Coffee Maker: Pumping water with no moving parts

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Bill takes apart a coffee maker to show how hot water is pumped through it using a “bubble pump.” The use of this pump reflects an engineer’s choice to have …

Comments

norbu1987 says:

i always though there sure is two heating coil one for the pad and one for
the boiler now i know thanks

Ian Roscoe says:

That’s basically the same principal as the ‘Pulse Jet’ isn’t it?

Mr Lima Bean says:

Can you explain the physics of how to properly put a spaghetti bowl on my
head to cut my hair the way yours is?

Scott M says:

The clever engineering of the common coffee maker.

Wullop Khin says:

Your videos inspire, inform & educates people around the world. Thank &
many thanks from Thailand.

Jamie Y. says:

Hey Bill, is the heating element more ‘powerful’ in the back. If it takes
the water from liquid phase to gas, why wouldn’t your coffee boil away?

Das Tier says:

Lol, love the ending!

Joel Alenchery says:

woah this is awesome .. i always suspected this but never really got around
to thinking how it was done .. pretty neat .. +Mihir Pathare

Jean-Michel Paris says:

…bip…bip…bip…wake up!

Okay, okay, let’s have a coffee! Humm…How does it work?

Nicolas Vignolo says:



convalescence69 says:

You look like Mark Hamill (younger). And your videos are great. Good
times. Please make more.

olderanddecrepit says:

Your’e right! In the vid (early) he says: “almost no moving parts”, then,
near the end, he says: “no moving parts”. Flakey . . . . .

Shawn Hartsock says:

“engineering is the art of doing that well with one dollar which any
bungler can do with two” — Arthur M. Wellington

EnuffsEnuff318 says:

Haha…I’ve always said, “Tell an engineer the coffee maker doesn’t work.
He will get out the schematic, tear it all apart, start checking components
and doing calculations. Bring in the technician and he will first look to
see if it was plugged in.” Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.

celshader97 says:

absolutely fantastic. please keep up the great work.

kalchas says:

@kalchas specifically the amount of energy within the particles which is
the cause of these motions, temperature). As you may recall from high
school (assuming your age, here) all atoms are composed of three major
parts, the protons and neutrons which reside in the nucleus or center, and
the electrons which sit in a region outside this center. Now, while this
model is not really accurate, it does help to give some idea of what is
occurring with heat. Think of the area outside of the nucleus as a

kalchas says:

@kalchas getting too close. As the energy within the atoms increases, the
size of these clouds can be said to “expand” (really, it’s heisenberg’s
uncertainty theorem at play and the model isn’t strictly accurate, but
again, that’s a whole class in and of itself, so just think of it as a
balloon expanding). So since the cloud expands, these excited atoms seem to
move, and force each other apart. By doing so, they cause the soda to
expand in volume. It takes up more space. Too much space, and pop,

MorRobots says:

sir your voice is amazing, you should get picked up to do voice over work

Nick I says:

Started from the bottom now we’re here

James01100011 says:

This is one those little things that I have always wondered about 🙂

Connor Keegan says:

i like your videos and now i must go poop….cause i also learned if a eat
cheese and follow it with a glass of bran juice it makes me fart logs.

engineerguy says:

@JasonAuSTC Thanks for kind words … much appreciated … scheduled next
week … the “black box” from an airliner.

ICanDoThatToo2 says:

So how does a bubble pump work? I can’t figure out how water ever comes out
the end.

K.K. VinayKumar says:

Wow! this is the first video i’ve seen where it has zero dislikes. Keep up
the good work Bill.

0xJerry says:

great now i have to find @300pzl ‘s comment

Carter Watkins says:

I wish there where more yous, it would be sweet.

Paul F says:

Intriguing and fun series. Thank you for your engineerguy channel. Cheers

Karkat Vantas says:

@engineerguyvideo i alwasy thought that designing a good machine would
require either one of those aspects of engineering, but a great one needs
both…

Longboard Technology says:

I’m always repairing other peoples things too.

skizzy smith says:

sorry but its not like this inside you have interfered with it to make it
look like you know how it works. Really they have a log fire (cheap) and
gremlins who do all the stuff inside. they ran away when you opened it. I
would take up butterfly collecting its easier.

Power Max says:

why would heating elements be expensive? they are just resistive loads, I
can make one by connecting a AA battery to a piece of pencll lead

solverh says:

Had not realised the pump of a coffee maker could be almost as impressive
as a hydram 🙂

BlackJavaBean says:

Your videos are great! This is a great example of design decisions that
engineers have to make.

JimmyDThing says:

@Al5052H32 Yes. What I’m saying is that thermal carafe’s require only 1
heat source… for the water. The carafe itself need not be heated if it is
a thermal carafe.

diablo0073 says:

What if you have just one heating element to heat the water and then, as
you’d shown in the other design, pass the hot water through the coffee
grinds? Why would you need to keep the pot below hot if the water itself is
hot enough to solubilize (or suspend) the coffee particles?

engineerguy says:

@300pzl Well …..

ScampiCheese says:

loves it

CZAR KING says:

love his wife at the end, i can just picture her getting all upset at her
appliances being taken apart all the time.

SocialMismash says:

@engineerguyvideo Can’t wait to see that. I’ve always wondered how it
actually works…

kalchas says:

@ICanDoThatToo2 As the engineer guy says in the video, and as Tupper said
to you as well, it climbs the extra inch because it is expanding due to the
gain in heat. Think of a can of soda in a car on a very hot, sunny day.
What does it do? It explodes. Why? Because heat is actually an increase in
energy. As the energy in the soda increases, the atoms begin to move faster
in their natural motions (all matter is constantly in motion, and we call
the measurement of the amount of motion, or more

engineerguy says:

@BlackJavaBean I appreciate you highlighting the design aspect. To my way
of thinking that is the core of engineering. I always want my videos to go
beyond “how it works” and reflect some of essentials of what it means to be
an engineer. Perhaps that is too much to ask for from a YouTube video! My
own philosophy is best captured in a kinda goofy older video I did on the
golf ball … you can find it at my channel.

rkshirey says:

WAIT, the backflow valve moves :trollface:

GluttonKata says:

I love ALL of your videos. So many of us have always drifted through life,
especially us younger ones, seeing all of these things just work, not
caring WHY they work, but simply expecting them to when we turn on
something as common as a coffee maker. Recently I’ve especially become
extremely interested in not just the fact that a common coffee maker works,
but how it works, and the ingenuity and pure genius it took for the person
or persons who designed it to get it to work so well. Thanks!

locopyro13 says:

@Lubibaby69 If you heat water to boiling, you kill almost all the bacteria.
I know health and safety only requires water that cleans dishes to get to
180 degrees F, so water at 212 that comes to rest in a clean pipe wont
cultivate bacteria. And you usually hear the coffer maker spit and sputter
at the end of a brew cycle, the heating element stays on to keep the coffee
warm and boils away any remaining water.

danx033 says:

While it is the most simple and inexpensive solution it probably is not the
most effective one.

Dan o Dan says:

this guy is awesome but im sorry your hair cut is just horrible my friend

exxodas says:

omg lol i was thinking the exact same thing

Gordon Arthur says:

how on earth were you able to get that.. I was so confused by the thin pipe
part. but that is an interesting point

IamLeeGrogan says:

Hehehehe… 0:57, “Double dooty.” I’m so sorry.

cjs33139 says:

Thank you for posting this! i am an Industrial Design student in my senior
year, and as my senior project, have to redesign a coffee maker. I always
wondered how coffee makers worked! This was the best video I have seen so
far explaining it! Gracias!

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