WATER HEATER

• US 3,777,985 A
• Filed: 07/27/1972
• Issued: 12/11/1973
• Est. Priority Date: 05/17/1971
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: John E. Rouse, Robert L. Hughes
• Original Assignee: John E. Rouse, Robert L. Hughes
• Inventors: Hughes, Robert L., Rouse, John E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wood, Jr., M. Henson
• Assistant Examiner(s): Love, John J.
• Application Number:
  US05/275,626
• Time in Patent Office: 502 Days
• Field of Search: 239/554,555,553.5,553,557,558,566,567,552,559,568,548
• US Class Current: 239/555
• CPC Class Codes: F23D 2203/108 with stacked sheets or strips forming the outlets
• CPC Class Codes: F24H 1/12 in which the water is kept separate from the heating medium
• CPC Class Codes: F24H 1/124 using fluid fuel

Abstract

A water heater for heating water as it is being delivered, commonly called an '"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"'instantaneous water heater.'"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"' The heater includes a plurality of concentric tanks which are at least partially axially overlapping and which are spaced from one another to pass hot gases in heat transfer relationship with their sidewalls. The sidewalls of the tanks are generally cylindrical. The tanks are interconnected so as to permit the flow of water to and from each of them. An inlet manifold discharges into each tank, preferably along an axis which is skew to the central axis whereby to give the water, as it flows through the tank, both a circumferential and an axial component, thus aiding in keeping the tank clean and preventing thermal '"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"'stacking'"'"''"'"''"'"''"'"' of the water. The tanks are preferably formed from concentric half-shells which are welded together at their end seams, and which have telescopic necks projecting from their sidewalls that are welded together to form a structural joinder and a fluid interconnection. A burner is placed beneath the group of tanks with deflector jets which aid in confining the rising products of combustion to a relatively narrow cross-section, so as to inject a maximum BTU input into a relatively small heater cross-section.

Claims

1. A gas burner comprising a pair of orifice rings, each ring comprising a flat annulus, a peripheral joggle, and an undulating flange, said undulating flanges being placed in abutment with and joined to the other to form angularly spaced-apart primary gas ports which are directed radially outward from the inside to the outside of said rings, a base having an inner annulus in abutment with and joined to the annulus of one of said rings, a pair of re-entrant bends and a support annulus between the bends, the support annulus being radially spaced from the joggle of the adjacent orifice ring so as to form a peripheral chamber therebetween, there being a hole through the inner annulus to the peripheral chamber, the undulating flanges forming a plurality of radially discharging deflector ports discharging from the peripheral chamber, the said hole metering flow through the deflector ports to a lesser flow rate than the flow rate through the primary gas ports, a skirt on said base contiguous to and continuous with the bend opposite the flange, a base plate attached to the skirt to form a supply chamber, there being an inlet venturi to said supply chamber for admitting a gas-air mixture thereto, and a closure carried by the orifice ring farthest from the base plate to close the supply chamber, whereby gas-air mixture discharges from the deflector ports and from the primary gas ports, the centers of the deflector ports being at a lower elevation than the centers of the primary gas ports, each deflector port extending angularly to bridge the primary gas ports which it lies between, but not underlaying at least the central part thereof.

2. A gas burner according to claim 1 in which the uppermost orifice plate and the closure constitute a continuous and integral body.

3. A gas burner according to claim 1 in which there are provided a plurality of pairs of orifice plates, the orifice plates being joined to each other at the edges of their adjacent annuli, and one of said orifice plates being joined at the edge of its innermost annulus to the inner edge of the inner annulus of the base, the deflector ports being disposed only at the lowermost set of primary gas ports.

4. A gas burner according to claim 3 in which the uppermost orifice plate and the closure constitute a continuous and integral body.

5. A gas burner according to claim 3 in which the pairs of orifice plates have identical primary gas ports, and in which respective primary gas ports of the pairs of orifice plates are disposed one above the other.