Patent Application
20140054213
This application is related to co-pending attorney reference number 131674-D 200, which is incorporated by reference herein and b-day party here, including but not limited to those portions which specifically appear hereinafter.
Not applicable.
The present invention relates in general to household water filters. In particular, the present invention relates to an improved gravity water filter which has a large capacity, is selectively sealed for protection, and which may be easily disassembled for travel.
It is common for households to desire to filter water for improved purity. This desire may be solely for drinking water, but may also extend to water to be used for cooking as well. Various types of water filters are known, with gravity filters employing replaceable cartridges being quite popular. These most commonly take the form of a pitcher. While these are suitable for certain lifestyles, they have a limited storage capacity, and are not well suited for portability out of the home.
An object of the present invention is to provide a gravity water filter having a large storage capacity.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a water filter having a sealing cover to prevent contamination of the interior.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a water filter which may be easily portable.
These and other objects are achieved by a stacking portable water filter. The water filter includes an upper canister and a lower canister. The upper canister includes an aperture in the bottom wall to receive a filtering cartridge. The upper canister may rest upon the lower canister such that water received within the upper canister will flow through the cartridge to be received within the lower canister. A spigot is provided in the lower canister for dispensing water therefrom. Each of the upper and lower canisters includes an upper rim. There is also provided a cover which may be sealed to the upper rim of the upper canister to prevent contamination of the interior. The upper rim of the lower canister is substantially identical to that of the upper canister such that the cover may be selectively sealed to the upper rim of the lower canister as well. The upper and lower canisters may be stacked together in an operative position for filtering water with the cover selectively sealed to the upper canister, thus protecting the water to be filtered or the cartridge. If it is desired to move the water to a different location the upper canister may be disassembled from the operative position and the cover may be selectively sealed to the upper rim of the lower canister. T cover will prevent loss of the filtered water from the lower canister during travel as well as protect from contamination. A pressure relief valve may be provided in the cover to allow proper flow of the water during filtering or dispensing.
The objects and features of the invention noted above are explained in more detail with reference to the drawings, in which like reference numerals denote like elements, and in which:
With reference to
In the embodiment shown, the peripheries of the bottom walls 18 and 22 are both generally rectangular. Other shapes may be employed as desired, such as round, oval, triangular, etc. With a round or oval bottom wall periphery the associated side wall extending therefrom would be a single continuous wall. For bottom wall peripheries having three or more clearly defined edges there would be a like number of clearly defined side walls. It is for this reason that the canisters 12 and 14 are indicated to have “at least one” side wall. In the embodiment shown the bottom walls 18 and 22 are shown with rounded corners such that a single continuous side wall is formed (with flattened areas longitudinally and laterally).
As shown the bottom walls 18 and 22 both have a similar shape. While this is preferred, this is not required and the bottom walls 18 and 22 could have different shapes. For example, the bottom wall 18 could be circular, while the bottom wall 22 is square.
As is best shown in
During water filtration the cartridge 28 will be received within the cartridge aperture 26. It is important that the fit of the cartridge 28 within the aperture be water tight to prevent untreated water from bypassing the filter cartridge. This may be achieved by any arrangement known in the art. In the embodiment shown, the cartridge aperture takes the form of an elongated tube having stepped shoulders which will mate with stepped shoulders on the filter cartridge 28, together with one or more elastic O-rings mounted about the cartridge 28 so as to abut and seal against the cartridge aperture 26.
In an operative position for water filtration shown in
The mounting of the upper canister 12 to the lower canister 14 could be by various arrangements known in the prior art. In the preferred arrangement shown, the interior edge of the lower rim 32 includes an upwardly facing reduced-periphery rim shoulder 36, and the upper canister 12 rests upon this shoulder 36. In particular the outer periphery of bottom wall 18 may rest upon shoulder 36 (not shown), or the side wall 20 may include a downwardly-facing peripheral mating shoulder 38 which rests upon the rim shoulder 36. This is best shown in
While it is common in the prior art for the equivalent of the upper canister to be fully received within the equivalent of the lower canister, this is not preferred for the present invention. Instead it is preferred that in the operative position the upper canister 12 be mounted to the lower canister 14 such that the bottom wall 18 of the upper canister is closely adjacent to the rim 32 of the lower canister 14 and the rim 30 of upper canister 12 is spaced upwardly from rim 32 of the lower canister 14 (preferably by substantially the entire height of the upper canister 12). With this arrangement the upper canister 12 occupies very little of the interior space of the lower canister 14, thus increasing the storage capacity of the water filter 10.
As noted previously, the filter 10 includes a cover 16. The cover 16 is sized and shaped to at least rest upon the rim 30 of upper canister 12 and close the opening formed by rim 30. While simple resting would be sufficient, it is preferred that the cover 16 seal to the rim 30. This may be by various arrangements, but preferably the cover 16 would be formed as a plastic unit having a monolithic skirt 40 which closely grips rim 30 in a manner similar to known plastic storage containers.
As may be envisioned, if the bottom wall 18 of the upper canister 12 is closely adjacent the rim 32 of the lower canister 14 in the operative position, the filter 10 will be top-heavy at the start of the filtering process, and more prone to tipping over. To reduce possible spillage in the event of the upper canister 12 or the entire filter 10 were to tip over, it is preferred that the seal of the cover 16 to the upper canister rim 30 be a water-tight seal. Such a seal, however, may result in a buildup of negative pressure within the upper canister 12 as the untreated water exits the upper canister 12. To solve this problem, it is preferred that the one of the side wall 20 or cover 16 include a pressure relief valve. In the preferred embodiment of
The filter 10 as described may be seen to provide a gravity water filter system having a large capacity, and with feature for the protection of both the untreated and treated water from outside contamination. Configured in the operative position of
In particular, the filter 10 is preferably constructed in a way to permit the upper canister 12 to be removed from the lower canister 14 and placed into storage together with the filter cartridge 28, and the cover 16 to be mounted upon the lower canister 14. This is shown in
To permit the cover 16 to selectively mount to either the upper canister rim 30 or the lower canister rim 32, it is important that both rims 30 and 32 have substantially identical sizes and shapes. In this manner, the cover 16 may be formed to seal to the rim 30 in the operative position as described above, and then also seal to the rim 32 in the portable position. The cover 16 will thus serve to protect the treated water in lower canister 14 from contamination, as well as to prevent spilling during transport of the lower canister. If the cover 16 is formed with the water-tight seal, dispensing of treated water from the spigot 34 may result in negative pressure within the lower canister 14. This problem would be solved also by the pressure relief valve formed in the cover 16 described above.
As may be seen, the filter 10 according to the present invention provides selective manual configuration between an operative position and a portable position. In the operative position the filter 10 provides a large filtering capacity due to its stacking arrangement with the upper canister bottom wall 18 closely adjacent to the lower canister rim 32. Further, forming both rims 30 and 32 with substantially similar shapes and sizes allows a single cover 16 to be selectively mounted to either the upper canister 12 or the lower canister 14, even with a water-tight seal. Finally, providing a pressure relief valve within the cover 16 eliminates negative pressure within which ever canister the cover is mounted to.
From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one well adapted to attain all ends and objects set forth above together with the other advantages which are inherent within its structure.
It will be understood that certain features and subcombinations are of utility and may be employed without reference to other features and subcombinations. This is contemplated by and is within the scope of the claims.
Since many possible embodiments may be made of the invention without departing from the scope thereof, it is to be understood that all matter herein set forth of shown in the accompanying drawings is to be interpreted as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.
