Makita has made a sturdy coffee machine aimed at construction workers | Hacker News Reader

Makita has made a sturdy coffee machine aimed at construction workers

alphr.com

107 pointsedward87 comments

The ISSpresso linked in the article was interesting. I like how clean and robust the controls look. Totally unlike most consumer products. I'd pay well to have more controls like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISSpresso

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/87/ISS-43_n...

Compare to a typical induction stove!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Kookplaa...

Induction is great for cooking, but the controls on every hob I've used drive me mad. Can anyone find/recommend an induction hob with zero touch controls?

Siemens Disccontrol. I own one, it’s great. Cooking with touch controls is nuts. Especially those with a modal toggle (select burner, then increase/decrease intensity, crazy). Sadly discontinued.

https://www.siemens-home.bsh-group.com/nl/productoverzicht/E...

Rangemaster is just one example (might be called differently depending on country sold in) http://www.rangemaster.co.uk/products/range-cookers/inductio...

Miele, if you combine it with an oven, has no touch-controls.

We have this Gorenje, specifically bought as non-touch. Looks like it's still on the market. We're very happy with ours, only gripe is the biggest zone should've been a little bigger to work perfectly with a 12 inch cast iron skillet.

https://www.gorenje.co.uk/products/cooking/models/hobs/ic634...

Gaggenau Twistpad. Expensive, but works great.

https://youtu.be/F7KVtrm44fA

Well, Italy + Coffee = serious business! :) They really know their industrial design here on earth as well.

The legendary:

http://www.faema.com/products/traditional-machines/e61

or more affordable:

http://www.bezzera.it/?p=articoli&id=11&lang=en

Elektra Belle Epoque or GTFO:

http://www.elektrasrl.com/en/espresso-machines/belle-epoque/

I know one place in London which has one; the coffee is first-rate, and has that certain non so che that comes from being prepared in a steampunk dalek:

https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/218/what-machine-...

LOL - I had the model in mind but refrained from posting it for being too...in your face. :)

Steampunk indeed - especially as the limited Riforma and Origine editions :)

http://www.elektrasrl.com/en/espresso-machines/belle-epoque-... http://www.elektrasrl.com/en/espresso-machines/belle-epoque-...

But joking aside, the nice thing with many Italian machines is that you get the industrial design even in lower price regions - hell, even a Rancilio Silvia or formerly the Gaggia Classic (before they butchered it) are quite nice when it comes to haptics, materials and controls/UI.

And just to add memes one on top of another, who knew there is an Arduino brand of coffee machines?

http://www.victoriaarduino.com/venus-family/

I think those kinds of controls aren't used because they're expensive, at least relative to the usual soft buttons incorporated into circuit boards, buttons constructed almost entirely by a pick and place machine. They're probably close to $1 apiece, and can't be mounted without additional (and probably manual) effort.

I'm not sure such a "buy it for life" machine would be viewed as a viable product by most manufacturers.

AvE's been messing with his for a long time... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JyhWhgNXSc

This is a new model. It appears to be more... skookum.

Has ave ever shown his face?

Yes, by accident. People went wild on Reddit. He called them weirdos and edited his face out of the video, then everything went back to normal.

AvE was the first thing I thought of when I saw this headline.

It’s like the bulky makita dab radio. Contains Wi-fi, gps, 4g, webcam, sdram storage, enough battery to last a few days. And is left on your property overnight when doing work on your kitchen, bathroom or extension. The good side, no longer will builder ask me to ‘go and make me a coffee would ya darling’

Not familiar with US construction sites but is there a demand for such a thing or is just a gimmick?

In the UK I think a more basic kettle-like machine would be useful though - tea made with little paper bags being the default preference with builders?

Could be for companies with one of those buddy contracts for buying equipment from one place alone.

UK: Birmingham, we have a lot of building going on at present or starting very soon in city centre and in the Commonwealth games site.

Large sites: portakabin with microwave & fridge and kettle and hotplate and fixed tables usually

Interorior refurb in larger office and showroom buildings: again part of a room set up for breaks.

Smaller house extension jobs: this could be the market.

As another poster points out probably a novelty/freebie for sales purposes.

Definitely not just a gimmick. It's aimed at smaller contractors imho.

I bought my first house in the UK less than a year ago. I ripped absolutely everything out. For weeks at a time I had only 1 working sink, with 1 working electrical output. During this time I had local contracters in to deal with stuff I either didnt have the time, expertise or legal certifications to manage myself. Barring a carpenter, every single one brought a makita radio/wifi unit, and every single one needed to leave the house to get hot drinks because the single socket could not safely take more devices plugged into it (chargers on an extension), etc.

Contractors I had were bringing their coffee in thermos until they were able to connect a kettle.

what and supply their own biscuits? This will never catch on!

In AUS I can confirm that the cafes nearby to large construction sites always have a steady stream of hi-vis customers, many of them taking trays of espressos back to the worksite.

This common battery for Makita tools isn't that great. Each brand has their own different common battery so it causes vendor lock-in. Makita also has several different incompatible types of battery! Reminds me of Sony Memory Stick.

Sony Memory Stick sucked a lot more than this, they forgot to allow for larger capacities so they were obsolete in no time

How do Makita batteries stack up against other manufacturers? Mostly I've bought into the Milwaukee 18 volt system (M18 Fuel)- I can run a drill or impact driver for days on one charge. Conversely, I've got a cheap Ryobi set that drains almost instantly.

Really depends on the tool and your use. My experience with the 18V impact driver is that it needs a top off every few hours, but that's a good time to take a break anyhow. However the Sawzall and chop saw will chew through the biggest batteries in minutes. Fortunately they charge quickly though they are rather expensive. I think they are on par with the Dewalt stuff though I like the Makita tools a bit more. I guess if my jobs were any bigger I'd be using pneumatic tools so I can deal with recharging between tasks.

I've been in plenty of job sites with limited power and heat, and a fresh cup of coffee would be much appreciated. Sometimes you can't make it down to the lunch truck!

DeWalt has really gone down hill. I recently switched to Milwaukee. I’m not a contractor but a have lots of friends who are, and they are almost all on Milwaukee these days.

Following from the sidelines I feel like there are similar comments made about all brands, both the "X has gone down hill" and "all my contractor friends use Y". I wouldn't put too much weight on such anecdotes.

I know this is anecdotal, but I would agree. I used to work in an auto shop, and we had lots od Dewalt drills & impact drivers. The older ones were typically fine after falling off a lift onto a concrete floor, but out of the new tools 2 drills and 1 impact driver were junk after the first fall. We just ended up buying adapters to use the new batteries with the old tools.

I would be really surprised if there were any significant difference between the actual batteries between manufacturers. There isn't that much variation you can do with lithium cells. Biggest thing that comes to mind are the high/low level cutoffs, or how deep the protection circuitry allows charging/discharging. And that is fairly straightforward trade-off between how long the battery lasts on one charge vs how many charge-cycles it can take.

They're all 18650 cells at heart. Your Milwaukee Fuel drill and impact have brushless motors, probably with higher capacity batteries (measured in Amp-hours) than the Ryobi set, which have brushed motors and probably 1.5-2 Amp-hour batteries. There are plenty of power tool review blogs that do tests to see how many fasteners/board feet/etc different brands do with the same capacity battery packs.

FWIW, Milwaukee and Ryobi are owned by the same parent company, Techtronic Industries

I disagree. DeWalt has altered their battery type often and have a few different types. Makita seems to only have 2 types of fittings in the last 10ish years and the 2 4amp packs I bought together for $100 are excellent. There is vendor lock in certainly because once you own a large amount of batteries you can simply buy tools individually.

Makita makes nice tools, ive found

Personally, I've found makita to be one of the worst. Their batteries all have a unique ID chip which communicates with the charger. If it fails to charge it more than 3 times, it permanently disables the battery. So it's not at all friendly for someone wanting to replace cells themselves.

I wouldn't trust them for contractor/professional work, but IMO ryobi has done the best job. They've never changed their connector, so a 10 year old drill that came with nicad batteries can still be used with a brand new lithium cell. This is great for a homeowner, you don't have to buy all new tools when Dewalt changes their battery design after 5 years.

I've considered whether there might be a market for a battery box that takes user-supplied 18650 cells and adapters to allow its use with various brand power tools.

This would be technically easy, but I'm not sure how successful it would be as a business. Milwaukee also has a habit of suing people using patents that seemed obvious/nonsensical when I tried reading them (http://www.toolsofthetrade.net/power-tools/cordless-tools/mi...).

I'd love that idea too. Tho the particular case you linked looks ridiculous. I'd be more worried about making it compatible with any tool though. The old cartridge video game consoles prevented unauthorized (not pirate) games by patenting the connectors so you couldn't make something that physically plugged in properly. Now there's apparently DRM on batteries! Good luck copying some cryptographic handshake.

Maybe your business would use 2nd hand parts to circumvent patents and crypto. Build some Frankenstein adapter/battery with removable cells.

Patenting the connectors also seems like an abuse the patent system should prevent (there's not actually an invention there). As for DRM, I think we, the tech community should be pushing legislators a lot harder to roll back anticircumvention provisions.

Yea, anti-circumvention law violates the idea that consenting adults should be allowed to do whatever they want in the privacy of their own home. I wonder what will happen to patents if 3D printers become more versatile and as common as 2D printers so common people can download items from online? The download surely won't be patent protected, and the end user might be able to legally print it under the "experimental use" exception.

Coffee thermos seems much better suited for such sites.

5 cups per battery sounds like a waste.

It's not per battery, its holding capacity is that.

Doesn’t coffee turn bitter after being in a thermos all day?

Cold brew stays good much much longer (e.g. about one week in the fridge) and IMO is even better tasting.

[0] https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_make_cold_brew_...

I find that coffee in a thermos can stay good for almost a whole work day. Coffee on the machine in some sort of “keep warm” mode goes rancid within 30 mins or so. I have a suspicion it’s some reaction with the oxygen in the air...

Tea in a thermos unfortunately goes bad pretty much instantly - something about being sealed in there in its own steam I think. With milk in it it goes even worse.

No, it stays reasonably OK. A keep-warm plate in a coffee maker is definitely worse.

Still, it's best to let the coffe get cold immediately if you don't drink it right away. Keep it in fridge, and when you want hot coffee, heat it up with microwave. If you just want drinkable coffee, this is the method of least effort. People don't do this because for many of us, the act of making fresh coffee is a ritual, part of the enjoyment; it's about self-perception, and perception by others (keeping up with the Joneses; microwave-heated coffee? What a loser!)

Cold brew at Trader Joe’s makes it even easier.

I think they don't drink their coffee for taste, but to get good caffeine high.

If that's true why don't they just carry a little bag of caffeine pills, rather than lugging this machine around?

Because coffee has other chemicals as well - to help with digestion for example and also high just from the pills is too rough. Furthermore you can't eat the pill for 10 minutes, so coffee is a good excuse for having a break.

Because if you're popping pills you've got a problem.

Could be worse - there are people who crush the pills and snort them...

This looks similar to the Makita-brand UKW radio that my parents are using around their garden. The radio also runs off drill batteries.

If 640ml is 5.3 cups, then one cup is only 120ml. That's less than half of a standard American cup (250ml). Perhaps each of Makita's cups is a double espresso, and can be diluted with hot water from another device?

(Also, for reference, the largest hot coffee cup at Starbucks is 4.9 cups, by Makita's measure.)

EDIT: I stand corrected. A standard coffee cup isn't the same as a standard 'measuring baking ingredients' cup.

You're putting too much milk in your coffee. https://www.jetblackespresso.com.au/shop/p/duralex-picardie-...

You're right about the cup size!

But I don't put any milk in my coffee.

A "standard" coffee cup is 150ml[1]. The japanese coffee cup could very well be smaller.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cup_(unit)#Metric_cup

What really annoys me is that it's incompatible.

I can't put 2 coffe cups into one cup as it's 50 ml too much, however, since most cups I have are normal cups not coffee cups that means most of the time my cup is largely empty which is annoying.

They should have made a cup to be 350ml.

350ml sounds like the volume of a mug. In fact,

> Usually a mug holds approximately 8-12 US fluid ounces (350 ml) of liquid; double a tea cup.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mug

That's about right - the coffee cup is a reasonably standard measurement:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasse_à_café

640ml * (82c - 20c) = 39,680 calories

18v * 6Ah / (4.2 j/cal) ~~ 92,571 calories/battery if 100pct efficient heating

So, about 2 pots per battery.

Similarly, I'm a proud owner of the Makita hoover:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Makita-DCL180Z-Cordless-Li-ion-Clea...

Edit: Cleary cannot write this morning

I would love an e-bike with a socket for such battery.

That would not last very long, 2-3 miles perhaps?

Enough to get you up that awkward hill on the way home though?

Sure, but considering the cost of converting an e-bike it would probably be imprudent to put in such a small battery.. just invest 20% more or so and get a big battery.

So the Makita e-bike? :D https://www.makita.co.nz/products/model/BBY180

I like the way it is explicitly described as "cordless".

Makita also sells a robot vacuum: https://www.robotshop.com/blog/en/makita-drc200-industrial-r...

Yes, but can it run Linux?

So we're just posting adverts on here now?

Why are you so negative ? It's a curiosity. I find it funny that a company designed a rugged coffee machine because they found there was a need for it

Not all adverts are equal, IMHO - this one made me chuckle.

Full disclosure - I’ve got their first foray into coffee making, a drip percolator type thingy operating off the same battery packs bolted into the cargo space of my Land Cruiser.

The coffee is by no means great - the water simply isn’t hot enough while making its way through the ground coffee - but I’ve found it to be a terrific conversation starter.

But yes - I suspect Makita developed this on their marketing budget, fully expecting it to generate lots of free press - as it did.

I feel like my conversation skill are seriously lacking because this is how it would go:

Someone: “What’s that?”

Me: “A coffee maker.”

Someone: “Oh interesting, you like coffee?”

Me: “Yes, it doesn’t work very well though so I don’t use it”

Someone: “ok”

Me: “bye”

Someone: “bye”

Oh, it goes more like this, if my experience is anything to go by:

Someone: "Wow, is that a Makita COFFEE MAKER??? I had no idea they did those!"

Me: "Sure is. The coffee admittedly isn't great, but it works off the same accus as everything else Makita, so..."

Someone: "Wow, that IS really cool. Any chance of you firing up a brew? I'd love to see it do its thing. What do you do, by the way?"

Me: "Sure thing. Oh, I do offshore handling equipment - this coffee maker spent a year in my tool crate and has brewed the morning cuppa on -pfff- something like thirty vessels all over the world. Cream? Sugar?"

Ha, I think your conversations skills are just better than mine.

It's somewhat unusual, but not totally unexpected. Several manufacturers offer a wide range of cordless tools that share a common battery pack. If you're a tradesman with a van load of tools, it brings substantial benefits in cost and convenience. The major manufacturers already offer rugged radios, ventilation fans and worksite lights as part of their cordless tool system, so a coffee maker seems like a logical next step.

I don't agree, more like click-bait. Why does the linked article not provide a link to the product page but has one for the "space" maker? Meh...

https://www.makitatools.com/products/details/DCM500Z

FWIW: I carry Makita drill, sawzall and grinder in my camper already. This will save a ton of fuel/propane when combined w/ my solar setup. I am sold.

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