> 00:00:36.198 an electric kettle remains the fastest and certainly most convenient way to boil water, 00:00:36.198 --> 00:00:37.922 especially for beverages. 00:00:38.450 --> 00:00:43.250 So, I don’t think it’s fair to blame the electrical system on our ambivalence towards kettles. 00:00:43.250 --> 00:00:44.664 Instead, 00:00:44.664 --> 00:00:47.618 I said that’s it’s just because we don’t drink tea all that much. 00:00:47.618 --> 00:00:51.046 Yes, there are other reasons you might want to use a kettle, 00:00:51.046 --> 00:00:55.125 as a matter of fact tea is pretty far down the list of reasons I use mine, 00:00:55.125 --> 00:01:00.408 but for the record I grew up calling this thing a tea kettle and I’m not alone! 00:01:00.408 --> 00:01:01.917 Just take a look at this poll - 00:01:02.414 --> 00:01:05.238 oh c’mon I was hoping for a better showing than that… 00:01:05.238 --> 00:01:07.877 Actually, I just realized something. 00:01:07.877 --> 00:01:11.419 The American children’s song “I’m a Little Teapot” 00:01:11.419 --> 00:01:13.766 is actually a song about a kettle! 00:01:13.766 --> 00:01:18.265 Teapots are for steeping the tea - they don’t get all steamed up and shout. 00:01:18.265 --> 00:01:19.996 That’s what a kettle does. 00:01:19.996 --> 00:01:25.682 See, we’re really confused by this whole "tea" business and it seems we have been since at least 1939. 00:01:25.682 --> 00:01:28.946 Oh, relatedly, I’ve heard from lots of Canadians 00:01:28.946 --> 00:01:33.022 who politely informed me that nearly everybody up there has an electric kettle 00:01:33.022 --> 00:01:37.207 and in case you didn’t know they have essentially the exact same electrical system we do 00:01:37.207 --> 00:01:39.677 so again - the plugs aren’t the answer. 00:01:40.702 --> 00:01:45.981 Anyway, in that video, I had originally planned to talk about coffee makers and explain that, 00:01:45.981 --> 00:01:48.432 since we’re addicted to *that* hot brown, 00:01:48.432 --> 00:01:52.288 a huge portion of us use some kind of coffee maker. 00:01:52.288 --> 00:01:55.719 But I removed that bit before making the video for flow reasons, 00:01:55.719 --> 00:01:59.563 and thanks to that omission an interesting pattern emerged in the comments. 00:01:59.563 --> 00:02:02.939 Lots of you wondered how we make coffee without a kettle. 00:02:02.939 --> 00:02:09.005 And another, but different, lots of you thought we must all be using bougie espresso machines or something like that. 00:02:09.005 --> 00:02:13.205 Some of us are, yeah, but the humble and cheap drip brewer 00:02:13.205 --> 00:02:17.137 remains a countertop staple in many millions of American homes. 00:02:17.137 --> 00:02:19.789 And that’s what this video is about. 00:02:20.067 --> 00:02:22.681 But first, let's get the obvious thing out of the way. 00:02:22.681 --> 00:02:25.472 Why don’t kettles make our coffee? 00:02:25.472 --> 00:02:29.700 Well a big part of that comes from the fact that most of us here... 00:02:29.700 --> 00:02:32.309 intensely dislike instant coffee. 00:02:32.309 --> 00:02:36.618 You can get it, sure, but the bulk of our instant options just… 00:02:37.146 --> 00:02:38.454 aren’t great. 00:02:38.454 --> 00:02:42.095 Your typical grocery store might have maybe four options to choose from, 00:02:42.095 --> 00:02:44.202 and Folgers is probably three of them. 00:02:45.288 --> 00:02:47.085 That was hyperbole, for the record. 00:02:47.085 --> 00:02:51.547 Instant coffee is brewed coffee which has then been freeze-dried into crystals. 00:02:51.547 --> 00:02:54.901 Add that stuff to hot water and you’ve got 00:02:54.901 --> 00:02:55.824 “coffee”. 00:02:55.824 --> 00:03:00.348 Trouble is that most of our instant options are brewed in industrial-sized percolators 00:03:00.348 --> 00:03:02.489 and probably don’t even use arabica beans, 00:03:02.489 --> 00:03:06.089 so with few exceptions it’s just not great. 00:03:06.089 --> 00:03:09.875 Plus, like, have you ever smelled it as it’s mixed with water? 00:03:09.875 --> 00:03:11.876 That is not a pleasant aroma, 00:03:11.876 --> 00:03:15.393 and the smell of coffee as it brews is one of the best parts! 00:03:15.393 --> 00:03:20.473 Thanks to this, the vast majority of the coffee sold here is, ya know, 00:03:20.473 --> 00:03:21.653 real! 00:03:21.653 --> 00:03:23.059 Yeah, I said it. 00:03:23.059 --> 00:03:26.290 You can either buy your beans as beans and grind ‘em yourself, 00:03:26.290 --> 00:03:28.457 or you can get pre-ground coffee. 00:03:28.457 --> 00:03:33.828 And you can get it in big ol’ tubs because some families will absolutely get through it in a month. 00:03:33.828 --> 00:03:38.734 Now, there are some methods for brewing actual coffee which involve a kettle, 00:03:38.734 --> 00:03:42.460 most prominently the French press or a pour-over filter cone, 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:46.651 and some people choose to go that route for taste or hipster reasons. 00:03:46.651 --> 00:03:52.329 But Mr. Coffee and his offspring have been the kings of the brew for something like half a century. 00:03:52.329 --> 00:03:55.854 At least until Keurigs came along. 00:03:55.950 --> 00:03:59.567 As it happens, I’ve already made a video about the drip brewer’s predecessor; 00:03:59.567 --> 00:04:01.158 coffee percolators. 00:04:01.344 --> 00:04:04.449 Those are old-fashioned devices for brewing ground coffee 00:04:04.449 --> 00:04:06.641 which you can still buy for some reason. 00:04:06.641 --> 00:04:10.027 And they are how we would have been making coffee in 1939, 00:04:10.027 --> 00:04:12.083 and in fact long before then. 00:04:12.083 --> 00:04:14.595 Stovetop percolators went atop a stove, 00:04:14.595 --> 00:04:18.825 and they were invented in the 19th century (when exactly is disputed). 00:04:18.825 --> 00:04:23.263 Later you could get electric percolators which are percolators that are electric, 00:04:23.263 --> 00:04:25.812 giving them their own water-heating ability. 00:04:25.812 --> 00:04:29.639 You can check out that video if you want to learn more about our coffee making past, 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:37.313 but they’re coming up here to illustrate that we’ve been brewing actual coffee here in the US for a very, VERY long time 00:04:37.313 --> 00:04:42.240 and we have been using dedicated coffee-making thingamajigs for over a century. 00:04:42.240 --> 00:04:45.654 Get used to a thing which makes coffee all by itself, 00:04:45.654 --> 00:04:47.262 don’t drink tea all that much, 00:04:47.262 --> 00:04:49.164 and an electric kettle becomes a niche item - 00:04:49.164 --> 00:04:51.559 wait I thought this video was about coffee makers. 00:04:51.559 --> 00:04:53.319 Anyway, in 1968, 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:57.281 Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel asked where Joe DiMaggio had gone, 00:04:57.281 --> 00:05:00.350 and although Joltin’ Joe had left and gone away, 00:05:00.350 --> 00:05:01.462 hey hey hey, 00:05:01.462 --> 00:05:05.619 he’d show up again in 1973 to hawk Mr. Coffee. 00:05:05.619 --> 00:05:09.508 Mr. Coffee promised restaurant-quality filter coffee at home. 00:05:09.508 --> 00:05:11.818 [Never knew coffee could taste SO great!] 00:05:11.818 --> 00:05:13.912 [or brew so FAST!] 00:05:14.191 --> 00:05:18.553 See, for over a decade, the foodservice industry had been moving away from percolators 00:05:18.553 --> 00:05:22.707 and towards basket-type brewers like the Bunn-O-Matic. 00:05:22.707 --> 00:05:26.275 People really liked the taste of this new, smoother brew, 00:05:26.275 --> 00:05:30.361 but until North American Systems Inc. created Mr. Coffee, 00:05:30.361 --> 00:05:33.466 there wasn’t a convenient way to have it at home. 00:05:33.466 --> 00:05:38.254 I mean, if you were one of those weirdos who had a kettle you might be using a Melitta filter brewer, 00:05:38.254 --> 00:05:42.782 and there were also plenty of other coffee gadgets on the market because of course there were. 00:05:42.782 --> 00:05:48.732 But none of them would disrupt the dominance of the percolator until Mr. Coffee. 00:05:48.732 --> 00:05:54.999 Here we have a modern drip brewer, one of Mr. Coffee’s many great great great great grandchildren. 00:05:54.999 --> 00:05:58.096 Although it’s much newer and refined in its design, 00:05:58.096 --> 00:06:02.000 it brews coffee in the same way as the original Mr. Coffee. 00:06:02.000 --> 00:06:07.909 To use it, ground coffee is placed in a paper filter which sits in a brew basket above a carafe. 00:06:07.909 --> 00:06:10.762 Water is placed in the reservoir at the back of the machine, 00:06:10.762 --> 00:06:16.555 and when switched on that water is automatically heated and slowly deposited on top of that coffee. 00:06:16.555 --> 00:06:20.931 It will then seep through, absorb all that caffeine (and flavors, I guess), 00:06:20.931 --> 00:06:26.020 and finally make its way to the bottom of the basket where it will emerge a lovely shade of brown, 00:06:26.020 --> 00:06:28.438 while the filter leaves the grounds behind. 00:06:28.438 --> 00:06:34.627 No longer recirculating brewed and increasingly-hot coffee through the same grounds again and again, 00:06:34.627 --> 00:06:40.668 a much smoother, more consistent, and less burnt brew could be made with this java marvel. 00:06:40.884 --> 00:06:45.426 Cleanup was also a breeze; the slide-out (or later lift-out) brew basket 00:06:45.426 --> 00:06:48.906 was much less fiddly than dealing with the guts of a percolator, 00:06:48.906 --> 00:06:54.334 and after disposing of the grounds a simple rinse of carafe and basket was all that’s needed. 00:06:54.334 --> 00:07:00.143 Mr. Coffee sold like hot cakes and before long companies were copying it right and left. 00:07:00.143 --> 00:07:03.874 The Mr. Coffee coffeemaker didn’t invent the concept of filter coffee, 00:07:03.874 --> 00:07:06.580 and it wasn’t even the first electric drip brewer. 00:07:06.580 --> 00:07:10.580 That would be the Wagomat of Germany, patented in 1954. 00:07:10.580 --> 00:07:14.081 But Mr. Coffee popularized this brewing method in the US, 00:07:14.081 --> 00:07:16.639 and it more or less killed the percolator. 00:07:16.980 --> 00:07:22.960 However, a common feature of electric percolators would live on; the keep warm function. 00:07:22.960 --> 00:07:26.281 Drip machines almost as a rule have a hot plate below the carafe 00:07:26.591 --> 00:07:32.201 so that you can brew a full pot of coffee when you wake up and keep groggily coming back to it throughout the morning. 00:07:32.201 --> 00:07:37.585 This does not do good things for the flavor of your coffee, but we’ll get back to that later. 00:07:37.740 --> 00:07:42.389 The original Mr. Coffee featured separate power switches for the brewer and the hot plate, 00:07:42.389 --> 00:07:48.134 but later versions (like this) would ditch that thanks to a very clever design refinement. 00:07:48.134 --> 00:07:51.729 And here, dear viewer, is where the script went off the rails. 00:07:51.977 --> 00:07:55.743 See, I was going to simply talk about those old Mr. Coffee machines 00:07:55.743 --> 00:07:59.280 because obviously they must work just like these new ones. 00:07:59.280 --> 00:08:05.601 But a quick search for them revealed they operate at a significantly higher power level than modern designs. 00:08:06.414 --> 00:08:08.790 This intrigued me, so, uh, 00:08:09.752 --> 00:08:10.830 well… 00:08:12.599 --> 00:08:14.015 yeah. 00:08:14.015 --> 00:08:21.741 This Mr. Coffee machine is from 1979, and the joltin’ joe it’ll brew for you is still endorsed by Joltin’ Joe. 00:08:21.741 --> 00:08:26.849 As you can see it has two chonky and wonderfully illuminated power switches 00:08:26.849 --> 00:08:31.081 surrounded by a beautifully-executed faux woodgrain decal. 00:08:31.081 --> 00:08:34.119 And in case you had any doubt this was a product of the seventies, 00:08:34.119 --> 00:08:37.819 one look at the carafe is all you need to know for sure. 00:08:37.819 --> 00:08:44.528 When I first took a look at this coffee maker it was immediately clear that it's nothing like a modern drip machine. 00:08:44.528 --> 00:08:49.665 The back of it is completely empty and the power cord runs up to the top, 00:08:49.665 --> 00:08:52.812 revealing that all of the brewy-bits are up there. 00:08:52.812 --> 00:08:56.418 There are of course two power leads going down to the hot plate, 00:08:56.418 --> 00:08:58.574 and they’re surprisingly thin. 00:08:58.574 --> 00:09:01.578 I mean, sure, the hot plate only consumes about 80 watts, 00:09:01.578 --> 00:09:05.434 so it’s not like these need to carry even an amp, but still. 00:09:05.434 --> 00:09:07.862 That's mains voltage going through here. 00:09:08.390 --> 00:09:13.959 Anyway, the next clue that this was nothing like a modern machine came when I first tried to use it. 00:09:13.959 --> 00:09:18.848 I poured cold water in the top expecting nothing to happen until I switched it on, 00:09:18.848 --> 00:09:22.627 but almost immediately water started coming through the brew basket 00:09:22.627 --> 00:09:24.831 and falling onto the hot plate. 00:09:24.831 --> 00:09:27.727 It wasn’t much, though, and once I hurriedly put the carafe back 00:09:27.727 --> 00:09:31.069 and switched it on, the flow rate increased. 00:09:31.069 --> 00:09:37.062 Intrigued, the next order of business was obviously to get the guts out so we could get a good look at ‘em. 00:09:37.062 --> 00:09:40.864 That was all too easy - for being such a revolutionary product 00:09:40.864 --> 00:09:46.441 that commanded nearly $300 adjusted for inflation when it first came out, 00:09:46.441 --> 00:09:49.233 this is made incredibly cheaply. 00:09:49.233 --> 00:09:52.768 Two fasteners barely hold this flimsy cover on the back, 00:09:52.768 --> 00:10:00.285 and once removed we can see that the entire chassis is held in by these clips that are simply friction-fit to the plastic body. 00:10:00.285 --> 00:10:02.298 I needed to undo the connection to the warmer 00:10:02.298 --> 00:10:07.212 and also unfasten its little support / wire chase / grounding strap 00:10:07.212 --> 00:10:14.360 before I could slide it out, though, but once that was done it’s a simple matter of pushing up the tabs and yanking gingerly. 00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.472 What I eventually got hold of surprised me. 00:10:17.472 --> 00:10:18.938 This is it, folks. 00:10:18.938 --> 00:10:23.856 These two hunks of metal, one of ‘em with a big ol’ heating element sitting in the bottom, 00:10:23.856 --> 00:10:25.784 are all there is to it. 00:10:25.784 --> 00:10:30.358 The water inlet at the top of the machine simply dumps water into this upper pan 00:10:30.358 --> 00:10:33.887 which is vaguely funnel-shaped down to this point here. 00:10:33.887 --> 00:10:36.682 That pan sits atop the main chassis. 00:10:36.682 --> 00:10:40.106 Here, electrical connections are at a terminal block in the back, 00:10:40.106 --> 00:10:42.919 and power is sent up to the switches at the front. 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:47.342 In the middle of the chassis is a second shallow pan with a hole in its middle 00:10:47.342 --> 00:10:51.652 and a big curly-q heating element spiraling inward towards that hole. 00:10:52.925 --> 00:10:55.688 When I saw this, I thought 00:10:55.688 --> 00:10:57.525 “this doesn’t make any sense.” 00:10:57.525 --> 00:11:02.453 See, one of the things that the father of the Mr. Coffee, Mr. Coffee Senior - I mean, 00:11:02.453 --> 00:11:07.186 Vincent Marotta was frightfully concerned with was the brewing temperature. 00:11:07.186 --> 00:11:11.079 He thought boiling water was much too hot for good coffee, 00:11:11.079 --> 00:11:15.197 and since stovetop percolators percolated as a result of boiling, 00:11:15.197 --> 00:11:18.310 well you couldn’t get decent coffee out of ‘em. 00:11:18.310 --> 00:11:24.719 He was convinced the water reaching the coffee should be 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 93 Celsius; 00:11:24.719 --> 00:11:27.684 and no hotter, and no colder. 00:11:27.684 --> 00:11:34.812 He obsessed over this, devising handmade prototypes which would automatically heat water to that precise temperature, 00:11:34.812 --> 00:11:40.037 and with his business partner Samuel Glazer and the help of engineer Edmund Abel Jr, 00:11:40.037 --> 00:11:43.434 a functional, mass-producible Mr. Coffee was born. 00:11:44.534 --> 00:11:48.431 And I’m holding the patented mechanism right here. 00:11:48.431 --> 00:11:51.668 How in the heck is this thing controlling the water temperature‽ 00:11:51.935 --> 00:11:56.935 I didn’t have a clue so I looked at the original patent and what I found was a stroke of genius 00:11:56.935 --> 00:11:59.722 that I honestly can’t believe works. 00:11:59.722 --> 00:12:05.598 Consider that this heating element has an output power of a hair over 1500 watts. 00:12:05.598 --> 00:12:13.252 We could control it with some sort of thermostat but that’s getting pretty involved for early 1970’s consumer goods. 00:12:13.252 --> 00:12:19.789 In operation this thing is just gonna run at full power, so how else could you control the water temperature? 00:12:19.789 --> 00:12:26.042 I suppose the size of this hole could be calibrated to let water through at precisely the right rate, 00:12:26.042 --> 00:12:29.739 but that would only work with a specified inlet water temp, 00:12:29.739 --> 00:12:33.108 and there’s too much variation in the real world for that to work. 00:12:33.108 --> 00:12:38.666 Well, the answer was staring me in the face this whole time but I just didn’t see it; 00:12:38.666 --> 00:12:41.301 see what that hole is punched in? 00:12:41.301 --> 00:12:43.781 Why, it’s a strip of metal. 00:12:43.781 --> 00:12:46.198 And what are strips of metal sometimes? 00:12:46.198 --> 00:12:47.538 Bi. 00:12:47.538 --> 00:12:51.284 That’s right, this is a bimetallic strip. 00:12:51.284 --> 00:12:54.194 If I use a torch lighter and throw some heat at it, 00:12:54.194 --> 00:12:57.272 you can see it bend away from the pan. 00:12:57.272 --> 00:13:05.184 This dead simple arrangement of a bimetallic strip and hole in pan is forming a thermostatic valve. 00:13:05.184 --> 00:13:10.758 In operation, the heat from the heating element will cause this strip to bend away from the pan, 00:13:10.758 --> 00:13:13.759 which lets water through more quickly. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:20.597 That water, though, is cold and cools the strip back down so it begins to close again. 00:13:20.597 --> 00:13:28.291 These two counteracting forces combine to keep the water leaving the brewer at whatever our desired temperature happens to be. 00:13:28.291 --> 00:13:33.729 You can actually see this valve opening and closing as coffee is brewed through the water inlet. 00:13:33.729 --> 00:13:35.179 Pretty neat. 00:13:35.520 --> 00:13:40.880 This set screw puts a bit of pressure on the bimetallic strip allowing it to be calibrated, 00:13:40.880 --> 00:13:43.810 which was presumably done at the factory before being boxed up. 00:13:44.267 --> 00:13:50.000 Now, I did some testing to see just how close to 200 degrees Fahrenheit this thing was getting. 00:13:50.000 --> 00:13:53.195 Not surprisingly, it’s not that close. 00:13:53.195 --> 00:13:57.085 Actually towards the very end of the brew it was nearly spot on, 00:13:57.085 --> 00:14:02.843 but for the bulk of the brew it was wavering between about 170 and 190. 00:14:02.843 --> 00:14:05.232 The thermostatic valve works… 00:14:05.449 --> 00:14:09.105 OK, but it’s not able to achieve a steady equilibrium 00:14:09.105 --> 00:14:13.509 as evidenced by the fact that it repeatedly opens and closes throughout the brew 00:14:13.509 --> 00:14:17.263 rather than settling in at a somewhat fixed position. 00:14:17.263 --> 00:14:21.367 Each time the valve opened the output temperature would start to drop, 00:14:21.367 --> 00:14:24.593 and once it closed the temperature rose again. 00:14:24.593 --> 00:14:29.668 But the world works in averages so I’m happy to call a 20 degree range 00:14:29.668 --> 00:14:31.228 “pretty good.” 00:14:31.228 --> 00:14:34.699 If you’re wondering why the valve has that little hole in it, 00:14:34.699 --> 00:14:40.187 well that’s simply there to keep water from pooling inside the machine and getting… 00:14:40.187 --> 00:14:41.661 nasty. 00:14:41.661 --> 00:14:46.253 A clever solution, but which requires some quick starting action since, 00:14:46.253 --> 00:14:48.108 as I learned the hard way, 00:14:48.108 --> 00:14:50.947 water will always flow through this. 00:14:50.947 --> 00:14:56.544 The instructions actually say that the coffee should be prepared in the basket and the machine switched on 00:14:56.544 --> 00:14:58.607 before you pour in the water. 00:14:58.607 --> 00:15:03.652 Then you need to pour it in quickly, and return the carafe to the base *at once.* 00:15:03.652 --> 00:15:09.251 Basically, the coffee buys you some time as it absorbs the little bit of water that comes out first, 00:15:09.251 --> 00:15:15.601 but you don’t have much before it’s saturated and the brewed coffee falls out the hole in the bottom of the brew basket. 00:15:15.601 --> 00:15:16.955 So hurry up! 00:15:16.955 --> 00:15:21.541 Calling this automatic is quite a stretch if you ask me. 00:15:21.541 --> 00:15:25.244 If you’re thinking that the average consumer probably shouldn’t be trusted 00:15:25.244 --> 00:15:29.377 with a 1500W heating element sealed inside of a plastic shell, 00:15:29.377 --> 00:15:34.726 well so were the designers of this as there is in fact a thermostat for the heating element. 00:15:34.726 --> 00:15:38.498 But it’s simply there to cut power to it when it runs dry. 00:15:38.498 --> 00:15:42.122 And that was also implemented quite cleverly! 00:15:42.122 --> 00:15:47.127 The thermostat lives here, right below the hole in the water reservoir. 00:15:47.127 --> 00:15:54.219 As the machine brews, cold water keeps landing on the thermostat, ensuring the switch stays closed. 00:15:54.219 --> 00:15:58.205 But once it’s out of water, well that cooling action no longer works 00:15:58.205 --> 00:16:01.365 and the heating element, through this bonding clip here, 00:16:01.365 --> 00:16:08.450 will quickly heat up the thermostat so it trips, cutting power and ensuring the coffee maker doesn’t melt. 00:16:08.450 --> 00:16:13.760 Putting the thermostat right below the water inlet also helps ensure the thermostat resets quickly 00:16:13.760 --> 00:16:19.365 if you want to brew another pot immediately after one just finished - pretty clever thinking. 00:16:19.365 --> 00:16:24.970 So now let’s move onto the design refinement that would lead us to coffee makers like this one. 00:16:24.970 --> 00:16:29.556 At some point in the ‘80s, Mr. Coffee would ditch the thermostatic valve design 00:16:29.556 --> 00:16:32.480 in favor of a much simpler one. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.540 At first glance this modern brewer may look more complicated. 00:16:36.540 --> 00:16:39.435 Now the water is at the back of the machine 00:16:39.435 --> 00:16:43.594 and it needs to be pumped up to the top to reach the coffee grounds. 00:16:43.594 --> 00:16:45.735 Pump sounds expensive. 00:16:45.922 --> 00:16:50.877 But as it turns out, one method of pumping water requires just two things: 00:16:50.877 --> 00:16:54.503 a one-way valve and a tube that gets hot. 00:16:54.503 --> 00:16:58.373 This arrangement is called a bubble pump and it’s almost devilishly simple, 00:16:58.373 --> 00:17:00.910 as longtime viewers of The Engineer Guy will know. 00:17:01.376 --> 00:17:03.775 That’s two mentions in as many videos! 00:17:03.775 --> 00:17:05.335 We miss you, Bill! 00:17:05.335 --> 00:17:09.238 At the bottom of the water reservoir, at the intake, is a check valve. 00:17:09.238 --> 00:17:11.354 Water can flow downward through it, 00:17:11.354 --> 00:17:14.517 but the valve prevents flow in the opposite direction. 00:17:14.517 --> 00:17:20.459 After passing through the valve it ends up in this metal tube which contains the heating element. 00:17:20.459 --> 00:17:22.988 At the other end of that tube is some more tubing 00:17:22.988 --> 00:17:28.935 which leads up the back of the coffee maker and into the sprayer, where it will then fall onto the coffee. 00:17:28.935 --> 00:17:31.187 Passing electric current through the heating element, 00:17:31.187 --> 00:17:34.587 and thus making the tube containing the water frightfully hot, 00:17:34.587 --> 00:17:38.986 will quite quickly cause the small amount of water in there to boil. 00:17:38.986 --> 00:17:42.157 Once it does, well some of the water vaporizes 00:17:42.157 --> 00:17:45.488 and bubbles of water vapor form inside the tube. 00:17:45.488 --> 00:17:50.480 That increase in volume also increases the pressure inside the tube. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:53.934 The tube isn’t sealed so it’s not like it’s gonna explode or anything, 00:17:53.934 --> 00:17:57.047 but the bubbles of water vapor need to go somewhere! 00:17:57.047 --> 00:18:00.172 And since they’re confined in a narrow tube, 00:18:00.172 --> 00:18:03.680 they can only move by pushing water out of their way. 00:18:03.680 --> 00:18:08.911 However, the check valve prevents the water from moving back into the reservoir. 00:18:08.911 --> 00:18:12.357 That leaves the water with only one path to relieve the pressure, 00:18:12.357 --> 00:18:15.942 which is up this tube and out the sprayer. 00:18:15.942 --> 00:18:21.242 Each little burst of water that leaves the sprayer was pushed out by bubbles of water vapor, 00:18:21.242 --> 00:18:25.250 and once that slug of water is out, the pressure in the tube is relieved 00:18:25.250 --> 00:18:32.534 so cold water from the reservoir will now fall into the tube through the check valve and replace the water that just left. 00:18:32.534 --> 00:18:34.607 That water then gets hot enough to boil, 00:18:34.607 --> 00:18:37.264 bubbles form, pressure increases, the valve closes, 00:18:37.264 --> 00:18:40.783 and another slug of hot water comes out the sprayer. 00:18:40.783 --> 00:18:43.545 This process repeats over and over again, 00:18:43.545 --> 00:18:49.193 bubbles gurgling and the check-valve clicking with each ingestion and expulsion of water. 00:18:49.193 --> 00:18:52.924 Since the heating element is in contact with such a small amount of water, 00:18:52.924 --> 00:18:56.233 the pumping action begins almost immediately. 00:18:56.233 --> 00:19:00.482 Even with ice-cold water in the tank, there’s only about a 20 second delay 00:19:00.482 --> 00:19:04.569 between switching the coffee maker on and hot water hitting the grounds. 00:19:04.569 --> 00:19:07.503 It’s only heating a few milliliters of water at a time, 00:19:07.503 --> 00:19:10.402 thus it nearly instantly starts to boil. 00:19:10.402 --> 00:19:14.509 And with a constant supply of new water entering the boiling tube, 00:19:14.509 --> 00:19:19.070 the coffee maker continuously moves water through itself as it heats it. 00:19:19.070 --> 00:19:22.015 The design just… works! 00:19:22.015 --> 00:19:25.534 It’s amazingly effective for how simple it is. 00:19:25.534 --> 00:19:28.713 Since it moves water through itself by boiling it, 00:19:28.713 --> 00:19:32.025 that may make you wonder about the exit temperature. 00:19:32.025 --> 00:19:37.839 If Vince Marotta was so concerned with brewing temp, why would he accept this design? 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:42.661 Truthfully I don’t know that he did, maybe he hated this cost-cutting measure, 00:19:42.661 --> 00:19:47.048 but in practice, the water that leaves isn’t quite boiling. 00:19:47.048 --> 00:19:50.150 A number of factors influence the exit temperature. 00:19:50.150 --> 00:19:56.970 You’ll notice that in this machine the tube leaving the boily bit down below travels through the cold water reservoir. 00:19:56.970 --> 00:20:01.370 That cools the water that travels up through it before it reaches the sprayer. 00:20:01.370 --> 00:20:04.027 With my very definitely scientific testing equipment 00:20:04.027 --> 00:20:09.845 I found that the brew starts at about 170 Fahrenheit and slowly creeps up to about 190, 00:20:09.845 --> 00:20:16.931 probably as a result of the water level dropping and thus its cooling effect on the exit tube diminishing. 00:20:16.931 --> 00:20:20.165 There are probably other factors influencing this as well, 00:20:20.165 --> 00:20:23.114 such as the sprayer’s shape and tubing diameter, 00:20:23.114 --> 00:20:28.531 and I imagine these were at one point tinkered with to produce a more or less ideal brew - 00:20:28.531 --> 00:20:31.562 and you’ll see why I think that shortly. 00:20:31.562 --> 00:20:35.522 But regardless, the exit temperature never quite reaches boiling. 00:20:35.522 --> 00:20:40.928 Another interesting side-effect of pumping by boiling is that the speed at which it does so 00:20:40.928 --> 00:20:44.372 is a function of how powerful the heating element is. 00:20:44.372 --> 00:20:47.907 And since brewing coffee shouldn’t be done that fast anyway, 00:20:47.907 --> 00:20:51.367 we don’t actually want a very powerful heating element. 00:20:51.367 --> 00:20:54.466 If this were as powerful as one of those British kettles, 00:20:54.466 --> 00:21:00.384 it would push the 60 fluid ounces of a 12 cup coffee maker through in a little over three minutes - 00:21:00.384 --> 00:21:02.819 not enough time for a thorough brew. 00:21:02.819 --> 00:21:10.104 And yes, in coffee maker land, a cup is 5 fluid ounces, just to be extra confusing! 00:21:10.104 --> 00:21:17.353 Now, to attain a more thorough brew, a much more reasonable heating element in the neighborhood of 900 watts is used. 00:21:17.353 --> 00:21:20.568 This coffee maker runs at about 850 watts, 00:21:20.568 --> 00:21:25.680 which slows it down to just under an 11 minute brew when making a full pot. 00:21:25.680 --> 00:21:27.940 "Now wait," I hear you say. 00:21:27.940 --> 00:21:31.897 "Didn’t the original design pull 1,500 watts or so?" 00:21:31.897 --> 00:21:35.006 Yes, and that’s why I wanted to investigate it. 00:21:35.006 --> 00:21:40.161 As we've discussed previously, energy is energy and water is water. 00:21:40.161 --> 00:21:47.341 More power means faster heating, so in theory the old design should make coffee faster than the new one. 00:21:47.341 --> 00:21:54.610 And indeed this does brew coffee significantly faster than its great great great great grandson. 00:21:54.610 --> 00:21:59.630 It took the new machine 10 minutes and 10 seconds to power through 50 ounces of water, 00:21:59.630 --> 00:22:04.712 but Granpda Coffee only needed 5 minutes and 42 seconds to do the same. 00:22:04.712 --> 00:22:09.000 Could it be that the older Mr. Coffee models brewed better coffee? 00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.400 Or perhaps is the longer brew an improvement? 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:16.694 Naturally I devised a taste test using otherwise identical setups - 00:22:16.694 --> 00:22:22.360 same water, same coffee, same amount - to the gram - same filters, and the same sweetening and creamening treatment 00:22:22.360 --> 00:22:24.320 between the same two mugs and… 00:22:25.067 --> 00:22:25.567 I hon… 00:22:25.567 --> 00:22:26.410 I can’t taste a difference. 00:22:26.910 --> 00:22:28.966 These taste exactly the same to me. 00:22:30.890 --> 00:22:33.130 It’s like I’m drinking two cups of the same coffee. 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:35.718 Now I don’t claim to have the most phosisticated taste, 00:22:35.718 --> 00:22:38.710 but I also don’t want to sell myself too short, either. 00:22:38.710 --> 00:22:41.805 I start to notice a difference in my everyday coffee 00:22:41.805 --> 00:22:47.190 by about the third day after opening a new can, and it’s whole bean coffee. 00:22:47.190 --> 00:22:50.955 By the time I’m at the end of the can it’s VERY different coffee - 00:22:50.955 --> 00:22:55.963 in fact opening the next one is always a delightful experience. It's just so much better. 00:22:56.584 --> 00:23:00.473 So while, yeah, I’m not above a cup of Folgers now and again, 00:23:00.473 --> 00:23:04.179 I’m pretty sure I could at least notice some difference. 00:23:04.707 --> 00:23:07.207 But between these two coffee makers, I couldn’t. 00:23:07.701 --> 00:23:11.245 Looking at some old Mr. Coffee models with the bubble pump design 00:23:11.245 --> 00:23:16.291 I can see that those were also slowed down to the neighborhood of 900 watts. 00:23:16.291 --> 00:23:19.941 This suggests to me that with the change to bubble pump technology 00:23:19.941 --> 00:23:26.560 it required a slower brew to get the same brewing characteristics as the thermostatic valve design. 00:23:26.560 --> 00:23:30.409 However, it may have also solved another problem. 00:23:30.688 --> 00:23:35.576 Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed the “COFFEE SAVER” labeling on this brew basket. 00:23:36.476 --> 00:23:38.620 This also intrigued me! 00:23:38.620 --> 00:23:43.280 The box claimed that this revolutionary new technology allowed you to save coffee 00:23:43.280 --> 00:23:45.077 when brewing smaller amounts 00:23:45.077 --> 00:23:47.849 as it helped maintain a uniform stack height 00:23:47.849 --> 00:23:50.156 no matter how many cups you were making. 00:23:50.156 --> 00:23:54.810 See, changing the setting moves these little wing things into the center of the brew basket 00:23:54.810 --> 00:23:58.248 to keep the coffee stacked more vertically. 00:23:58.248 --> 00:23:59.440 Pretty clever. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:03.146 Apparently this feature was introduced during a coffee shortage. 00:24:03.146 --> 00:24:10.721 So I did another comparison, making four cups in both machines with the same otherwise identical setup as before 00:24:10.721 --> 00:24:15.096 save for this thing set to four cups and… 00:24:17.548 --> 00:24:20.114 I feel like there is a difference but it’s very small. 00:24:20.114 --> 00:24:22.002 Like, it’s still, there’s… 00:24:22.002 --> 00:24:25.241 to me hardly a perceptible difference between these two coffees. 00:24:26.731 --> 00:24:28.191 They both taste like Folgers. 00:24:28.191 --> 00:24:29.404 [laughs] 00:24:29.404 --> 00:24:32.136 If this pinching brew basket did anything 00:24:32.136 --> 00:24:37.253 I would have expected the older machine’s coffee to taste a little stronger but… 00:24:37.253 --> 00:24:38.111 nope. 00:24:38.111 --> 00:24:41.013 These were once again imperceptibly different to me, 00:24:41.013 --> 00:24:47.814 and as a matter of fact they seemed to taste exactly as they did when I brewed a larger quantity. 00:24:47.814 --> 00:24:53.318 However, it may still be the case that had I not pulled in the wing thingies here 00:24:53.318 --> 00:24:55.479 that this would have tasted weaker. 00:24:55.479 --> 00:25:01.798 Perhaps the speed of the brew in the original design required more coffee for smaller amounts - 00:25:01.798 --> 00:25:08.200 as a matter of fact the instructions seem to suggest that’s what the coffee saver feature was intending to fix. 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:13.092 I’m still not ruling it out as nothing but a gimmick, but maybe there was something to it. 00:25:13.092 --> 00:25:18.108 And maybe it would turn out that simply slowing the brew down had the same effect. 00:25:18.108 --> 00:25:23.890 Honestly I’m more than a little surprised I couldn’t make out a difference between these two coffee makers. 00:25:23.890 --> 00:25:29.113 I was starting to doubt my senses quite frankly but I decided to do a third test - 00:25:29.113 --> 00:25:35.342 this time with a small, four-cup coffee maker pitted against the large 12 cup machine. 00:25:35.342 --> 00:25:38.663 This time there was a noticeable difference to me. 00:25:38.663 --> 00:25:42.970 This one might be a touch... stronger. 00:25:42.970 --> 00:25:45.809 Yeah this, I think this is very very slightly stronger. 00:25:45.809 --> 00:25:47.590 A little bit more bitter. 00:25:47.590 --> 00:25:49.510 Yeah I prefer this one, actually. 00:25:49.510 --> 00:25:51.990 This is a little bit better. 00:25:51.990 --> 00:25:56.402 The smaller machine had a slightly harsher brew with a stronger bite to it, 00:25:56.402 --> 00:25:58.925 perhaps extracting more acids. 00:25:58.925 --> 00:26:00.779 What caused that difference? 00:26:00.779 --> 00:26:05.890 I dunno, it could be that the water in this one hits the coffee at a different temperature from that one. 00:26:05.890 --> 00:26:08.831 It could be that the filter basket is smaller in this one. 00:26:08.831 --> 00:26:11.566 It could be that the small machine is slightly slower, 00:26:11.566 --> 00:26:17.935 or it may have been that its markings on the pot weren’t as accurate and the total water used was different. 00:26:17.935 --> 00:26:20.874 Yes I know I should have used a beaker or something but the important thing is 00:26:20.874 --> 00:26:22.704 I detected a difference! 00:26:22.704 --> 00:26:24.524 It was slight, but I detected it! 00:26:24.710 --> 00:26:31.010 So I think I can safely say these two large machines make practically identical coffee. 00:26:31.010 --> 00:26:34.511 Anyway, we got way off track, uh, 00:26:34.511 --> 00:26:36.864 let’s talk about the hot plate again. 00:26:36.864 --> 00:26:39.654 As we saw in the early Mr. Coffee machines, 00:26:39.654 --> 00:26:43.777 the hot plate was added-on separately from the core brewing function. 00:26:43.777 --> 00:26:47.804 But as competition heated up and costs demanded getting cut, 00:26:47.804 --> 00:26:50.312 a very elegant refinement was made. 00:26:50.312 --> 00:26:57.214 Modern designs use the same heating element for both the brewing part and the keeping warm part. 00:26:57.214 --> 00:26:59.818 The tube which heats the water for brewing 00:26:59.818 --> 00:27:04.347 just so happens to be bonded to the bottom of the hot plate. 00:27:04.347 --> 00:27:08.529 Since metal’s generally quite good at conducting heat through itself, 00:27:08.529 --> 00:27:14.149 a single heating element can perform both the brewing and the keeping warm functions. 00:27:14.149 --> 00:27:17.125 Now you might think this is a problem. 00:27:17.125 --> 00:27:24.751 850 watts is a lot of power for such a small surface, especially one surrounded by plastic. 00:27:24.751 --> 00:27:30.954 However, while brewing, the heat produced by that element gets absorbed into the water. 00:27:30.954 --> 00:27:34.510 If you’ve seen, oh I dunno, any of my videos 00:27:34.510 --> 00:27:39.924 you may remember that it takes a lot of energy to boil a liquid which we call the, 00:27:39.924 --> 00:27:41.329 say it with me now! 00:27:41.329 --> 00:27:43.990 Latent heat of vaporization. 00:27:43.990 --> 00:27:50.181 So long as there’s water in this tube, the tube can’t get any hotter than the boiling point of water. 00:27:50.181 --> 00:27:52.620 It’s not physically possible. 00:27:52.620 --> 00:27:57.200 Once it’s done brewing and there’s no more water in that tube, though, 00:27:57.200 --> 00:27:59.558 well now we have a problem. 00:27:59.558 --> 00:28:03.944 After boiling off what little water remains in a nice loud steamfest, 00:28:03.944 --> 00:28:10.000 the hot plate will quickly become a way-too-hot plate unless we cut the power to it. 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:11.161 So that’s what we do. 00:28:11.161 --> 00:28:15.012 A thermostat set just a wee bit higher than the boiling point of water 00:28:15.012 --> 00:28:19.296 is bonded to the hot plate right here and wired in with the heating element. 00:28:19.296 --> 00:28:23.388 Once it’s out of water and the hot plate eeks too far beyond the boiling point 00:28:23.388 --> 00:28:30.010 the thermostat will open with a click, breaking the connection and keeping the hot plate from melting the coffee maker. 00:28:30.010 --> 00:28:35.393 This thermostat has essentially the same job as the safety thermostat in the old design, 00:28:35.393 --> 00:28:37.453 but by incorporating it in this way, 00:28:37.453 --> 00:28:41.918 it can do double duty as a temperature regulator for the hot plate. 00:28:41.918 --> 00:28:45.258 Once it cools off, the circuit will close again for a brief while, 00:28:45.258 --> 00:28:48.957 bringing the hot plate back into the territory of hot. 00:28:48.957 --> 00:28:51.766 That clicking and heating and heating and clicking will repeat 00:28:51.766 --> 00:28:53.720 again and again and again and again. 00:28:53.720 --> 00:28:59.301 That is until you shut off the coffee maker, or its auto-off feature kicks in if it has one. 00:28:59.301 --> 00:29:03.136 Now you may have already noticed something about this design. 00:29:03.136 --> 00:29:04.990 It’s absurdly simple. 00:29:04.990 --> 00:29:08.490 And that means it’s absurdly cheap to manufacture. 00:29:08.490 --> 00:29:11.622 The original Mr. Coffee, without all these cost refinements, 00:29:11.622 --> 00:29:18.723 retailed for $39.99 in 1972, which is equivalent to nearly three hundred bucks today. 00:29:18.723 --> 00:29:23.301 But people were gladly willing to pay that much because percolators were slow 00:29:23.301 --> 00:29:25.082 and made terrible coffee. 00:29:25.082 --> 00:29:27.396 It's the fastest coffee maker you can buy. 00:29:27.396 --> 00:29:31.544 With a patented system that gives you perfectly brewed coffee in seconds. 00:29:31.544 --> 00:29:34.043 Coffee that tastes better than percolated. 00:29:34.043 --> 00:29:37.441 This was at one point very fancy. 00:29:37.441 --> 00:29:39.695 Once you taste this.... 00:29:41.526 --> 00:29:45.626 You'll know why Mr. Coffee is the #1 selling drip coffee maker. 00:29:45.626 --> 00:29:51.132 However, as the design was refined over the years and manufacturing got cheaper for… 00:29:51.132 --> 00:29:55.574 reasons, well drip machines got cheap pretty fast. 00:29:55.574 --> 00:29:59.227 These days, a basic one like this will set you back a whole, 00:29:59.227 --> 00:30:00.761 like $20. 00:30:00.761 --> 00:30:06.145 And if you’re willing to stoop to Walmart store brand, you can get one for slightly less than $10. 00:30:06.145 --> 00:30:09.574 Well, OK, $13 if you want a full-size 12 cup machine. 00:30:09.574 --> 00:30:11.951 But this one is still under ten bucks. 00:30:11.951 --> 00:30:15.622 This is an older Rival-branded model but it's clearly the same machine 00:30:15.622 --> 00:30:19.959 and I actually use this here at the studio and wouldn’t ya know it, 00:30:19.959 --> 00:30:21.966 it makes pretty good coffee! 00:30:21.966 --> 00:30:24.813 Is it an excellent cup of coffee? 00:30:24.813 --> 00:30:26.643 No! Far from it. 00:30:26.643 --> 00:30:30.875 But there are only so many things I’m willing to become an enthusiast for, 00:30:30.875 --> 00:30:33.475 and coffee ain’t one of ‘em. 00:30:33.475 --> 00:30:38.046 There are hacks and techniques some people will go through to make these machines better, 00:30:38.046 --> 00:30:42.416 and there are plenty of people who would never ever stoop to this level. 00:30:42.416 --> 00:30:46.020 But taste is among the most subjective things. 00:30:46.020 --> 00:30:51.567 I have gone through the rigmarole and spent many hours experimenting with different gadgets, 00:30:51.567 --> 00:30:58.534 among them the Aeropress, a French press, manual pour-over cones, two different percolators (yuck) 00:30:58.534 --> 00:31:01.339 a few K-cup and other single-serve machines, 00:31:01.339 --> 00:31:06.726 and several other drip machines across as wide a cost spectrum as a Midwesterner will tolerate, 00:31:06.726 --> 00:31:09.986 but I keep coming back to the same conclusion. 00:31:09.986 --> 00:31:12.167 I’ve found a coffee I really like, 00:31:12.167 --> 00:31:14.128 I grind it the same every day, 00:31:14.128 --> 00:31:19.558 and it goes in this cheap bit of plastic without any fiddling or mental anguish and the result is to me 00:31:19.558 --> 00:31:21.487 a fine cup of joe. 00:31:21.487 --> 00:31:25.679 However, the one piece of advice I will give regarding these coffee makers, 00:31:25.679 --> 00:31:27.079 and I’ve said this before, 00:31:27.079 --> 00:31:30.711 is that if you’re leaving it on to keep the coffee warm 00:31:30.711 --> 00:31:35.259 you are ruining the coffee in the carafe! Don’t do that. 00:31:35.259 --> 00:31:39.453 I know it’s tempting and after all that’s what it’s designed to do, 00:31:39.453 --> 00:31:42.595 but you really oughta shut it off when it’s done brewing. 00:31:42.595 --> 00:31:44.687 If you’re late to your second 00:31:44.687 --> 00:31:46.136 (or third) 00:31:46.136 --> 00:31:49.860 (or fourth) cup, I promise it’s gonna taste so much better 00:31:49.860 --> 00:31:53.677 if you just throw it in the microwave for a bit to warm it back up. 00:31:53.677 --> 00:31:58.173 I’m of the belief that a lot of the bad feelings towards these coffee makers 00:31:58.173 --> 00:32:05.357 come from the terribly burnt flavor the coffee will develop within just a few minutes of being left on. 00:32:05.357 --> 00:32:07.794 Again. Don't do it! 00:32:07.880 --> 00:32:10.669 I also value how easy these are to use. 00:32:10.669 --> 00:32:13.680 It’s just get a filter, put it in the brew basket 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:16.920 (or cone, some drip machines use cone-style filters), 00:32:16.920 --> 00:32:21.151 then add your coffee, put water in the thing, and turn it on. 00:32:21.151 --> 00:32:23.725 Just wait a few minutes and coffee happens! 00:32:23.725 --> 00:32:27.973 I do care enough to measure the amount of coffee I use with a scale, 00:32:27.973 --> 00:32:33.619 and even then it only takes about 90 seconds, including grinding beans, to get the coffee started. 00:32:33.619 --> 00:32:38.626 I could probably do it in less than a minute if I weren’t, ya know, waiting for coffee. 00:32:38.626 --> 00:32:44.467 You might not think this is the best way to make coffee, but these sure are consistent at least. 00:32:44.467 --> 00:32:48.669 Because this process is so simple it’s hard to screw it up. 00:32:48.669 --> 00:32:51.754 There might be subtle differences from machine to machine, 00:32:51.754 --> 00:32:55.882 particularly with how hot the water reaching the grounds actually is. 00:32:55.882 --> 00:33:00.010 Depending on the shape and size of the heating tube, and of course the rest of the tubing, 00:33:00.010 --> 00:33:04.224 the exit temperature could be different between models and that will affect taste. 00:33:05.093 --> 00:33:09.102 I can’t say I’ve noticed too much variation myself, quite honestly, but again 00:33:09.102 --> 00:33:12.199 I don’t claim to have very phosisticated taste. 00:33:12.199 --> 00:33:17.651 Another benefit of the simplicity here is that these machines tend to be quite reliable, 00:33:17.651 --> 00:33:20.750 typically only needing a descaling every now and then. 00:33:20.750 --> 00:33:23.202 I just run vinegar through it as needed. 00:33:23.202 --> 00:33:28.202 However I have noticed an increasingly common problem as these age. 00:33:28.202 --> 00:33:34.313 The thermostats controlling the hot plate seemingly drift with time and start getting too sensitive, 00:33:34.313 --> 00:33:36.706 tripping in the middle of a brew. 00:33:36.706 --> 00:33:41.313 This doesn’t mean it won’t make coffee but it can slow it down tremendously. 00:33:41.313 --> 00:33:47.304 When working properly, the thermostat should keep the heating element switched on until it’s completely out of water, 00:33:47.304 --> 00:33:53.684 but if it becomes a little too sensitive it’ll start clicking off during the brew, periodically pausing the process. 00:33:53.684 --> 00:33:58.463 That can easily double the time it takes to make the pot, which is annoying. 00:33:58.463 --> 00:34:03.738 It might also result in an over-extracted brew but frankly I’ve never noticed that. 00:34:03.738 --> 00:34:09.918 I have solved this by descaling the machine, suggesting a layer of calcium deposits within the tube 00:34:09.918 --> 00:34:14.780 insulated the water a bit from the heating element’s heat so the thermostat got too hot. 00:34:14.780 --> 00:34:22.079 But getting rid of that layer of scale hasn't always worked, and I’ve gotten rid of a couple of slow coffee makers in the past. 00:34:22.079 --> 00:34:25.054 So far though, they've always been four cup machines. 00:34:25.054 --> 00:34:26.848 It's never happened to a big one. 00:34:26.848 --> 00:34:30.312 Anyway, I think I’ve gone on long enough. 00:34:30.312 --> 00:34:33.769 I am a vociferous defender of the humble drip brewer 00:34:33.769 --> 00:34:40.903 because it’s simple, it’s effective, it’s cheap, it’s reliable, and it’s fairly good at what it does. 00:34:40.903 --> 00:34:46.273 As with most things, yeah you can optimize your experience to your heart’s content. 00:34:46.273 --> 00:34:50.248 And if you have fun doing that - by all means! Have some fun! 00:34:50.248 --> 00:34:51.210 That’s important. 00:34:51.885 --> 00:34:57.325 But, uh, well what I’m optimizing for is the effort to flavor ratio, 00:34:57.325 --> 00:35:02.550 and there’s a strong bias towards keeping the effort part *low*. 00:35:02.550 --> 00:35:05.606 I really liked the coffee I got from my Aeropress 00:35:05.606 --> 00:35:09.668 and I will happily admit it was better than what these can make, 00:35:09.668 --> 00:35:12.053 but that thing was just way too fiddly. 00:35:12.053 --> 00:35:16.110 I found my sweet spot with these things and I’m stickin’ to 'em. 00:35:16.700 --> 00:35:19.777 I do eventually need to try a Moka pot, though. 00:35:19.777 --> 00:35:22.233 I wonder where I can find one of those… 00:35:23.133 --> 00:35:25.633 ♫ drip-brewedly smooth jazz ♫ 00:35:26.201 --> 00:35:29.676 ...available at a typical grocery store... just 00:35:29.676 --> 00:35:31.557 Woah. I completely - What? 00:35:31.557 --> 00:35:35.940 Your typical grocery store might have maybe four options to choose [phone makes noise] from 00:35:35.940 --> 00:35:37.920 I thought I put you on silent! 00:35:37.920 --> 00:35:39.730 Thanks to… heh! 00:35:39.730 --> 00:35:41.859 Are all there is to it. 00:35:41.859 --> 00:35:43.490 The water inlet at the top of 00:35:43.490 --> 00:35:45.612 ovv ov the machine 00:35:45.612 --> 00:35:49.512 Which is vaguely funnel shaped down to the th the the bleugh 00:35:50.660 --> 00:35:51.967 That.. is that still in there? 00:35:51.967 --> 00:35:55.627 Oh shoot. That may be why it was making noises. 00:35:55.627 --> 00:35:57.510 OK, well we’re gonna hide you there. 00:35:57.510 --> 00:36:00.000 Are probably other factors influing this as well. 00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:00.628 Influing? 00:36:01.125 --> 00:36:01.846 Influing? 00:36:02.560 --> 00:36:05.680 Apparently this feature was introduced during a coffee shortage. 00:36:06.456 --> 00:36:07.200 This is really wet. 00:36:08.473 --> 00:36:11.163 Why don’t we just get all the water out of here. 00:36:12.777 --> 00:36:16.556 Look, I just want repeatable, reliable coffee which isn't too hard to make. 00:36:16.556 --> 00:36:20.707 I know, I know, lots of y'all are gonna be like "I don't understand how you can use such a terrible method for making coffee" 00:36:20.707 --> 00:36:22.868 but like, we've been over this. 00:36:22.868 --> 00:36:24.732 I'm a Midwesterner. 00:36:24.732 --> 00:36:26.869 Our standards are low and we're proud of it!