Gas appliance with flash suppressor

Abstract

A water heater having a barrier for forming an enclosure around a lower portion of heater. The barrier has an inside wall, an outside wall and a space between the inside and outside walls. There is a skirt disposed within the barrier for slidably receiving the water heater tank. The burner for the water heater is disposed within the skirt. The outside wall of the barrier has at least one aperture for air to pass into the space. The inside wall has a plurality of ventilation holes to allow heat currents to escape through the space and causes a siphoning effect, thus preventing any fumes from reaching the flame. There is an outwardly extending flange surrounding a top edge of the barrier. The flange has an inside wall connected to the inside wall of the barrier, an outside wall connected to the outside wall of the barrier, and a space between the inside and outside walls that communicates with the space in the barrier. The flange has an open top, so that fumes travel through the filter and out the open top and are thus kept away from the flame in the appliance.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.