The present invention relates to home appliance accessories and, more particularly, to a wedge for keeping an access door of a home appliance, such as a washing machine, open to air dry.
Front-load washing machines accumulate mold inside the rubber door gaskets. This mold results in bad odors and the gaskets are difficult to clean. Many manufacturers recommend keeping the door open for at least five hours after use.
Current devices keep the door wide open and so can be difficult to use in smaller laundry rooms. Current solutions are large contraptions that cover the whole door and do not prevent the door from accidentally closing, as well as being difficult to attach. To date, the inventor has not found any convenient and simple solutions that easily stay in place, yet out of the way, to keep a washing machine door ajar.
As can be seen, there is a need for a wedge for keeping an appliance access door open to air dry.
The wedge embodied by the present invention is easy to use, easy to attach, and easy to store out of the way. The present invention stops washing machine (or other household appliance) access doors from fully closing and thus from locking in the closed position, thereby the wedge safely prevents mold growing in washing machines by creating a stop between the access door and the machine. The wedge may be magnetically attached to the door's threshold, allowing the inside to air dry as the access door is kept ajar. Any safety concerns about having the door slightly open are relieved as the preset invention makes it virtually impossible to lock a child or pet inside as the wedge will not allow the door to fully close and thus the door cannot lock in place. Furthermore, the wedge has a low profile so as to decrease the likelihood of being accidently knocked off. When not in use, the wedge can be easily magnetically attached to any part of the machine's ferromagnetic surface for subsequent use.
In one aspect of the present invention, a wedge for keeping an access door of an appliance ajar includes the following: an upper portion having non-planar shape; a base portion having a planar shape; a magnet disposed along the base portion; and the upper portion and the base portion made from a material having impact dampening properties, wherein the magnet is between the upper portion and the base portion, and wherein the magnet is embedded in the wedge or further including a cavity between the upper portion and the base portion wherein the magnet is removably housed; wherein the base portion is dimensioned to attach to a threshold of the access door in such a way that the wedge does not protrude from any side thereof.
In another aspect of the present invention, a method of selectively keeping an access door of an appliance open at a minimum angle of incidence relative to appliance includes the following: providing the above-mentioned wedge; selecting a location along the threshold relative to an attachment point of the access door to the appliance to achieve said minimum angle of incidence; and placing the base portion along said location so that the wedge does not protruding from any side thereof.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings, description and claims.
The following detailed description is of the best currently contemplated modes of carrying out exemplary embodiments of the invention. The description is not to be taken in a limiting sense, but is made merely for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention, since the scope of the invention is best defined by the appended claims.
Broadly, an embodiment of the present invention provides a wedge for keeping an appliance access door open to air dry at selectable minimum angles. The wedge attaches through a magnetic connection to any portion of the threshold of the access door for controlling the minimum angle. The wedge has a low profile so that the wedge does not protrude from the threshold.
Referring to
The wedge 10 may have an upper portion 12 and a lower, flat base 16, as illustrated in
The magnet 14 is selected to have the strength so that there is a sufficient magnetic attraction to ferromagnetic material for the wedge 10 to be removably attached thereto, such as a threshold 22 of the access door 20, and whereby there is a sufficient layer of the base 16 to cushions or dampen the impact against the threshold 22 when the access door 20 closes upon the upper portion 12 of the wedge 10.
In another embodiment, the magnet 14 may be disposed along the outward-facing surface of the base 16 so that the magnet 14 physically contacts the ferromagnetic material is attached to.
The whole system may be a magnet embodied in foam wedge for stopping the access door 20 from fully closing and allowing the inside to air dry. The magnet 14 enables the wedge 10 magnetically connect to the appliance's stamped ferromagnetic outer surfaces. And so, the magnetic wedge 10 can be stored to the outside of the appliance 18 (along other ferromagnetic portions) when not in use.
A method of using the present invention may include the following. A user may remove articles from the appliance 20, and when they want to access door 20 to remain ajar for aeration or other purposes, they will simply grab the wedge 10 and place it in the threshold 22 of the access door 20. This action will prevent the access door 20 from fully closing and allow the inside to air dry, as illustrated in
The wedge 10 enables different angles for propping the access door 20 ajar and thus enables selective sizing of the gap between the access door 20 and the appliance 18 based on where the wedge 10 is attached—thus the present invention allows for adjustability. For instance, with the wedge 10 may be placed closer to the pivotable attachment point of the access door 20, resulting in an angle of incidence between the access door 20 and the otherwise flush face of the appliance 18 to be greater than if the wedge 20 as placed along the threshold 22, farther from the pivotable attachment point. The wedge 10 may be dimensioned to fit within the entirety of the threshold 22 of the access door 20, so as not to protrude therefrom where it can be unintentionally bumped and dislodged.
it should be understood, of course, that the foregoing relates to exemplary embodiments of the invention and that modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
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