Espresso Maker by Patrick Hunt for Matteriashop
This espresso maker designed by Patrick Hunt of Therefore Design is an eco-friendly machine that uses zero electricity because it requires the amount of energy to boil water and human force to operate the press. The product is made out of 100% recyclable aluminum and it’s available for purchase at Matteriashop.
The science behind the mechanism baffles me, especially since I can’t find what it employs.
I figure from the picture that the cup is maybe 12cm tall, and the compression space is about 8cm? If the water starts out at \room temperature\ of 20 C and needs to boil at 100 C, then it needs 2400 calories to get 30 ml of water to the boiling point. The lever arm suggests a 4:1 ratio, and I find that if it boils water in one swing of the arms, it’d take a combined force of 3k newtons or 7k pounds force.
If the arms instead drive a rotating water hammer or similar device, I can see it being much more human scaled but with far more swings of the arms.
Then again, my numbers may be off, or I may have the specific heat of water wrong (water is about 1 gm = 1 ml, +1 cal per 1 gm gives rise to +1 C ).
I’m eager to hear if I’m wrong and/or how this thing works without me having to buy it and ship it to the US.
I think I get it now… Pour hot water in first… then compress the water through the grounds…
Kinda like a french press?
So, now I’m totally bored by this thing.
I’ve had one for years. It’s a very simply espresso machine designed to work like a wine cork extractor. Add the hot water, raise the arms and it drops into a piston chamber. Push down hard on the arms to squeeze out your shot. I found the amount of pressure you can generate is on the low side and results in a small amount of crema compared with a more serious electric pump machines. Aesthetically it looks great, however a cheap Moka stove top espresso does the job much better.
Here’s the website: http://www.presso.co.uk/
Uses zero energy? After you boil the water with gas or electricity of course.
Typical bad science.
Compared to a simple and oldfashioned (electric) perculator this is not an improvement both in energy consumption and in quality. Needless to say there is a lot more trouble to go through before you can sip your (hot?) espresso.
By the way, since when is recyclable aluminium a sustainable quality worth mentioning?
To me this is nothing more than a gadget.