Patent Application
20240191482
The invention relates generally to water filtration systems, and more specifically to sink faucets with built-in filters.
Generally, in many parts of the world, there is a water crisis and an ever-growing demand for purified drinking water in the home, workplace, and places of business such as restaurants. In existing systems, when connecting devices for purifying water, users must also drill extra holes, modify countertops, and/or add extra faucets or valves, which can be labor intensive, cumbersome, or problematic in other ways for the user.
Additionally, many rental and commercial properties do not allow modifications to existing furnishings, countertops, plumbing, and the like. In such situations, people are left to do without devices for water purification connected directly to their faucets, which reduces convenience for users, who may then be forced to buy bottled water. This creates more plastic waste. As such, there is a growing problem of the need to supply water directly to equipment including, but not limited to, water ionizers, water filter systems, coffee machines, ice makers, and the like, without having to drill extra holes and install additional faucets or valves. Therefore, there is a need for a solution to these problems.
The aspects or the problems and the associated solutions presented in this section could be or could have been pursued; they are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches presented in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their presence in this section of the application.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description.
Provided herein is a faucet having a dual valve tap, allowing a user to use hot or cold water as in traditional kitchen faucets while at the same time being able to supply water, at variable flow rates, to auxiliary water systems. Such auxiliary systems may include, but are not limited to, water ionizers, water filter systems, coffee machines, ice makers, and so on.
Provided herein is a faucet that is a direct replacement of a standard kitchen or utility faucet that utilizes the same preexisting holes. In some embodiments, the faucet comprises a secondary valve and an interchangeable supply connection for various size requirements. In such embodiments, the interchangeable supply connection allows an above the counter water supply which eliminates the need for extra holes and/or installation of additional faucets or valves on existing sink and faucet systems.
Provided herein is a multipurpose faucet configured to be installed onto a sink and configured for separately dispensing a first supply of water and a second supply of water from a water source, the multipurpose faucet comprising: a first valve configured to dispense the first supply of water through a spout, a second valve configured to dispense the second supply of water through an accessory supply coupling, a set of water lines, comprising a hot water hose, a cold water hose, and an accessory water supply hose; wherein the hot water hose and the cold water hose each connect the water source to the first valve, and wherein the accessory water supply hose connects the water source to the second valve; wherein the accessory supply coupling is configured receive a connector hose; and wherein the connector hose supplies the second supply of water to an external device.
Provided herein is a method of installing a multipurpose faucet onto a sink, the sink being provided on a countertop and having a set of water connectors underneath the sink, the multipurpose faucet being configured to separately dispense a first supply of water and a second supply of water from a water source, the multipurpose faucet comprising: a first valve configured to dispense the first supply of water through a spout, a second valve configured to dispense the second supply of water through an accessory supply coupling, a set of water lines, comprising a hot water hose, a cold water hose, and an accessory water supply hose; wherein the hot water hose and the cold water hose each connect the water source to the first valve, and wherein the accessory water supply hose connects the water source to the second valve; wherein the accessory supply coupling is configured to receive a connector hose, and wherein the connector hose supplies the second supply of water to an external device, the method comprising: placing the multipurpose faucet on an external top side of the sink and through a hole provided in the countertop; securing the multipurpose faucet to the countertop by using a washer and a mounting nut on an underside of the countertop; connecting an adapter to a locking clip on the underside of the countertop; installing the set of water lines to the set of water connectors and to an angle shut-off valve; attaching a first end of a connector hose to the accessory supply coupling; connecting the external device to the multipurpose faucet by attaching a second end of the connector hose to the external device.
Provided herein is a system for separately dispensing a first supply of water and a second supply of water from a water source, the system comprising a multipurpose faucet, a connector hose, and an external device; the multipurpose faucet comprising: a first valve configured to dispense the first supply of water through a spout, a second valve configured to dispense the second supply of water through an accessory supply coupling, a set of water lines, comprising a hot water hose, a cold water hose, and an accessory water supply hose; wherein the hot water hose and the cold water hose each connecting the water source to the first valve, and wherein the accessory water supply hose connects the water source to the second valve; wherein the accessory supply coupling is configured to receive the connector hose, and wherein the connector hose supplies the second supply of water to the external device.
The above aspects or examples and advantages, as well as other aspects or examples and advantages, will become apparent from the ensuing description and accompanying drawings.
For exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes, aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention are illustrated in the figures of the accompanying drawings, in which:
What follows is a description of various aspects, embodiments and/or examples in which the invention may be practiced. Reference will be made to the attached drawings, and the information included in the drawings is part of this detailed description. The aspects, embodiments and/or examples described herein are presented for exemplification purposes, and not for limitation purposes. It should be understood that structural and/or logical modifications could be made by someone of ordinary skills in the art without departing from the scope of the invention.
It should be understood that, for clarity of the drawings and of the specification, some or all details about some structural components or steps that are known in the art are not shown or described if they are not necessary for the invention to be understood by one of ordinary skills in the art.
The dual valve of the faucets disclosed herein allows for the faucet to provide two sources of clean water simultaneously, via (1) a spout 104 and (2) a stem, also referred to herein as an accessory supply coupling 3 (also referred to herein as “side port”). It should be understood that the faucet can be used such that the clean water is dispensed through the spout 104 and the accessory supply coupling 3 simultaneously or independently of one another.
The faucet 101 may connect directly to external water devices via a connector tube or hose 107 (generally referred to herein as a “connector hose”) connected to the side body accessory supply coupling 3 in order to supply water to the devices. Such water devices may include, but are not limited to, water ionizers, water filter systems, coffee machines, ice makers, and the like, such as the water ionizer shown by 106 as an example.
Generally, the side body accessory supply coupling 3 may be provided with a low profile design, such that the hose 107 is discreet and low to the countertop 102, which may be beneficial to the user by being out of the way, and not interfering with other functionality in the kitchen and without blocking access to other kitchen components. The low profile design may also help to prevent kinks or pinches in the hose 107 which could then lead to backed up water pressure, leaks, and/or damage to the device 106 or other components of the kitchen.
Users may control the temperature and pressure of the water dispensed through the spout 104 by use of the handles 108a and 108b. It should be understood that regulation of the water temperature and pressure of the water dispensed through the spout 104 may be operated by any suitable means, such as various styles or types of handles, levers, buttons, and the like. As an example, such as the faucet shown in
The components of the faucet 101 disclosed herein may be constructed from brass, stainless steel, polyoxymethylene (POM), or any combination thereof, or any other suitable materials.
In some embodiments, the valve stem 3 (also referred to herein as a side body port) is used for providing a water supply out of the faucet 101 system to external devices such as water ionizers, coffee makers, and the like. In some embodiments, the spout 19 is used for providing a water supply out of the faucet 101 system into a sink.
For clarity, the elements shown in the figures relating to the installation process are given new reference characters. However, it should be understood that some elements depicted in
Generally, in some embodiments, the faucets disclosed herein may be easily installed onto existing sinks by a user, using an above-the-sink installation process.
It may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used in this patent document. The term “couple” and its derivatives refer to any direct or indirect communication between two or more elements, whether or not those elements are in physical contact with one another. The term “or” is inclusive, meaning and/or. As used in this application, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.
The phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like.
Further, as used in this application, “plurality” means two or more. A “set” of items may include one or more of such items. The terms “comprising,” “including,” “carrying,” “having,” “containing,” “involving,” and the like are to be understood to be open-ended, i.e., to mean including but not limited to. Only the transitional phrases “consisting of” and “consisting essentially of,” respectively, are closed or semi-closed transitional phrases.
If present, use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., in the claims to modify a claim element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence or order of one claim element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed. These terms are used merely as labels to distinguish one claim element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the claim elements. As used in this application, “and/or” means that the listed items are alternatives, but the alternatives also include any combination of the listed items.
Throughout this description, the aspects, embodiments or examples shown should be considered as exemplars, rather than limitations on the apparatus or procedures disclosed. Although some of the examples may involve specific combinations of method acts or system elements, it should be understood that those acts and those elements may be combined in other ways to accomplish the same objectives.
Acts, elements and features discussed only in connection with one aspect, embodiment or example are not intended to be excluded from a similar role(s) in other aspects, embodiments or examples.
Aspects, embodiments or examples of the invention may be described as processes, which are usually depicted using a flowchart, a flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may depict the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. With regard to flowcharts, it should be understood that additional and fewer steps may be taken, and the steps as shown may be combined or further refined to achieve the described methods.
If means-plus-function limitations are recited in the claims, the means are not intended to be limited to the means disclosed in this application for performing the recited function, but are intended to cover in scope any equivalent means, known now or later developed, for performing the recited function.
Claim limitations should be construed as means-plus-function limitations only if the claim recites the term “means” in association with a recited function.
If any presented, the claims directed to a method and/or process should not be limited to the performance of their steps in the order written, and one skilled in the art can readily appreciate that the sequences may be varied and still remain within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Although aspects, embodiments and/or examples have been illustrated and described herein, someone of ordinary skills in the art will easily detect alternate of the same and/or equivalent variations, which may be capable of achieving the same results, and which may be substituted for the aspects, embodiments and/or examples illustrated and described herein, without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of this application is intended to cover such alternate aspects, embodiments and/or examples. Hence, the scope of the invention is defined by the accompanying claims and their equivalents. Further, each and every claim is incorporated as further disclosure into the specification.
This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S. Non-Provisional application Ser. No. 18/065,545, filed Dec. 13, 2022, which is hereby incorporated by reference, to the extent that it is not conflicting with the present application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 18065545 | Dec 2022 | US |
| Child | 18453984 | US |
