Beverage brewing method with variable speed dispense pump

For use in an electrical beverage brewer with a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient for brewing a beverage, an unpressurized hot water tank, a water fill system for maintaining water level in the tank between preselected limits, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• dispensing hot water from the hot water tank with a variable speed pump onto a spray distribution dome with an upper surface for receiving hot water from the pump, said dome having upwardly facing, open, surface channels to direct the hot water from the pump into individual streams of hot water deposited into the brew basket;
• and
• controlling with an electronic controller a variable electrical power supply connected to the pump to selectively change the application of electrical power to the variable speed pump to selectively vary the flow rate of hot water passing out of the pump and onto the spray distribution dome during a preselected dispense period of a brew cycle;
• creating with said spray distribution dome substantially different spray patterns in response to receiving hot water at different preselected flow rates of the pump;
• producing a variable DC power voltage with the variable electrical power supply having a square wave configuration with a duty cycle that is selectively varied to selectively change the average DC power being produced by the variable electrical power supply;
• storing a program in the controller with a dispense profile that includes
• at least one period during which a first duty cycle is selected for a relatively low pump flow rate to cause the streams of water to flow downward from the dome into the brew basket in a relatively vertical direction, and
• at least one other period during which a second duty cycle greater than the first duty cycle is selected for a relatively high flow rate to cause the streams of water to flow downwardly and outwardly from the dome at an acute angle relative to vertical.

For use in an electrical beverage brewer with a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient for brewing a beverage, an unpressurized hot water tank, a water fill system for maintaining water level in the tank between preselected limits, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• dispensing hot water from the hot water tank with a variable speed pump onto a spray distribution dome with an upper surface for receiving hot water from the pump, said dome having upwardly facing, open, surface channels to direct the hot water from the pump into individual streams of hot water deposited into the brew basket;
• and
• controlling with an electronic controller a variable electrical power supply connected to the pump to selectively change the application of electrical power to the variable speed pump to selectively vary the flow rate of hot water passing out of the pump and onto the spray distribution dome during a preselected dispense period of a brew cycle;
• and
• creating with said spray distribution dome substantially different spray patterns in response to receiving hot water at different preselected flow rates of the pump and in which
• the controller has a plurality of brew dispense profiles stored in memory, and including the step of
• producing with the variable electrical power supply a variable DC power voltage with a square wave DC output voltage having a duty cycle that is selectively varied in accordance with the profiles to selectively change the average DC power being provided to the variable speed pump during a dispense period.

For use in an electrical beverage brewer with a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient for brewing a beverage, an unpressurized hot water tank, a water fill system for maintaining water level in the tank between preselected limits, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• dispensing hot water from the hot water tank with a variable speed pump onto a spray distribution dome with an upper surface for receiving hot water from the pump, said dome having upwardly facing, open, surface channels to direct the hot water from the pump into individual streams of hot water deposited into the brew basket;
• and
• controlling with an electronic controller a variable electrical power supply connected to the pump to selectively change the application of electrical power to the variable speed pump to selectively vary the flow rate of hot water passing out of the pump and onto the spray distribution dome during a preselected dispense period of a brew cycle;
• and
• creating with said spray distribution dome substantially different spray patterns in response to receiving hot water at different preselected flow rates of the pump and in which
• the variable power supply produces a square wave output voltage with a frequency of approximately 300 Hz.

For use in an electrical beverage brewer with a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient for brewing a beverage, an unpressurized hot water tank, a water fill system for maintaining water level in the tank between preselected limits, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• dispensing hot water from the hot water tank with a variable speed pump onto a spray distribution dome with an upper surface for receiving hot water from the pump, said dome having upwardly facing, open, surface channels to direct the hot water from the pump into individual streams of hot water deposited into the brew basket;
• and
• controlling with an electronic controller a variable electrical power supply connected to the pump to selectively change the application of electrical power to the variable speed pump to selectively vary the flow rate of hot water passing out of the pump and onto the spray distribution dome during a preselected dispense period of a brew cycle;
• and
• creating with said spray distribution dome substantially different spray patterns in response to receiving hot water at different preselected flow rates of the pump, and in which
• the controller has a stored program with a dispense profile to cause the duty cycle to gradually increase to increase the average DC power voltage from a lower voltage to a substantially higher voltage during at least a part of a dispense period.

For use in an electrical beverage brewer with a brew basket for holding beverage ingredient for brewing a beverage, an unpressurized hot water tank, a water fill system for maintaining water level in the tank between preselected limits, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• dispensing hot water from the hot water tank with a variable speed pump onto a spray distribution dome with an upper surface for receiving hot water from the pump, said dome having upwardly facing, open, surface channels to direct the hot water from the pump into individual streams of hot water deposited into the brew basket;
• controlling with an electronic controller a variable electrical power supply connected to the pump to selectively change the application of electrical power to the variable speed pump to selectively vary the flow rate of hot water passing out of the pump and onto the spray distribution dome during a preselected dispense period of a brew cycle;
• creating with said spray distribution dome substantially different spray patterns in response to receiving hot water at different preselected flow rates of the pump;
• producing with the variable power supply a variable DC power voltage with a square wave having a duty cycle that is selectively varied to change the average DC power being produced by the variable electrical power supply;
• and
• storing a program in the controller with a dispense profile that includes
• at least one period during which a first duty cycle is selected for a relatively low pump flow rate to cause the streams of water to flow downward from the dome into the brew basket in a relatively vertical direction, and
• at least one other period during which a second duty cycle greater than the first duty cycle is selected for a relatively high flow rate to cause the streams of water to flow downwardly and outwardly from the dome at an acute angle relative to vertical.

For use in an electrical beverage brewer, a method of brewing, comprising the steps of:

• maintaining water level in a hot water tank between preselected limits located sufficiently close together to maintain a substantially uniform head pressure in the hot water tank;
• holding ingredient to be brewed upon mixing with hot water in a brew basket;
• dispensing water into the brew basket with a water dispense system by
• pumping hot water out of the hot water tank with a variable speed electrical pump, and
• selectively varying with a power controlling means an amount of non-zero electrical power to the pump to selectively vary a non-zero speed of the pump and resultant flow rate of hot water out of the pump, said power controlling means selectively changing a DC power voltage greater than zero provided to the pump to selectively vary a non-zero speed of the pump and resultant non-zero flow rate during operation of the pump.