US Patent 7509908 Beverage brewer with sliding tube brew valve assembly

A hot beverage brewer (20) with an L-shaped, segmented, hot water tank (36) having a laterally extending side body (50) to which is mounted a membrane mounted tubular brew valve (38) with a dispense tube (66) and an electromagnet (92,94) selectively energized by a micro-computer controller (28) to attract in successive stages a first stage energy plate (98) and a second stage energy plate (102) attached to the dispense tube (66) to move the tube from a closed position (FIGS. 2 and 3) in which an inlet (72) of the tube is above a preselected level (42) of water in the tank (36) to an open position (FIGS. 4 and 5) in which the inlet (72) is beneath the surface to pass hot water to a spray head (76). In one embodiment, one or more of the energy plates are permanent magnets (138,140) and in other embodiments the plates (98,102) are not permanent magnets and are resistive to being permanently magnetized.