Patent Grant
9273894
Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to recirculating ice making equipment used to commercially produce large quantities of ice cubes, and more particularly to an auxiliary water reservoir system adapted to recover otherwise discharged excess water.
2. Description of Related Art
Commercial ice makers such as found in hotels, restaurants and other such commercial business establishments consume large amounts of supply water in order to produce ice cubes at the high rate demanded in commercial settings. These commercial ice makers depend upon a process of spraying or distributing water onto chilled freezer plates or molds wherein a significant amount of that spray water is lost during each freezing cycle and is drained off either back into the water reservoir for discharge or discharged directly into sewer drainage facilities. Each such excess water discharge can amount to tens if not hundreds of gallons of waste water being lost daily. In one actual example, a commercial ice machine has been shown to have wastefully discharged over 25,000 gallons of water yearly.
Ice makers are certified and rated in accordance with ARI Standard 810-91. Test conditions for standard ratings are 90° F. ambient air, 70° F. tap water, and about 30 psig water inlet pressure.
It is well known that productivity of an ice machine is in part a function of its ambient air temperature and of the temperature of the tap water used to make ice. The lower the temperature of the tap water, the higher the ice yield during each ice “harvest”. In the vast majority of existing ice makers, a considerable volume of unused 33°-34° F. cold waste water is now being wastefully discharged at the end of one or more harvest cycles, even though it has long been suggested to utilize the cold energy contained within the cold waste water for pre-chilling its tap water distribution.
Even if the air temperature remains the same, lowering the tap water temperature by about 20° F. can considerably increase the ice yield of the machine. A temperature drop of 30° F. in the summer has been a long-held desire of ice machine owners.
In addition to increasing the ice yield, other tangible benefits will be obtained, including savings on the amount of required floor space for the ice maker, on the cost and installation of the ice maker, and on the operating and maintenance expenses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,927,099 to Bosko discloses a recirculating water purification system. Lee et al. teach an icemaker having a water purifier in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0036115. An automatic ice making machine is taught by Hara in U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,974.
Mitchell et al. disclose an ice maker with magnetic water conditioner in U.S. Pat. No. 6,539,742. An icemaker with water distributor is taught by Barnard et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,580,008. U.S. Patent Application Publication 2011/0036103 to Bippus et al. discloses a method of operating an ice maker with water quantity sensing which appears to typify the prior art problem.
The present system provides for an auxiliary excess water recovery and reuse system which fully utilizes virtually all of the incoming supply water to produce high volumes of ice cubes from commercial ice making machines.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.
This invention is directed to an auxiliary water reservoir system for connection with a commercial ice making apparatus, the apparatus including a supply water for a main reservoir, an ice making assembly connected to receive a stream of water from the main reservoir, and being arranged to freeze a portion of the water stream and to discharge the unfrozen portion of the water stream, a conduit connected to the apparatus and the main water reservoir for returning the discharged portion of the water stream back to the main water reservoir, a main water pump connected to the main water reservoir and the ice making apparatus arranged to convey water away from the main reservoir to the ice making apparatus when the ice making apparatus is making ice and to periodically discharge excess water from the main reservoir. The system includes an auxiliary water reservoir, a water bypass conduit for controllably supplying water either to the auxiliary reservoir or to the main reservoir, and an auxiliary water pump for controllably conveying water from the auxiliary reservoir to the main reservoir. A system controller regulates supply water either into the auxiliary reservoir or the main reservoir depending upon the respective water level within each of these reservoirs.
It is therefore an object of this invention to recover and reuse large amounts of excess water otherwise lost from commercial ice cube making apparatus.
It is yet another object of this invention to conserve and recover excess water normally discharged to waste from commercial high-volume ice cube making apparatus without having to modify those existing ice making apparatus.
Still another object of this invention is to provide an auxiliary water reservoir system adapted for interconnection with a commercial ice making apparatus without the need for modification of the apparatus and which will recover and conserve large amounts of water which would otherwise normally be discharged to waste.
The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, tools and methods which are meant to be exemplary and illustrative and not limiting in scope. In various embodiments one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated while other embodiments are directed to other improvements. In addition to the exemplary aspects and embodiments described above, further aspects and embodiments will become apparent by reference to the drawings and by study of the following descriptions.
Exemplary embodiments are illustrated in reference figures of the drawings. It is intended that the embodiments and figures disclosed herein are to be considered to be illustrative rather than limiting.
Referring now to the drawings, and firstly to
A main reservoir (R1) 42 is also disposed within housing 14 which holds a supply of water received through a water inlet regulator 44 from a water supply 48. A primary water pump 24 is in fluid communication with water within the main reservoir 42 and is arranged to provide water flow through a three-way valve 26 to a water dispenser 28 which flows or sprays water over each of the chilled ice forming trays 30 as shown by the flowing arrows. At the end of each ice making cycle, ice cubes formed thereby are dislodged during a heating cycle and fall by gravity downwardly through an ice cube chute 34 into the ice bin 36. The excess water which is collected within an excess water trough 32, and has been controllably discharged through valve 38 back into the main reservoir 42, is pumped from the main reservoir 42 through the three-way valve 26 for discharge and disposal from a waste water discharge 46. It is this waste water discharge which must periodically occur during each complete ice cube making cycle which the present invention is designed to recover and reuse.
Referring now to
Under normal operation during the ice cube forming cycle, supply water is pumped by the auxiliary water pump 64 into the main reservoir 42 through water inlet 48′. The remainder of the ice cube forming cycle within the main housing assembly 12 is as previously described with respect to
When the auxiliary reservoir 62 is sufficiently filled, the system controller 76 will cause supply water to be diverted to bypass conduit 78 and directed into the main reservoir 42. Preferably, an in-line UV water treatment device 70 is provided to ensure that all water being pumped into the main water reservoir 42 will have been properly decontaminated. The drain valve 88 disposed at the bottom of the auxiliary reservoir 62 is provided to completely drain all water from this reservoir 62 when cleaning and servicing of this unit is required.
In a single prior art commercial ice making machine, having a single 22″ evaporator, approximately 0.75 gallons of water is discharged onto the ground or into a sanitary waste system during each ice cube making cycle. On a 24-hour basis, this water waste equates to about 72 gallons of water lost per day, or 26,300 gallons yearly.
While a number of exemplary aspects and embodiments have been discussed above, those of skill in the art will recognize certain modifications, permutations and additions and subcombinations thereof. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims and claims hereinafter introduced are interpreted to include all such modifications, permutations, additions and subcombinations that are within their true spirit and scope.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3580008 | Barnard et al. | May 1971 | A |
| 3744263 | Franck et al. | Jul 1973 | A |
| 4815941 | Fayo | Mar 1989 | A |
| 4884413 | Quandt et al. | Dec 1989 | A |
| 4910974 | Hara | Mar 1990 | A |
| 4987746 | Roberts | Jan 1991 | A |
| 5927099 | Bosko | Jul 1999 | A |
| 6153105 | Tadlock et al. | Nov 2000 | A |
| 6539742 | Mitchell et al. | Apr 2003 | B2 |
| 6898947 | Hebert | May 2005 | B2 |
| 6952937 | Choi et al. | Oct 2005 | B2 |
| 7194868 | Yoshida et al. | Mar 2007 | B2 |
| 7841198 | Bippus et al. | Nov 2010 | B2 |
| 20030010054 | Esch et al. | Jan 2003 | A1 |
| 20110036103 | Bippus et al. | Feb 2011 | A1 |
| 20110036115 | Lee et al. | Feb 2011 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| WO 20080925268 | Aug 2008 | WO |
