Water saver control for disposers

Abstract

A waste disposer having a rotatable shredding element for grinding waste in a flushing liquid, an outlet for discharging ground waste material in liquid to a drain, an electrically-powered motor for driving the rotatable shredding element and a source for supplying flushing liquid the disposer that includes a detector for sensing the amount of electrical current flowing to the motor. The system includes, at least, one valve for controlling the flow of flushing liquid to the disposer which valve is controlled by means of a controller that is responsive to the electrical current detector. The controller increases the amount of flushing liquid falling into the disposer in response to a detected increase in the amount of electrical current flowing into the motor. The invention optionally includes a second valve for controlling flushing liquid to the disposer at a lower rate, which second valve is opened whenever the electrical is activated. Both of the controllers may be solenoids, but the first-mentioned controller may also be a progressively activated servo motor that progressively increases the flow of water to the disposer as the electrical current usage increases.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.