The electric coffee maker and batch filter coffee
A machine heats the water, spreads it over a bed of grounds in a filter, and the coffee runs into a carafe: this is gravity percolation, automated. At home as at the counter, where English speakers talk about batch brew, “coffee made by the batch,” it serves the same filter coffee to dozens of cups.
How does an electric coffee maker heat and pour the water?
Start the scene or choose a stage. The animation simplifies the mechanism; what follows gives the details and the available references.
Cold water poured in at the top flows down by gravity to the heating element. The water heats only as it passes.
Read the stages without animation
- The reservoirCold water poured in at the top flows down by gravity to the heating element. The water heats only as it passes.
- The hot blockOn contact with the heated block, the water rises in temperature, then reaches the distribution head. It arrives on the grounds at about 92 to 96 °C.
- Rain on the bedThe head spreads the water over the whole surface of the grounds, in the paper filter. The bed is wetted everywhere at once.
- A single passThe water passes through the bed once and runs into the carafe, in four to six minutes. No coffee passing back over coffee: the cup aims for 1.30 to 1.55% dissolved solids.
- The waitThe carafe stays warm, on a hot plate or in an insulated server. The coffee stays hot, above 80 °C for the first half hour, but it ages.
To remember: The machine heats the water as it passes and spreads it as rain: a single pass through the bed, at 92 to 96 °C.
In history: The first machines: 1954 in Germany, 1969 in the Netherlands, 1972 in the United States.
Read the full article and its sources ↓History
The electric filter coffee maker was born in Germany. According to the online encyclopedia, Gottlob Widmann's Wigomat was patented in 1954, holds the water at 94 to 95 °C and was distributed in the Benelux and France by Douwe Egberts (source 7); the patent itself could not be found. In the Netherlands, Technivorm, founded in 1964, designed its first model in 1968 and produced it in 1969, the Type 69, ancestor of the Moccamasters that are still assembled by hand (source 4).
In the United States, the engineer Edmund A. Abel of Rocky River, Ohio, filed on July 26, 1971 the patent for an electric coffee maker “into which the water is poured”; it was issued on September 26, 1972. The water flows by gravity from a tank, through an orifice regulated by a float, to a heated block, then falls onto the funnel of grounds (source 1). The test described in the patent gives a pass of 4 minutes 37 seconds, a thermostat at 215 °F, that is 102 °C, and coffee at 180 °F, 82 °C, in the carafe set on a 70-watt plate (source 1). This is the Mr. Coffee of Vincent Marotta and Samuel Glazer, launched in 1972 (source 8).
The machine replaces an appliance that sent the coffee back over the coffee. As early as 1915, the Mellon Institute judged water at 90 to 93 °C better than boiling water, and American roasters condemned the percolator (source 9). The filter coffee maker passes the water through only once.
The testing centers came afterward. The Norwegian Coffee Association created the European Coffee Brewing Centre in 1971, whose first approved machine was a Moccamaster (source 3). The SCA, the international specialty coffee association, reserves its standard for home coffee makers to its members and is preparing in 2026 a standard for countertop batch machines (source 5). On the professional side, Bunn describes itself as present since 1957, and Fetco as founded in 1987 (source 10).
The motion
Cold water is poured into the reservoir, the filter basket is lined with paper and filled with grounds, and the machine is started. The machine heats the water as it passes, spreads it as rain over the bed, and the coffee runs into the carafe, on a hot plate or in an insulated server (source 1).
The European Centre sets what a good machine must achieve: reach 92 °C on contact with the grounds within the first minute, then stay between 92 and 96 °C, for a contact of four to six minutes, with at least 60 g of coffee per liter for the test and 50 to 60 g as the comparison ratio; the coffee must stay above 80 °C during the first half hour, and the sediment must not exceed 75 mg per 100 mL (source 2).
The settings
- Grindreference filter grind, set for 4 to 6 minutes of contact (source 2)
- Doseat least 60 g per liter for the test, 50 to 60 g per liter for comparison (source 2)
- Brew ratioabout 1:17 to 1:20, calculated from 50 to 60 g per liter (source 2)
- Temperature92 °C in the first minute, then 92 to 96 °C (source 2)
- Time4 to 6 minutes (source 2); 4 minutes 37 seconds in the test of the 1972 patent (source 1)
- Pressurenone: gravity alone
What it has going for it
- The machine repeats the same recipe with every batch, which the hand does not guarantee.
- It makes a liter and more at once, which makes it indispensable at the office as at the counter.
- The water passes over the grounds only once, instead of the coffee passing back over the coffee as in the percolator (source 9).
- Public standards make it possible to choose a machine that heats enough and fast enough (source 2).
What is held against it
- Coffee waiting on a hot plate degrades: as early as 1921, the booklet of the American roasters warned that coffee left on the fire loses its aroma (source 9).
- An ordinary machine does not necessarily reach 92 °C: this is precisely what the testing centers check (sources 2 and 3).
- The motion is taken out of the user's hands, who now adjusts only the grind and the dose.
- Scale and oils foul the distribution head, which has to be descaled.
What it gives in the cup
The European Centre aims for a cup of 1.30 to 1.55% dissolved solids for an extraction yield of 18 to 22% (source 2), stronger than the American window of 1.15 to 1.35% recalled by plate XV, section 01: the Centre, born in Norway, settles on a more concentrated cup.
On coffee made in the machine, the University of California, Davis study published in 2020 shows that bitterness, acidity, body and sweetness vary with concentration and yield, and that sweetness drops as concentration rises, whatever the roast (source 6). Paper keeps the cup clear and low in oils.
Anecdotes
- The baseball player Joe DiMaggio became the face of Mr. Coffee in 1973; the machine passed a million units in April 1974 (source 8).
The sources for this sheet
- Edmund A. Abel Jr., US patent 3,693,535 “Pour-in, instant brewing electric coffee maker,” filed July 26, 1971, issued September 26, 1972 · online · primary
- European Coffee Brewing Centre, “Certification standards, professional,” accessed October 21, 2026 · online · primary
- European Coffee Brewing Centre, home page (founded in 1971 by the Norwegian Coffee Association; first approved machine), accessed October 21, 2026 · online · primary
- Technivorm, home page (according to the manufacturer), accessed October 21, 2026 · online · secondary
- Specialty Coffee Association, “Coffee Standards” (SCA-310 and SCA-315), accessed October 21, 2026 · online · primary
- S. C. Frost, W. D. Ristenpart, J.-X. Guinard, “Effects of brew strength, brew yield, and roast on the sensory quality of drip brewed coffee,” Journal of Food Science, 85 (8), 2020, p. 2530-2543, doi:10.1111/1750-3841.15326 · online · primary · reading: abstract
- Wikipedia (de), “Wigomat,” accessed October 21, 2026, citing C. Fiebach, 60 Jahre Bundesrepublik Deutschland · online · tertiary
- Wikipedia (en), “Mr. Coffee,” accessed October 21, 2026, citing NPR (2005) and ABC News (2015) · online · tertiary
- William H. Ukers, All About Coffee, New York, 1922, ch. XXXVI (Mellon Institute 1915; Aborn reports; Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Committee, Coffee and Coffee Making, 1921) · online · primary
- Bunn-O-Matic, “About BUNN,” and FETCO, “About” (according to the manufacturers), accessed October 21, 2026 · online · secondary