Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'

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90/10 Turbo faucet
Anti-freeze faucet dripper
Faucet pause button
Faucet timer
Measuring Faucet

home:water: faucet: flow

Measuring Faucet

Measure large amounts of water easily.

(+20, -1)

[vote for,
against]

The Measuring Faucet is a faucet that can measure the flow of water and control it. For instance, to fill up a pot with 10 cups of water (or its metric equivalent), you dial in the number and hit Start. It will turn on the water until 10 cups of water have gone through. A cheaper alternative is also available, simply an attachment that measures how much water goes through your faucet. It can be reset to zero when you are done filling the pot.

This would be useful because you wouldn't have to fill a measuring cup multiple times and dump it in the pot, but simply stick the pot in the sink and hit start.

—	-----, Oct 29 2005

A turbine or impeller based flow meter http://www.cox-instrument.com/ptf.html
Probably expensive. Has anyone ever heard of centistokes before? [bristolz, Oct 29 2005]

Some totalizer controllers http://www.cox-instrument.com/
You can set an amount to deliver with these. [bristolz, Oct 29 2005]

Japanese patent 2005048565 http://v3.espacenet...DX=JP2005048565&F=0
this device is equipped with a discharge water volume target setting means which determines the discharge volume target value [xaviergisz, Oct 31 2005]

All singing / dancing / face-recognising tap http://craziestgadgets.com/tag/faucet/
Honestly. That thing belongs here, not as an actual product made in a factory and sold to people. [wagster, Oct 13 2009]

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Annotation:

There’s dispensing equipment like this in the chemical industry, but they work off a scale that the container sits on. How does yours work?

—	ldischler, Oct 29 2005

Probably a spinny wheel, like an odometer.

Problem is that this won't work perfectly, because water often has air bubbles in it in the pipes, which will contribute to volume discrepancies.

[+] for thinking about it, though. It's good enough for cooking, I guess.

—	shapu, Oct 29 2005

[+] For the cheaper alternative. Very useful kitchen gadget.

—	wagster, Oct 29 2005

Precision flow transducers and proportional (solenoid or stepper) valves like those used in liquor delivery systems can likely work in this application. Some software and control circuitry to support the UI and valve are needed and, I assume, constitute the invention here.

The interesting design challenge here is what form does the UI take? Screen or touch-screen based? Buttons? Spinner-selectors...?

Also, I imagine that you'd need a way to quickly tell the system what units of measurement you want. Ounces, Cups, Pints, Quarts, Gallons and liters? Will you need some way of easily setting fractional or mixed-fractional amounts? A lot of challenges to make this easy and intuitive. Also an emergeny shut-off is probably needed.

You could even have the valve ease the flow on at the beginning and off at the end to help prevent splashing.

—	bristolz, Oct 29 2005

pleese, can this guy get a name?

I cannot talk to a row of dots.

—	po, Oct 29 2005

What difference does that really make?

—	bristolz, Oct 29 2005

Maybe [po] moves her lips when she's typing.
[Runs and hides.]

—	angel, Oct 29 2005

mebbe angel has a point - <boom>

... --- ...

—	po, Oct 29 2005

Just down the street from me there's this joint named Texaco, and they have a whole bunch of pumps outside that have displays showing to the nearest 0.001 gallons, although I think that's just to make fools like me think there's still some of that fluid flowing while the dollar digits dance.

I have to think the technology is available, but maybe a bit pricey.

—	lurch, Oct 29 2005

Well... you could pronounce the name as "Hyphens," or "Dasher."

Comet? Vixen?

—	bristolz, Oct 30 2005

I always assumed [-----] was just shorthand for [dash-it-all]

—	jurist, Oct 30 2005

I think he's called Quintus Marcus.

—	lurch, Oct 30 2005

Morse, is that you?

—	2 fries shy of a happy meal, Oct 30 2005

//simply an attachment that measures how much water goes through your faucet//

An easy way, admittedly with a small error, is to regulate the flow so that you get 1 cup per second when the faucet (tap) is fully open. Then simply count one-thousand and one, one thousand and two etc.

—	Ling, Oct 30 2005

4 buttons on the handle. On the right on red button on the left one blue button for cold. One button that opens the valve and is larger than the others and place centrally. The 4th button selects measuring unit, and quantity.

—	Antegrity, Oct 30 2005

One button to set the units and the quantity? You must design alarm clocks.

—	bristolz, Oct 30 2005

Naahh... one clickable dial (maybe a multi-functional faucet control knob) and an oled display. Dial to select units - click - then dial to select quantity and click to start. Some microwaves and a certain mp3 player do this already.

—	Dog, Oct 31 2005

good idea

—	sleeka, Oct 31 2005

Just being the voice that says "and the russians used a pencil".

But a scale (and a thromometer and water density chart if you're that anal about it) would do the job just as well, if you tare your vessel first and put the water in carefully.

But I agree with whoever said it that having it turn the water on and off would be pretty spiffy albiet complicated.

—	jong-scx, Oct 31 2005

[Bris] Centistokes is a real-world useful value for viscosity (water has a viscosity of around 1.0 centistokes.)

I came across the term while looking for wacky wallwalkers. (q.v.)

—	csea, Oct 31 2005

How about a turnable disk with a knob on top with various sized orifices? Select your unit-per-second with the proper orifice, then count locomotives as [ling] suggests. A simple timer and selenoid shutoff valve could regulate how many of selected units are dispensed. For greater accuracy, a pressure regulating valve would be required upstream of the whole apparatus to provide consistant pressure to the orifice.

—	wittyhoosier, Dec 25 2006

Can I still just turn the faucet on, or will it be like the despicable "environmentally friendly" faucets at my last school? Those were a nightmare. The taps could only be pressed down so far, and the time that the water flowed out varied from three to less than one second. It stopped so quickly is was difficult to get both hands in the water before the tap had to be reset. Very handy invention, but no good for washing hands.

—	ultra-toaster 3000, Oct 13 2009

Since I last left an anno on this idea I have had the pleasure (?) of having to shop for posh kitchen taps (faucets). I have had to totally reevaluate quite how much some people are prepared to spend on a tap. I've bought cars for less than that.

Anyhoo - here's a (link) to something you could buy if you had lots of money to spend on a face-recognition tap.

—	wagster, Oct 13 2009

or get soup pots with measures built into the side and an over the stove faucet, just like the pro's use!

—	WcW, Oct 13 2009

The user interface should clearly be voice-based. There are few enough words that it needs to understand (numbers, units, general temperatures, and maybe a few commands) that it can do all of the voice recognition onboard and not need an internet connection or to rely on the company's server being available (though, of course, the version that is actually sold will have that flaw).

For measuring the amount of water, I suggest a coriolis flowmeter. Those measure the mass of the liquid that flows past, so bubbles shouldn't be an issue. It can just assume a density of water for volumetric measurements; if you want a very precise amount of water, you're going to be specifying it by mass instead of volume anyway.

// Can I still just turn the faucet on, or will it be like the despicable "environmentally friendly" faucets at my last school? Those were a nightmare. The taps could only be pressed down so far, and the time that the water flowed out varied from three to less than one second. It stopped so quickly is was difficult to get both hands in the water before the tap had to be reset. Very handy invention, but no good for washing hands. //

How to wash your hands with one of those:

1. Hold down the button with one hand and wet the other hand.
2. Hold down the button with the other hand and wet the other other hand.
3. Get soap; lather; scrub. Water does not need to be running for this.
4. Using the soap that's already on your hands and lathered, wash the button.
5. Hold down the button with one hand and rinse the other hand.
6. While still holding down the soapy button with a soapy hand, cup some water in your rinsed hand.
7. Take your soapy hand off the button, and rinse the button with the water in your rinsed hand.
8. Hold down the rinsed button with your rinsed hand, and rinse your remaining soapy hand.

I use a similar, but simpler, method for washing my hands using a faucet that stays on once turned on, to avoid depositing germs on the handle before washing my hands and then picking them up again when I turn it off. In that case, I just wash my hands as normal, but then wash the handle using the soap that's already on my hands and then rinse it with cupped water after rinsing my hands. Then I turn it off. This is also completely compatible with not leaving the water running while lathering and scrubbing one's hands.

—	notexactly, Dec 07 2019

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