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US 5,635,058 AGranted
Reject water drain line installation system and apparatus for under sink reverse osmosis filter system
OwnerDennis E. Bowmaninventor
Life of this patent
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OwnerDennis E. Bowmaninventor
Estimating the term…
A method, system and adapter couplings for draining the reject bypassed waste water from a reverse osmosis (R/O) filtration unit to a sewer line, and particularly adapted for use in a household or commercial undercounter R/O water filtration installation associated with an in-counter sink having a garbage disposer with its outlet connected by standard plumbing fittings to a sink drain trap in turn plumb to the sewer system. The R/O waste water drain line tube is coupled into the sink drain trap in serial drainage relation with the disposer outlet plumbing fittings by a special convertable Y-Tee plumbing fitting having an R/O drain tube inlet branch and a dishwasher drain hose inlet branch oriented at an acute angle to one another with their respective input drainage liquid flows converging at a common hose nipple outlet of the Y-Tee. The garbage disposer dishwasher drain water inlet nipple is coupled by a standard coupling hose and hose clamps to the Y-Tee outlet. The Y-Tee has a push-in type connector in its R/O inlet branch connected to the R/O waste water drain tube outlet. For an installation when no dishwasher is present the R/O branch inlet of the adapter coupling is severed therefrom and thereby becomes a straight-in coupling fitting for hose and hose clamp coupling thereof to the disposer inlet nipple.
In an undercounter reverse osmosis (R/O) water filtration installation associated with an in-counter sink having a garbage disposer suspended therefrom and in drainage communication therewith, the garbage disposer having an outlet connected to a sink drain trap plumbed to an associated sewer system and having a dishwasher drain water inlet nipple disposed above said disposer outlet, and in which the R/O installation includes a reverse osmosis reject waste water by-pass conduit means including an air gap and operable for flushing the R/O waste water into an R/O waste water drain line tube, the improvement in combination therewith of an improved undercounter R/O waste water drainage system for coupling the R/O waste water drain line tube into the sink drain trap in serial drainage relation with the disposer outlet plumbing fittings, said improvement comprising:
A waste water drain adapter coupling for use in connecting a first water-using appliance waste water flexible conduct drain line to a dishwasher drain inlet hose nipple of a garbage disposer attached to an in-counter sink for thereby draining waste water from the first water-using appliance through the disposer to a sink drain trap plumbed to an associated sewer system, said coupling comprising a rigid hollow tubular Y-Tee fitting having first and second normally open tubular branch inlet portions arranged with their respective flow axes generally at an acute angle to one another and feeding at a downstream intersection therebetween to a common passageway for receiving the incoming flows from said branch inlet portions, said Y-Tee fitting having a hose nipple tubular conduit portion forming a common outlet of the Y-Tee fitting downstream of said intersection, said Y-Tee first branch inlet portion having connector means permanently mounted thereon at the inlet thereof and adapted for slip joint receiving the outlet end of the first appliance waste water flexible conduit drain line to be thereby coupled in drainage flow communication to the disposer dishwasher inlet nipple, said Y-Tee second branch inlet portion having externally barbed hose nipple means thereon with a row of external hose barbs oriented to slip receive, resist pull off and be hose clamp fastened to the outlet of a second water-using appliance flexible conduit waste water drain line for also communicating the same to the disposer dishwasher drain inlet nipple, said Y-Tee fitting common outlet having hose nipple means thereon with a row of external hose barbs oriented to slip receive, resist pull off and be hose clamp fastened to a coupler hose in turn to be slip received and hose clamp fastened to the disposer dishwasher drain inlet nipple, and wherein said first branch inlet portion also has formed on its exterior surface a row of hose barbs located between said downstream intersection and said connector means of said first branch inlet portion, said first branch inlet portion being severable from said Y-Tee fitting by severing said first branch inlet portion along a cut line located between said intersection and said row of hose barbs of said first branch inlet portion such that said first branch inlet portion as so severed from the remainder of said Y-Tee fitting is adapted to serve by itself as a straight-in coupling between the outlet of either of the water using appliance waste water drain lines and the inlet of an associated coupler hose adapted to be sealably slip fit at one end onto said row of hose barbs at the severed end of said straight-in coupling and hose clamp fastened thereon, the coupler hose being adapted to be sealably slip fit at its other end to the disposer dishwasher drain water inlet nipple and hose clamp fastened thereon, said first branch inlet portion having said row hose barbs thereon oriented to facilitate slip-on and resist pull-off of the one end of the coupler hose when said first branch inlet portion has been severed from said Y-tee fitting to form said straight-in coupling.
A method of delivering reject waste water from an undercounter reverse osmosis (R/O) water filtration installation to an existing sewer system via the existing drain plumbing hook up of an associated in-counter sink having a garbage disposer suspended therefrom and in drainage communication therewith, the garbage disposer having a drainage outlet connected to a sink drain trap plumbed to the sewer system and having a dishwasher drain water inlet nipple disposed above the disposer outlet, the R/O installation including a reverse osmosis reject waste water by-pass conduit means including an air gap and operable for flushing the R/O waste water into an undercounter R/O waste water drain line tube, said method comprising the step of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.