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US 11,975,994 B2Granted
Automatic descaling system
AssigneeRheem Manufacturing Company
InventorsTroy Trant, Robert D. Brown, Edward D. Turner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An automated descaling system can be integrated into a tankless water heater or can be a separate system that is connected to a tankless water heater. The automatic descaling system comprises a cleaning media chamber and a valve with a motor. The descaling system can be set on an automatic cleaning schedule.
Claims17
An automatic descaling assembly comprising:
- a cleaning media chamber comprising a removable portion comprising a cleaning media;
- a cleaning media outlet line connected to an outlet of the cleaning media chamber;
- a valve comprising one valve inlet and a plurality of valve outlets, the valve configured to permit fluid communication between the valve inlet and one of the plurality of valve outlets at a time via a notch in a cylindrical portion of the valve, the notch extending around less than an entire circumference of the cylindrical portion, wherein the valve inlet is configured to connect to a water inlet line and the cylindrical portion is rotatable to connect a water outlet line to the cleaning media outlet line via the notch at a first time, and to connect the water outlet line to a drain line or a hot water pipe via the notch at a second time;
- a motor connected to and configured to rotate the cylindrical portion valve;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- determine whether to initiate a descaling process;
- and
- in response to determining to initiate the descaling process, output (i) a signal to a pump to direct a flow of water and (ii) a signal to the motor to direct the flow of water to the cleaning media chamber such that a mixture of at least a portion of the flow of water and at least a portion of the cleaning media is directed from the cleaning media chamber to a water heater inlet.
6 more elements
An automatic descaling assembly controller comprising:
- one or more processors;
- and
- memory having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, causes the controller to:
- determine whether to initiate a descaling process;
- and
- in response to determining to initiate the descaling process, output (i) a signal to a pump to direct a flow of water and (ii) a signal to a motor to rotate a cylindrical portion of a valve of an automatic descaling assembly to direct the flow of water to a cleaning media chamber of the automatic descaling assembly at a first time such that a mixture of at least a portion of the flow of water and cleaning media from the cleaning media chamber is directed from the cleaning media chamber to a water heater, wherein the cleaning media chamber comprises a removable portion comprising the cleaning media, and wherein the cylindrical portion comprises a notch extending around less than an entire circumference of the cylindrical portion,
- wherein the cylindrical portion is rotatable to a first position connecting a water outlet to the cleaning media chamber via the notch at the first time, and to a second position connecting the water outlet to a drain line or a hot water pipe via the notch at a second time.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.