Water dispenser abstract
A water dispenser includes a housing in which a tank is disposed
for containing purified water. A valve is disposed at a front of
the housing for enabling a user to dispense the purified water.
A water collecting tub is disposed beneath the valve for collecting
spilled water. A drainage hose communicates with a lower portion
of the tub for draining-away collected water. A removable filter
is removably mounted across an inlet of the drainage passage for
filtering-out foreign substances that might otherwise block the
drainage hose.
Water dispenser claims
What is claimed is:
1. A purified water dispenser comprising:
a housing having a water inlet;
a filtering section comprising a plurality of filtering devices
interconnected in series for receiving and purifying water received
from the water inlet;
at least one tank disposed in the housing for receiving purified
water from the filtering section;
a manually actuable valve mounted in an accessible position on
a front of the housing, the valve connected to the tank for dispensing
purified water therefrom;
a tub mounted on the front of the housing beneath the valve for
collecting spilled water;
a drainage hose connected to a lower portion of the tub for draining
the collected water therefrom; and
a filter arranged at the inlet of the drainage hose to prevent
foreign substances from draining through the drainage hose.
2. The water dispenser according to claim 1 wherein the filtering
devices include a membrane filter and a sterilizing filter.
3. The water dispenser according to claim 1 wherein the filter
is removable.
4. The water dispenser according to claim 1 wherein the tub includes
an inside surface, and a filter retainer structure projecting inwardly
from the inside surface adjacent the inlet of the drainage hose,
the filter being removably mounted in the filter retainer structure.
5. The water dispenser according to claim 4 wherein the filter
comprises a flange and a net mounted to the flange, the flange being
retained by the filter retainer structure.
6. The water dispenser according to claim 5 wherein the filter
retainer structure comprises two hook-shaped retainers horizontally
spaced apart on opposite sides of the inlet, the retainers together
forming a vertical channel in which the flange is vertically slidable.
7. The water dispenser according to claim 6 wherein the net includes
a convex surface facing away from the inlet.
Water dispenser description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spilled water collector/drain
for a water dispenser.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional water dispenser functions to remove undesirable
foreign substances contained in tap water through filtering means.
Such a conventional cold/hot water purifier is generally classified
into a natural filtering type, a forced filtering type, an ion exchanging
resin type and a reverse osmotic type in accordance with methods
for purifying water. Water purifiers of the reverse osmotic type,
which force tap water to pass through an artificial osmotic membrane
(reverse osmotic filter) while applying pressure to the tap water,
can remove heavy metals, bacteria, cancer-causing materials, and
the like, contained in the water, thereby purifying the water. Since
the reverse osmotic water purifiers can supply pure water containing
only dissolved oxygen, they have been used in fields such as super-pioneering
scientific industries, medical sciences or cleaning for super-precision
electronic elements. Recently, such reverse osmotic water purifiers
have widely been used as domestic water purifiers for supplying
drinkable water.
FIGS. 1 to 3 illustrate a conventional reverse osmotic cold/hot
water purifier including a purifier body 10. The body 10 has an
upper front panel 11 a lower front panel 11a, a rear panel 12
a side panel 13 a top panel 14 and a bottom panel 15 integrally
assembled each other.
Further, the body 10 has, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 first and
second horizontal isolating members 20 21 placed to form upper
and lower spaces E, F of predetermined volumes, respectively, a
vertical third isolating member 22 placed between the first and
second isolating members 20 21 so as to form a rear space G of
a predetermined volume, and a horizontal fourth isolating member
23 placed between the first, second and third isolating members
20 21 22 so as to form two front upper and lower spaces H, I of
predetermined volumes, respectively.
A purified water storage tank 30 of a predetermined volume is placed
on a surface of the first isolating member 20 within the space E.
The upper front panel 11 is provided with a control panel 40 to
carrying a main PCB 41 through which any operations for a product
can selectively be made.
Referring again to FIGS. 2 and 3 the space F has a compressor
50 placed on the bottom panel 15 for compressing refrigerant at
high temperature and high pressure, a condenser 60 placed on the
bottom panel 15 for condensing the compressed refrigerant supplied
from the compressor 50 and cooling means 70 located between the
compressor and the condenser, for cooling the compressor 50 and
condenser 60 which generate the compressing heat and condensing
heat.
The space G has a plurality of filtering means 90 firmly supported
therein, but adapted to be exchangeable for new ones as desired,
by means of first and second filter supporting brackets 80 81 which
are installed at suitable positions on the rear surface of the third
isolating member 22. A pressure pump 100 is installed on a surface
of the second isolating member 21.
A plurality of filtering means 90 includes, as shown in FIG. 4
a precipitable filter 91 supported by the first filter supporting
bracket 80 or removing floats such as rust, and the like, contained
in tap water supplied from a water main (not shown), a pre-processing
filter 92 supported by the first filter supporting bracket 80 for
removing various harmful organic chemical substances such as chlorine
components, and the like from the water supplied from the precipitable
filter 91 first and second membrane filters 93 94 supported by
the first filter supporting bracket 80 for removing heavy metals,
bacteria, cancer-causing materials, and the like, contained in the
water, when passing through the pressure pump 100 from the pre-processing
filter 82 a post-processing filter 95 supported by the first filter
supporting bracket 80 for removing odorous substances, such as
noxious gas, contained in the water emerging from both the membrane
filters 93 94 and a sterilizing filter 96 supported by the second
filter supporting bracket 81 for sterilizing various harmful microorganisms
contained in the water emerging from the post-processing filter
95 and for supplying it to the purified water storage tank 30.
These filters 91 to 96 and 100 are connected to each other through
connecting hoses 97 for routing water flow.
Further, pipes 98 are connected to bottom portions of two membrane
filters 93 92 in order to externally discharge any unnecessary
concentrated (waste) water which may be generated during the passage
of water through the filters 93 94.
On a surface of the fourth isolating member 23 there is provided
a hot water storage tank 110 and a cold water storage tank 120 inside
the space H, each of which receives a predefined amount of water
through supplying pipes 31 32 respectively, and is adapted to
heat or cool the received water, respectively.
As shown in FIG. 3 the first water supplying pipe 31 has a top
end connected to a bottom surface of the purified water storage
tank 30 and a bottom end connected to the bottom surface of the
hot water storage tank 110. The second water supplying pipe 32 has
a top end connected to the bottom surface of the purified water
storage tank 30 and a bottom end connected to a top surface of
the cold water storage tank 120.
The hot water storage tank 110 also has a heating member 111 for
heating the water stored therein when power supply is applied thereto.
The cold water storage tank 120 has a spiral cooling coil 121 wound
around an outer surface thereof, which coil 121 conducts cold refrigerant
to cool the purified water in the storage tank 121. These tanks
110 120 also have hot and cold water dispensing valves 130 131
respectively, in order to discharge the hot or cold water contained
in the respective tanks 110 120. To this end, these valves 130
131 are connected to water supplying pipes 112 122 which are connected
to the hot and cold water tanks 110 120 respectively. The valves
protrude from the upper front panel 11.
The space I has a box 140 containing electric facilities necessary
for controlling the product operations, the box located on an upper
surface of the second isolating member 21. Both sides of the box
140 are exposed. Any external access to the apparatus is permitted
for maintenance of the apparatus as desired, through electronic
circuitry included in the box 140.
Between the upper and lower front panels 11 11a, there is provided
a collector means 160 for collecting water discharged thereto from
the hot and cold water dispensing valves 130 131 and for draining
the collected water.
As shown in FIG. 5 the collector means 160 has a tub 161 separably
coupled to a drain hose 164 and a grille 162 seated on a top of
the tub 161 which serves to prevent the dropped water from bouncing
out of the tub. The tub 161 has a drainage pipe 161a outwardly extended
from a rear side thereof, which serves to externally drain the water
collected in the tub 161. The drain pipe 161a has on its outer surface
the drain hose 161 coupled by means of an 0-ring 163.
However, the drainage hole 161a is always opened. Foreign substances
contained in the water collected in the tub 161 thus directly flow
into and block the drain hose 164.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide
a water collector/drain for a water dispenser which drains spilled
water without allowing any foreign substances to be drained so as
to prevent the blockage of the drain.
The above objects are accomplished by a water dispenser having
a water collector tub to which a drainage passage is connected to
drain water received from water dispensing valves, characterized
in that means for filtering foreign substances contained in the
water is located at a predetermined position of the drainage passage
in order to prevent a blockage of the drainage passage.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Other objects and aspects of the invention will become apparent
from the following description of embodiments with reference to
the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a conventional water
purifier;
FIG. 2 is a side vertical cross sectional view of the conventional
water purifier;
FIG. 3 is a front vertical cross sectional view of the conventional
water purifier;
FIG. 4 shows an arrangement of various filtering means and pressure
pump of the conventional water purifier;
FIG. 5 is a vertical cross sectional view of a spilled water collector/drain
of the conventional water purifier;
FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a spilled water collector/drain
according to the present invention; and
FIG. 7 is a vertical cross sectional view of the spilled water
collector drain of FIG. 6.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
The preferred embodiment according to the present invention will
now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
Throughout the accompanying drawings, like parts are designated
by like reference numerals or symbols whose further detailed descriptions
will be omitted.
In FIG. 6 reference numeral 200 denotes a filtering means disposed
at a given location of a drainage passage 161a, for preventing a
blockage of the drainage passage by filtering the water collected
in the tub 161. The above filtering means 200 consists of, as shown
in FIGS. 6 and 7 a filtering net 210 and left, right hooks 220
inwardly projecting from an entrance of the drainage passage 161a,
for fixedly retaining the filtering net 210 in a vertical manner.
The filtering net 210 further consists of a mesh net 211 having
its convex side facing away from the drainage passage 161a. A flange
212 is formed around a circumferential area of the mesh net 211.
In operation, a user manipulates keys (not shown) arranged on the
control panel 40 located on the upper front side of the purifier
body 10 for selecting desired operations of the water dispenser.
In case the pressure pump 100 is activated in response to the key
selection, tap water supplied from a water main passes through a
plurality of filtering means 90 by virtue of both the water pressure
loaded from the water main and a pressure treated by the energized
pressure pump 100 and then produces the purified water.
More specifically, floats such as rust, and the like, contained
in tap water supplied from the water main (not shown) are removed
while the tap water passes through the precipitable filter 91. Various
harmful organic chemical substances such as chlorine components,
and the like in the water emerging from the precipitable filter
91 are removed by a pre-processing filter 92 and heavy metals,
bacteria, cancer-causing materials, and the like, contained in the
water are removed by the first and second membrane filters 93 94.
Subsequently, odorous substances, such as noxious gas, contained
in the water emerging from both membrane filters 93 94 are removed
by the post-processing filter 95 and then various harmful microorganisms
contained in the water emerging from the post-processing filter
95 are sterilized by the sterilizing filter 96. The water fully
purified through various filters is then supplied to the purified
water storage 30.
The water stored in the purified water storage tank 30 is supplied
to each of the hot and cold water tanks 110 120 by way of the first
and second water supplying pipes 31 32 connected to the bottom
surface of the purified water storage tank 30. The water flowing
through the first water supplying pipe 31 continues to be supplied
to the hot water storage tank 110 until that tank is full. The water
flowing through the second water supplying pipe 32 continues to
be supplied to the cold water storage tank 120 until that tank is
full. A full water level in tank 30 is sensed by a water level sensor
(not shown) installed on a side of the purified water storage tank
30. The pressure pump 110 stops when any signal from the sensor
indicating the full water level is present.
If the heater member 111 provided in the hot water storage 110
is energized by electric current the temperature of the water contained
in tank 110 is raised.
The chilling of the cold water is effected through an activation
of the compressor 50 which produces refrigerant gas at high temperature
and high pressure which is fed to the condenser 60. The refrigerant
gas in the condenser 60 is condensed by an air blown by the cooling
means 70.
The condenser 60 changes the refrigerant gas into liquid refrigerant
having a high pressure and temperature almost higher than the water
dispenser temperature. The liquid refrigerant enters a capillary
(not shown) to become lower in pressure. Depressurized liquid refrigerant
is introduced into the cooling coil 121 wound around an outer surface
of the cold water storage tank 120 and is expanded there. This
results in the vaporizing of expanded refrigerant at low temperature
and pressure, which consequently causes a cooling to be achieved.
A cooling cycle as described above cools the water stored in the
cold water storage 120.
A user may desire to take either hot or cold water in the respective
tanks 110 120 using a receptacle like a cup (not shown) and then
places the receptacle in contact with a water taking lever of one
of the valves 130 and 131 so as to push it. The pushing action causes
the lever to be backwardly swung, thereby opening the passageway
of the water dispensing valve 130 or 131. The hot or cold water
in the respective storage tank 110 120 is discharged into the receptacle
from the water supplying pipe 112 or 122 and the water dispensing
valve 130 or 131 whose passageway is opened.
At this time, some of the supplied water may spill into the tub
161 during dispensing of the selected hot or cold water, or a user
may pour some water from the receptacle into the tub 161. The collected
water in the tub 161 flows towards the drainage passage 161a due
to the inclined bottom surface of the tub 161. The water passing
through the drainage passage 161a is externally drained along drain
hose 164.
Foreign substances contained in the water to be drained are intercepted
by the filtering net 210 of the filtering means 200 and therefore
cannot be passed through the drainage passage 161a. This prevents
a blockage of the drainage passage which may otherwise be caused
by the foreign substances. |