Vacuum cleaner with scrubbers

• US 8,161,595 B1
• Filed: 04/17/2008
• Issued: 04/24/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Javan E. Wilson
• Original Assignee: Javan E. Wilson
• Inventors: Wilson, Javan E.
• Primary Examiner(s): REDDING, DAVID A
• Application Number:
  US12/104,898
• Time in Patent Office: 1,468 Days
• Field of Search: 153/20, 153/271, 153/272, 154/12
• US Class Current: 15/320
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/305 the tools being disc brushes
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4069 Driving or transmission means for the cleaning tools
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 11/4083 Liquid supply reservoirs; Preparation of the agents, e.g. mixing devices

Abstract

This patent discloses and electrical appliance device to scrub clean a floor using a cleaning solution and to collect resulting dirty water from the floor. The electrical appliance device may include an upright portion attached to a handle assembly and a horizontal portion connected at a bottom of the upright portion, where the upright portion may be configured to pivot relative to the horizontal portion. A dirty water reservoir may be connected to the upright portion. The horizontal portion may include brushes, a brush motor, a suction pipe, a suction bar, and a solution reservoir having a brush motor cavity formed within a lower side of the solution reservoir. The brush motor may reside within and be surrounded by the brush motor cavity.

Claims

1. An electrical appliance device to scrub clean a floor using a cleaning solution and to collect resulting dirty water from the floor, the electrical appliance device comprising:

a handle assembly having a handle attached to a handle bar and controls attached to an upper surface of the handle;

an upright portion attached to the handle assembly and having a dirty water reservoir connected to the upright portion;

a horizontal portion connected at a bottom of the upright portion, where the horizontal portion includes a horizontal portion base, a solution reservoir attached above the horizontal portion base, brushes connected to a brush motor, where the brush motor, a suction pipe, and a suction bar are attached to the horizontal portion base, where the solution reservoir includes a brush motor cavity formed within a lower side of the solution reservoir, and where the solution reservoir is adjacent to both the horizontal portion base and the upright portion so that the brush motor resides within and is surrounded by the brush motor cavity;

a fan motor positioned within the upright portion; and

a cleaner hose connected between the suction pipe and the dirty water reservoir.

2. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the suction bar is a hollow passageway connected to the suction pipe, and where the suction bar includes a suction bar rectangular section positioned between two angled forward sections.

3. The electrical appliance device of claim 2, where the horizontal portion includes wheels attached to a rear of the horizontal portion base, where the suction bar includes a suction bar rear at a trailing end of the suction bar and a suction bar bottom at a lowermost point of the suction bar, and where the suction bar bottom resides above a bottom of the wheels and the brushes.

4. The electrical appliance device of claim 2, further comprising:

a squeegee attached to a squeegee moving mechanism, where the squeegee is positioned against the suction bar rear along the length of the suction bar rear, and where the squeegee moving mechanism is configured to raise and lower the squeegee relative to the suction bar.

5. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the suction pipe is in fluid communication with the fan motor, where the suction pipe includes a suction nozzle at one end and a hose receiver at an opposite end, where the suction nozzle is a hollow passageway angled downward from a remainder of the suction pipe and is positioned forward of the brushes such that an opening of the suction nozzle resides ahead of the brushes.

6. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the suction pipe is attached to the horizontal portion, within the horizontal portion base, between the left brush and the right brush, and above a left brush handle and a right brush handle.

7. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the brush motor cavity is a vertically orientated empty space surrounded by the solution reservoir that is configured to surround and contain and the brush motor.

8. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the brush motor is configured to receive and respond to signals from the controls and is positioned within the brush motor cavity such that an axis of rotation of the brush motor is vertical.

9. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the brushes includes a first set of brushes for wooden floors and a second set of brushes for tile floors, where one of the first set and second set of brushes is attached to the horizontal portion, and where the first set of brushes have a scrubbing texture head that is different than a scrubbing texture head of the second set of brushes.

10. The electrical appliance device of claim 9, where the scrubbing texture head of the second set of brushes includes stiff bristles.

11. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the brushes includes a left brush and a right brush, where the left brush includes a left brush handle attached to a left brush head, where the left brush handle is attached directly to the brush motor.

12. The electrical appliance device of claim 11, where the right brush includes a right brush handle attached to a right brush head, where a drive pulley wheel is attached above the left brush handle and a follow pulley wheel is attached above the right brush head, and where a belt is positioned between the drive pulley wheel and the follow pulley wheel.

13. The electrical appliance device of claim 12, where the belt includes one twist that causes the belt to cross over itself.

14. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the brushes includes a left brush having a left dispenser positioned within the left brush and a right brush having a right dispenser positioned within the right brush, and where the left dispenser and the right dispenser are in fluid communication with the solution reservoir.

15. The electrical appliance device of claim 14, where the left dispenser includes four nozzles attached to a left dispenser tube, where each of the four nozzles includes a vertically orientated opening and are radially and evenly distributed about the left dispenser tube.

16. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, further comprising:

a front dispenser in fluid communication with the solution reservoir, where the front dispenser is attached to the horizontal portion base and is configured to dispense cleaning solution in front of the brushes, and where the suction bar is positioned within the horizontal portion base behind the brushes.

17. The electrical appliance device of claim 1, where the upright portion is configured to pivot relative to the horizontal portion, where the upright portion attached to the handle assembly and having a dirty water reservoir is removeably connected to upright portion, where the solution reservoir is removeably attached to the horizontal portion base in front of and adjacent to the fan motor, where the horizontal portion includes wheels attached to a rear of the horizontal portion base, where the wheels include a left wheel and a right wheel, where the fan motor is positioned above the wheels and adjacent to the solution reservoir, where the controls include a mode switch, a power switch, and a status light, where the mode switch is a three position thumb switch, and where the solution reservoir includes a cleaning solution cap to close an opening in the solution reservoir.