Inline Filter

1. Technical Field

This invention relates to an inline filter, mounted and disposed inline with respect to an incoming water supply line for a washing machine or lawn sprinkler, to filter out sand, dirt, particles and other debris from water flowing through the supply line.

2. Background

The problem in the art to which this invention apertains is the need for an inline filter for use with a washing machine or lawn sprinkler to filter out sand, dirt, particles and other debris from an incoming water supply line. A washing machine has solenoid-controlled water valves that control the hot and cold incoming water supply lines that are connected to the washing machine. A grain of sand caugth between a water valve and its valve seat in a washing machine is sufficient to prevent the water valve from fully seating with consequent water leakage. Likewise, sand, dirt, particles or other debris in an incoming water supply line connected to an oscillating lawn sprinkler will build-up to clog the small holes or orifices of such lawn sprinkler with consequent malfunctioning.

Accordingly, the object of the invention is to contribute to the solution of the discussed problem of the art by providing a transparent inline filter that can be disposed and connected as part of the water supply line to filter out sand, dirt, particles and other debris from water flowing through the incoming water supply line, by means of an appropriate brass filter screen. By simple reverse connection of the water supply line's upstream female coupling with the inline filter's downstream male fitting, the water thereby flowing in the opposite direction through the inline filter and out the inline filter's disconnected upstream male fitting will backflush and clean the brass filter screen.

This object and other objects of the invention should be discerned and appreciated from the Description of the Preferred Embodiment and the Operational Description, taken in conjunction with the drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views, in which: FIG. 1 is a blown-up assembly view, in perspective, of the inline filter, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the inline filter.

In FIG. 1 of the drawings, reference numeral 1 generally refers to the invention of the inline filter. Filter 1 comprises two similarly configured halves 3 and 5 of suitable transparent plastic material. For purposes of explanation, half 3 is arbitrarily referred to as the upstream half and the other half 5 is arbitrarily referred to as the downstream half. In configuration, the halves 3 and 5 define two truncated hollow right-circular cones, each being of integral, one-piece construction. The halves 3 and 5 have respective lower bases 7 and 9, upper bases 11 and 13, and lateral walls 15 and 17 sloped at an angle of approximately 29.degree.. The lower bases 7 and 9 are laterally extended to define respective flanges 19 and 21. Flanges 19 and 21 sandwich therebetween a concentric 60 mesh brass filter screen 23 whose diameter is about 1/8" less than the diameters of the flanges 19 and 21. Flanges 19 and 21, together with the centered filter screen 23, are joined together by appropriate heat-sealing of flanges 19 and 21, or by the flanges being appropriately glued together. The upper bases 11 and 13 have respective upstream and downstream male fittings 25 and 27.

Inline filter 1 is disposed and connected inline as part of the incoming water supply line (not shown) by such conventional water supply line's upstream female coupling being connected to the upstream male fitting 25 and the downstream female coupling being connected to the downstream male fitting 27. Brass screen 23 will filter out and trap in the upstream half 3 sand, dirt, particles and other debris carried by water flowing through the supply line. The brass filter screen 23 has an effective filtering diameter of about 2-1/4" and the internal diameter of the upstream male fitting is about 5/8". The brass filter screen's effective diameter is over 3-1/2 times greater than the upstream male fitting's internal diameter; and the filter screen 23 has a filtering capacity, areawise, of almost 13 times a conventional 5/8" diameter filter screen which would otherwise be inserted within the incoming water line. This means that when such conventional filter screen is clogged from filtering out sand, dirt, particles and other debris from an incoming water supply line, the inline filter 1 of this invention can continue its filtering action almost 13 times longer before it becomes clogged. Another problem encountered when a conventional filter screen is inserted within the incoming water line is the fact that cleaning such conventional filter screen requires a time-consuming and complicated procedure of disassembly of the incoming water supply line, removal and cleaning of such conventional filter scren and reassembly. Inasmuch as the inline filter 1 is transparent, periodic inspection will reveal whether the brass filter screen 23 is becoming clogged. Cleaning screen 23 is simple and quick. To clean screen 23, the upstream and downstream female couplings are disconnected from their respective male fittings 25 and 27. Then the upstream female coupling is reverse connected to the downstream male fitting 27 to backflush and clean filter screen 23. Then the upstream and downstream female couplings are reconnected to their respective male fittings 25 and 27.