Battery-Powered Electric Vacuum Cleaner System

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to portable vacuum cleaners, and more particularly to a powerful, light-weight, and rugged portable, battery-powered vacuum cleaner.

2. Related Art

The DUSTBUSTER from Black & Decker produces insufficient suction power for many cleaning tasks and typically can not be used conveniently to vacuum floors from a standing position.

Units such as Eureka's BOSS LITE include a powered brush, which improves pick-up, but such units are typically undesirably fragile and, like a DUSTBUSTER, such units typically have insufficient suction power for many cleaning tasks.

Other portable vacuums, such as Black & Decker's SV 2000 upright, lose suction power undesirably quickly as their filters become dirty, and their small throats are susceptible to clogging.

In addition, prior art portable vacuum cleaners typically use nickel-cadmium batteries and re-chargers. Nickel cadmium batteries are expensive and have a tendency to develop a "memory" such that even if the battery is capable of providing twenty minutes of run time, if it is continually used for only five minutes and then recharged, the battery will eventually become capable of running for only five minutes. Further, prior art vacuums using Nickel cadmium batteries typically provide an undesirably limited amount of run time before the battery becomes drained and needs to be recharged.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a light-weight, powerful, easily maneuvered, battery-powered portable vacuum cleaner that overcomes the problems in the prior art mentioned above. It is an additional object of this invention to provide a battery-powered hand-held vacuum cleaner providing sufficient suction power for industrial applications, such as aircraft cabin cleaning, coach or bus cleaning, cleaning of stairwells, lobbies, and other areas in which the use of an electrical extension cord could be unsafe or impractical or both.

This invention includes: a battery-powered electric vacuum cleaner system including: a 12-volt battery other than a Nickel Cadmium battery; a belt and pouch for hands-free carrying of the 12-volt battery; a charger for charging the battery, the charger being capable of outputting substantially more than 2 amps; and a battery-powered electric vacuum cleaner. The battery-powered electric vacuum cleaner has an elongated substantially cylindrical hollow extension wand, which allows a person standing upright to clean a floor with the vacuum cleaner. Additional batteries and/or chargers could be used to provide virtually continuous operation of the vacuum cleaner.

FIG. 1 shows a person standing upright and using a battery-powered vacuum according to this invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the components of the portable battery-powered vacuum cleaner, the battery, and the battery recharger.

FIG. 3 shows the battery compartment attached to a belt and the power cord connecting the battery and the vacuum cleaner.

FIG. 4 shows a belt with a zippered pouch for carrying the battery.

FIG. 1 shows a person standing upright and using battery-powered electric vacuum cleaner 100. Battery-powered electric vacuum cleaner 100 is electrically coupled via power cord 102 to a 12-volt battery, not shown in FIG. 1. The 12-volt battery is located inside pouch 104, which is attached to belt 106. Power cord 102 could be a coiled power cord, similar to a coiled telephone handset cord, to prevent cord 102 from becoming entangled or looped around obstructions, such as the arm of a chair in an aircraft cabin, while vacuum cleaner 100 is being used. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, vacuum cleaner 100 could be electrically coupled to the 12-volt battery in other suitable ways. Further, as will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art batteries having a different suitable voltage could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

Extension wand 108 and floor tool 110 allow a user of vacuum cleaner 1 00 to clean floors from a standing position. Extension wand 108 could be cylindrical, approximately 24 inches long, have an inner diameter of approximately 1.25 inches and be made of chrome-plated steel. Extension wand 108 having an inner diameter of approximately 1.25 inches, which is an industry standard for non-battery-powered vacuum cleaners, allows battery powered vacuum cleaner 100 to provide improved pickup relative to other battery-powered vacuum cleaners. Floor tool 110 could be approximately 5 inches wide and adapted to clean several types of surfaces. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, extension wands and floor tools having other suitable dimensions and/or made from other suitable material could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the components of portable battery-powered vacuum cleaner 100, battery 200, and battery recharger 202. Power cord 102 is shown in more detail in FIG. 2 than in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, power cord 102 comprises first and second halves, 102-1 and 102-2, that can be connected by two-piece snap connector 216-1 and 216-2, such as a positive-lock, nylon housing connector manufactured by Molex.

Vacuum cleaner 100 comprises floor tool 110, extension wand 108, front body housing 204, filter 206, motor housing 208, 12-volt electric motor 210, fan 212, and rear housing 214. Floor tool 110, extension wand 108, and front body housing 204 are oriented with respect to each other as shown in FIG. 2. Filter 206 is removably inserted into front body housing 204. Twelve-volt motor 210 is contained inside motor housing 208. Fan 212 is operatively attached to motor 210 such that when motor 210 is energized and front body housing 204 is attached to rear housing 214, fan 212 causes an airstream to be sucked through floor tool 110, extension wand 108, front housing 204, and filter 206, which causes particulate matter in the air stream to be trapped in front housing 204. Fan 212 is positioned inside rear housing 214, and the airstream generated by fan 212 is diffused through slots 218-1 and 218-2 in rear housing 214. Front housing 204, filter 206, motor housing 208, motor 210, fan 212, and rear housing 214 (core vacuum cleaner unit) can be purchased pre-assembled from Target stores. Target's stock number for the core vacuum cleaner unit is 90920 30454. The core vacuum cleaner unit is a handheld, DC-powered, single stage unit. Motor 210 is a 12-volt, can-type, permanent magnet, 96 watt unit. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, other portable electric vacuum cleaner units could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention. 20 Battery 200 could be a Yuasa NP7-12, lead-acid sealed gel-cell, 7 amp-hour battery, 12-volt battery that weighs approximately 6 pounds. Such a battery typically provides approximately 30 minutes of run-time for the core vacuum cleaner unit described above. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, other suitable batteries could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

Battery charger 202 could be a charger manufactured by Bestec that outputs approximately 2.5 amps at 12 volts DC. Such a charger returns the Yuasa battery described above to a filly charged state in approximately 3 hours, as opposed to the 8-12 hour charging time required by more common 1-amp "trickle" chargers. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, other suitable battery chargers could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

By using one or more additional batteries and, optionally, one or more additional chargers to charge the one or more additional batteries, virtually continuous operation of vacuum cleaner 100 is possible. For instance, if each battery provides 30 minutes of run time and takes 3 hours to recharge, six chargers would be capable of returning one of the seven batteries to full charge every thrity minutes as desired. As will be apparent to those skilled in the art, other permutations and combinations of numbers of batteries and chargers could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

FIG. 3 shows battery pouch 104 attached to belt 106. Battery pouch 104 contains battery 200 (not shown in FIG. 3) which is coupled to vacuum cleaner 100 by power cord halves 102-1 and 102-2, which are connected to each other, as previuosly described. FIG. 4 shows belt 106 with pouch 104 having zipper 400 for opening and closing pouch 104. As will be apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art, a shoulder strap, knapsack, or other suitable arrangement for hands-free carrying of battery 200 could also be used without departing from the scope of this invention.

This invention has been described with reference to a preferred embodiment. Modifications may occur to others upon reading and understanding the foregoing detailed description. This invention includes all such modifications to the extent that they come within the scope of the appended claims or their equivalents.