Patent Application
20210222419
The present invention relates to the combination of toilet unblocking/cleaning tools into one convenient unit, featuring an adjustable auger and detachable rod. The detachable rod, which can be used individually as a drain rod, will be attached to the adjustable auger to form tongs. Add-ons in the form of a brush, plunger, or scraper will be available and will be able to be attached and detached.
A wide variety of tools have been developed for use in unclogging toilets or cleaning toilets. These tools include toilet auger, toilet plunger, and toilet brush, etc., which have been used for many years. Their general structure, methods of manufacture, function and usefulness are well known. However, these tools still have some deficiencies related to their structure, which can be improved. The list below are these tools with improvements provided by the present invention.
A conventional toilet auger generally comprises an elongated drain cleaning cable having an outer lead end and an inner end coiled within a crank device (refer to
However, a crank device and the elongated drain cleaning cable requires a large storage space. Additionally, conventional toilet auger has no cover for the elongated drain cleaning cable. Because the cable is exposed, the product is unsanitary even when washed after cleaning the drain. In order to reduce the size of the conventional toilet auger and keep the product sanitary, the present invention attaches the auger to other tools and keeps a cover on the auger.
A conventional toilet plunger consists of a deformable suction cup attached to a rigid handle and utilizes alternating suction and pressure to dislodge obstructions in the outlet duct of the toilet. In use, the user is required to push the suction cup into the toilet and then move the handle up and down in an effort to create sufficient suction and pressure to clear the blockage.
However, most plunger handles are too short, causing a user to bend his/her waist, excluding it from use from some less able-bodied people (the elderly in particular). Moreover, use of the short plunger often causes water or waste to splash outside of the toilet bowl onto the user. The present invention showcases a detachable plunger with a longer handle, to provide ease to a larger demographic.
A conventional toilet brush include a myriad of flexible bristles extending form a center rod or a bristle surface. The rod or surface is generally coupled to a handle for easy manipulation.
The same problems that plague the plunger also affect the toilet brush. By design, brushes are often singular instruments on shorter handles. By introducing a detachable plunger/brush that can be swap on in place of the original design saves the user on cost and space, as well as offering more utility.
Besides the convention toilet auger, plunger, and brush there are some other useful auxiliary tools that can aid in unclogging or cleaning the toilet. For example, many toilet obstructions occur in the mouth of the toilet bowl due to the configuration of the waste outlet duct of the toilet and cannot be easily dislodged by a convention toilet plunger or toilet auger. This results in the needs of a special rod to push obstructions through the outlet duct of the toilet or pull obstructions out from the outlet duct of the toilet to unblock the toilet.
Many toilet obstructions are caused by too much toilet paper or hard stool. These kinds of obstructions are most easily dealt with by dismantling them into smaller pieces to reduce the size before flushing the toilet. This results in the needs for a scraper to cut the obstructions into smaller pieces to prevent the blockage from happen at first place. In addition, this scraper can also remove harder to deal with grime around the toilet area.
Finally, a clogged toilet may be caused by some other foreign materials that accidently falls into the toilet bowl (small toys, towel, cell phone, etc). In order to remove these kinds of obstructions, tongs can be extremely useful in picking up objects from the toilet bowl. This becomes especially useful in public bathrooms, like schools, where maintenance workers are constantly faced with these types of situations.
A user equip with all of these auxiliary tools mentioned above would be far more adept at unclogging a toilet. Furthermore, if these conventional toilet cleaning tools and auxiliary tools can be integrated together as one unit, then the user also saves on space and storage.
A wide variety of combination toilet cleaning tools have been developed for use in unclogging toilets. Known prior inventions includes U.S. Pat. No. 6,804,839 B1 combination toilet brush/plunger apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 7,430,779 B1 combination toilet brush and plunger; U.S. Pat. No. 8,209,790 B1, combination bathroom plunging and cleaning tool; U.S. Pat. No. 7,299,519, B1, combination toilet plunger and brush; U.S. Pat. No. 7,308,728, B2, toilet cleaning implement; U.S. Pat. No. 7,752,684, B1, combination-cleaning tool and plunger.
These tools may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, but most of these prior art only included a toilet plunger with a toilet brush. None of them include an extra adjustable auger, tongs, and extra drain rod functions; so they would not be suitable for the purpose of the present invention as hereafter described. What's more, some of these devices are generally more expensive than conventional toilet tools and are relatively heavy or cumbersome, making them not practical for general household use.
The general purpose of the present invention is to provide a new multipurpose combination toilet unblocking tool and a combination toilet cleaning tool. In order to support the toilet unblocking function, the combination toilet unblocking tool includes an adjustable auger, a combined tongs, and a detachable rod. The adjustable auger and the detachable rod are integrated into one convenient unit, forming a pair of tongs that can be used. Also, in order to support the toilet cleaning function, the combination toilet cleaning tool includes brush, plunger and scraper accessories, which can be added on in place of the auger. This unit also may be used in conjunction with other attachable bathroom accessories focused on cleaning toilets. Hence, the present invention provides many novel features that are not found or implied by any of the prior art.
According to the present invention, there is provided an adjustable auger, comprising: an elongated sleeve member having a front wall, a back wall and two opposing side walls; wherein the front wall and two side walls are about one inch shorter than the back wall in order to couple the bathroom accessory. A handle is attached to an upper end of the elongated sleeve, wherein the handle is in the shape of a “7” or “D”. A central elongated opening divides the front wall into two equal parts and another central opening divides the bottom half of the back wall into two equal parts. Two drain cleaning cables slidably held in the sleeve member, and a slider which is connected with the drain cable and is slidable in the sleeve member in the longitudinal direction. The overall size of the slider is smaller than the bore of the sleeve member, thus the slider can slide in the sleeve member. In order to lock the slider on the opening there are few pairs of slots which cross with the opening of the front wall to hold the slider knobs of the slider and a locking means is provided on the slider for selectively fixing the slider to a desired slots. The locking means is comprised of an interior channel contained inside of the slider, the interior channel is perpendicular to the sliding direction of the slider and communicable with a surface of one side of the slider by a gap; two slider knobs and one compression spring are hold in the interior channel; the compression spring is connected the seating potion of the two slider knob; the compression spring would expand to keep the track gripping portion in the slots after the slider knobs being manipulated to the desired slots. Therefore, the slider may be locked in an extended or retracted position relative to the slots on the sleeve with a locking means. A pair of rings are attached at middle of the back wall of the sleeve. These rings are to be parallel connected with the ring on the easily detachable rod to form a combined tongs. A pair of screws screwed at the lower end of the back wall of the elongated sleeve, these screws can be used as hooks when combined with detached rod as combined tongs. In addition, these screws are to be inserted into the hole of the accessory coupler for coupling the bathroom accessory to the sleeve member.
The present invention also includes a combined tongs assembly. An implementations of the combined tongs comprise of an easily detachable rod member being attached to the rings of the adjustable auger with a hinge pin, thus the adjustable auger and the detachable rod member are pivoted together at their midpoints to form a combined tongs. Therefore, the user can use these combined tongs as conventional tongs to grip and lift the objects that block the toilet, such as too much toilet paper, small toys, towels, etc. An important idea of the invention is to provide combined tongs in the form of an easily detachable rod, constructed in such a manner that the detachable rod member may be used individually, as a drain rod, when desired.
According to an angle of the present invention, there is a detachable rod comprising: an elongate shaft, a handle at one end of the shaft, a ring in the middle of the shaft; a longitudinal hook member at the second end of the shaft, wherein the shaft has two bends located at a position under the ring and each bend is a straight angle. The hook member has a rounded “U” shape and points substantially in the direction of the handle. The hook is also configured insert into the hole of the bathroom accessory. The handle is “7” shaped or “D” shaped also the handle and the hook member are located on the opposite side of the shaft. The section of the shaft that contacts the hook member is on the same plane as the handle and the ring. Typically the handle can be molded or forged to the shaft. However, the entire rod is of a single unitary construction. Also, in order to form a combined tongs, a hinge pin is provide to be used as a pivot axis to connect the adjustable and the rod; the hinge pin is inserted into the ring of the adjustable auger and the ring of the rod.
The present invention further includes a combination toilet cleaning tool. An implementation of a combination toilet cleaning tool is using the combined tongs as a handle and the screws of the combined tongs as accessory coupler to couple detachable bathroom accessory to clean the bathroom. A plurality of different bathroom accessories comprising of at least a toilet plunger and a brush (and optionally a scraper or other bathroom accessory). Each bathroom accessory comprises a first end that is able to be configured onto the cleaning tool. Therefore, each of the conventional toilet brush, plunger and scraper is redesigned as a detachable bathroom accessory.
According to an aspect of the present invention, an implementation of a combination toilet cleaning tool is using the combined tongs as a handle and the screws of the combined tong as an accessory coupler which responsive to an accessory release mechanism on the combined tongs. In particular implementations of the combined tongs, the screws of the combined tongs is configured to inserted into the hole of the bathroom accessory and the accessory coupler of the bathroom accessory is configured to couple the combined tongs. In particular implementations, the bathroom accessory further comprises a coupler member and also including a bathroom accessory being attached to the coupler member. The coupler comprise a cuboid support which has three hole being centrally disposed in and through the cuboid support. These hole are configured to be coupled with the screws of the combined tongs. It is contemplated that each of the bathroom accessory is of a single unitary construction.
As indicated above, none of the prior art includes the combination of the elements of the present invention. It is an object of the present invention to provide many novel features that result in a new combination toilet unblocking tool and toilet cleaning tool which is not provided or implied by any of the prior art. Hence, the main objective of the present invention is to provide a new combination toilet unblocking tool and combination toilet cleaning tool, which also has simpler construction and can be properly used individually as an adjustable auger, a combined tongs, a drain rod or as a plunger, a brush, a scraper.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new combination toilet unblocking tools that contains an adjustable auger, which may be selectively locked in an extended or retracted position.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a new combination toilet unblocking tool that contains an detachable rod, which is constructed in such a manner that the detachable rod may be used individually as drain rod, when desired.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a new combination toilet unblocking tools that contains a combined tongs by providing the adjustable auger and the detachable rod pivoted together at their midpoints to form a combined tongs. Therefore, the combination toilet unblocking tools can be used as a conventional tongs.
Still yet another object is to provide a pair of screws screwed at the lower end of the adjustable auger for coupling different detachable accessories. Accessories may include a brush, a scraper and a plunger.
Even still another object is to provide an accessory coupler for each bathroom accessory; so the bathroom accessories can be selectively coupled to the toilet combined tongs.
A further object is to provide a new combination of toilet unblocking tools along with toilet cleaning tools that are easy and convenient to set up and use.
A still further object is to provide a new combination toilet unblocking tools with a toilet cleaning tools that is economical in cost to manufacture.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will appear as the description proceeds. To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, this invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only and that changes may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described within the scope of the appended claims. It is also to be understood this invention is not limited to the specific components or assembly procedures disclosed herein. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways.
The present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the invention, and is not intended to limit the invention to the specific embodiments illustrated by the figures or description below. Although particular implementations are disclosed, such implementations and implementing components may comprise any shape, size, material, quantity, etc. As used in the specification as well as in the appended claims, the term “about” is utilized to modify various numerical values. In this context, the term “about” should be construed to mean any value that is suitable for the invention.
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In operation, a user can manipulate the slider knob 9, 11 to cause the slider 6 to slide, so that the drain cleaning cables 1, 2 are protruded from or retracted into the sleeve member 20 (refer to
The present invention also includes a combined tongs assembly.
As illustrated in
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In operation, the user can grip the handle 38 of the adjustable auger 10 in one hand and grip the handle 44 of the rod 40 in another hand to open this combined tongs 30 as conventional tongs. Therefore, the user can use this combined tongs 30 to pick up the objects that block the drain, such as too much toilet paper, or other objects that falls into the toilet bowl, such as small toy.
In addition, as described above, the present invention also allows the detachable rod 40 to be used individually as a simple drain rod. As shown in
In use, when using this detachable rod 40 as simple drain rod, the user can grip the handle 44 of the rod in one hand then push clogged materials in the toilet bowl into the drain with the hook 43, or pulling the clogged materials from the drain with the hook 43 to unclog a toilet.
Finally, as described above, another particular implementation of the present invention allows the combined tongs 30 to couple a bathroom accessory to clean the toilet area.
As illustrated in
In operation, to couple the combined tongs 30 to the scraping accessory 51, the user can grips the handle 38 of the adjustable auger 10 in one hand and grips the detachable rod handle 44 in another hand to open the combined tongs 30 and placed the combined tongs above the scraping accessory 51 then close the combined tongs 30; so that the screws 36, 37 of the adjustable auger 10 are inserted into hole 53, 55 of the scraping coupling 51, and the “U” hook member 43 of the detachable rod 40 is inserted in to hole 54 of the scraping coupling 51. To decouple the scraping accessory 51, the user simply put the scraping accessory 51 in a cell of a storage box (omitted) against the wall of the storage box then open the combined tongs; so the scraping accessory 51 will fall into the storage box.
In use, a user in need of any of the accessories available from the storage box may simply select the accessory from the storage box. Note that in the drawings and the detail specification of the storage box for the bathroom accessory is omitted, because the storage box is not council. However, in an actual product, a simple open box divides into several cells and configured to store each accessory and the combined tongs member will be provided.
While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described herein with reference to preferred embodiments and specific examples thereof, it will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that other embodiments and examples may perform similar functions and/or achieve like results. All such equivalent embodiments and examples are within the spirit and scope of the present invention, are contemplated thereby, and are intended to be covered by the following claims.
