Bottled water cooler air filter
AssigneeElkay Manufacturing Company
InventorsWilliam L. Schroer, Kraig S. Kniss
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A bottled water cooler has a bottle inverted into a cooling reservoir, and a double lipped gasket seals the bottle to the reservoir. Air is admitted, to permit water flow, through a conduit ending in a housing. The housing supports a removable, and replaceable, filter element carrying an extremely fine porosity filter medium. A check valve in the housing blocks the conduit unless the filter element is in place. The housing and conduit are mounted on the cooler cabinet in a shielded, but conveniently accessible, location.
Claims18
In a bottled water cooler having a cabinet with an open-topped cooling reservoir therein and a cover including an opening over said cooling reservoir for receiving the top of an inverted water bottle, the combination comprising, a gasket mounted on said cover around the top of said cooling reservoir, said gasket being formed with double annular lips for sealing against the inverted top of said water bottle and a third lip for sealing said cover against said cooling reservoir, thereby closing said cooling reservoir against air flow from outside said cabinet, a filter housing secured to said cabinet, a conduit connecting the interior of said filter housing through said gasket to the interior of said cooling reservoir, and a filter element carrying a filter medium removably fitted on said housing so as to form a wall thereof, whereby water drained from said reservoir is replaced by water from the bottle that is displaced by air passing through said filter medium.
An assembly for filtering the air flow to the cooling reservoir of a bottled water cooler, comprising, in combination, a cover for said cooler including an opening over said cooling reservoir for receiving the inverted top of a water bottle, a gasket mounted on said cover around said opening, said gasket formed with a plurality of annular lips to form a substantially airtight seal between said cooling reservoir and an inverted bottle fitted into said seal, said cover having a depending flange, a filter housing mounted under said cover behind said flange so as to be out of sight but convenient to reach, a conduit connecting the interior of said housing through said gasket to the interior of said cooling reservoir, and a filter element carrying a filter medium removably fitted on said housing so as to form a wall thereof, whereby air cannot enter the reservoir except through said filter medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.