US 6,210,064 B1Granted

Soap-fillable brush with sealed actuator

AssigneeGeneral Housewares Corp.

InventorsCarly R. White, Dean Chapman

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Abstract

A fluid-containing brush has a housing with a generally cylindrical wall open at one end and closed at the other end by a base carrying the brush bristles. The housing defines a fluid reservoir and the base has a central opening therein closed by a valve member for dispensing liquid to the brush bristles. The valve is normally spring-biased closed and has a valve stem extending upwardly through the reservoir and having its upper end connected to an actuator button which is received in an opening in a cap removably attached to the housing. An elastomeric seal covers the cap and actuator button and seals the opening therebetween while permitting manual actuation of the button from above the cap to open the valve, the seal having a gasket lip portion engageable with the housing to provide a fluid-tight seal therebetween.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A fluid-containing cleaning device comprising:

a housing defining a fluid reservoir and atop opening and having a central axis,
a scrubbing medium carried by the housing,
a valve carried by the housing for providing communication between the reservoir and the scrubbing medium and having a valve stem extending through the reservoir,
an enlarged actuator member connected to said valve stem and having a maximum lateral extent substantially greater than that of the stem,
a cap forming atop wall of the housing and extending transversely of the axis for closing the top opening of the housing and defining an enlarged cap opening therein for receiving the actuator member,
the cap opening having a transverse cross-sectional area substantially smaller than that of the top opening and having a lateral extent greater than maximum lateral extent of the actuator member, and
a flexible and resilient member covering the actuator member and closing the cap opening while accommodating manual actuation of the actuator member from above the cap.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.