Back to results
US 2007/0017059 A1Published application
Vacuum system
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsJohnny Zimmerle, Wyatt Cline, Todd Starr, Jose Velarde-Chan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A vacuum system has a cabinet that can be mounted to a wall. The cabinet includes a hose storage compartment with a hose drive assembly for automatically extending and retracting a vacuum hose. A portable vacuum unit can be removably docked to the cabinet and connected to the vacuum hose so that waste can be picked up the vacuum hose when the portable vacuum unit is docked. When undocked, the portable vacuum unit can be used alone.
Claims23
A vacuum system comprising
- a cabinet adapted to be mounted to a wall
- a hose extendable from the cabinet between a retracted position and an extended position and having a proximal end fixed within the cabinet, and
- a portable vacuum unit detachably mountable to the cabinet and having a tank, an inlet port in fluid communication with the tank, and a vacuum source to draw air from the inlet port into the tank,
- wherein the proximal end is connectable with the inlet port when the portable vacuum unit is docked to the cabinet, so that the hose can be used to vacuum waste into the tank when the portable vacuum unit is docked to the cabinet with the proximal end connected to the inlet port, and the portable vacuum unit can be used to vacuum waste into the tank when the portable vacuum unit is detached from the cabinet.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.