Abstract: An espresso coffee maker is provided with a heat exchanger, a coffee dispenser unit and a water supply system in conjunction with the heat exchanger for supplying heated water to the coffee dispenser unit. The water supply system feeds cold water to the heat exchanger and heated water is delivered to the dispenser unit. A heated water return pipe is connected to the heat exchanger from the dispenser unit to form a recirculation circuit between the heat exchanger and the dispenser unit through which the heated water flows by natural convection to transfer heat from the heat exchanger to the dispenser unit. The water supply system includes at least one heat operated control valve incorporated in the recirculation circuit. The valve is provided with a chamber and a shutter is movable in the chamber to control the circulation of the water.

Abstract: An automatic espresso and cappuccino machine comprises a number of individual filter units movable with respect to a coffee filling station, a coffee dispensing station, a filter cleaning station and a filter washing station. Ground coffee is introduced into each filter unit at the coffee filling station and then the filter units are selectively rotated by a filter indexing device to the coffee dispensing station where they are moved into engagement with a water nozzle which first compacts the coffee and then directs heated water through the ground coffee to form espresso. An emulisifier is also located at the coffee dispensing station, which is effective to produce foamed milk for combination with the espresso to form cappuccino.