Hand-held appliance

Abstract

The present application relates to a hand-held appliance comprising a housing including a reservoir to contain water and a tube to convey water from the reservoir for delivery to a surface. The tube extends into the reservoir and comprises multiple tube inlets spaced from each other within the reservoir so that, when the reservoir contains water, a tube inlet is submerged irrespective of the orientation of the housing. In one embodiment, the tube inlet comprises a separate valve assembly associated with each tube inlet so that a valve assembly associated with a submerged tube inlet opens to allow flow of water through that tube inlet and a valve assembly associated with a non-submerged tube inlet closes to prevent the flow of air through said non-submerged tube inlet. In an alternate embodiment, the appliance may be provided with a single valve member that allows water to flow through the valve assembly via a first opening, whilst also preventing the flow of air through the valve assembly through a second opening.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]The present invention relates to a hand-held appliance in which a water reservoir is mounted within a housing that is held in the hand and which has an outlet or nozzle to discharge fluid or steam onto a surface, such as a garment, a fabric article such as a curtain or fabric covered items of furniture. The hand-held appliance of the invention may also be used to clean solid surfaces such as floors or counter tops by the application of steam and / or fluid to the surface.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]A conventional hand-held garment steamer 1 is illustrated in FIG. 1, and comprises a housing 2 containing a water tank or reservoir 3 and a heating chamber 4. Water is delivered from the reservoir 3 to the heating chamber 4 via a delivery system comprising a pump 5 and a tube 6 that has a portion 7 which extends into the reservoir 3 and which has an inlet 8 at its free end for the flow of water into the portion 7 of the tube 6 and along the tube 6 into the h...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013]The secondary tube portion may comprise two inlets and may be integrally formed with a connector for attachment to said free end of the primary tube portion to effect fluid communication between the secondary tube portion and the primary tube portion. The connector may comprise a connection piece integrally formed with the secondary tube portion for fluidly connecting the secondary tube portion to the free end of the primary tube portion. Ideally, the secondary tube portion may be a linear or straight section of tubing, and the connection piece can extend at right angles from the secondary tube portion at a point midway between each end of the secondary tube portion so that each tube inlet is positioned at approximately the same distance away from the free end of the primary tube portion. The connection piece may simply be a short, hollow length of tube that is a push fit into the free end of the primary tube portion so as to effect fluid communication between the primary tube portion and the secondary tube portion.

[0014]In an alternate embodiment, the secondary tube portion may be formed of a plurality of independent sections. In this case, each independent section may be attached to the free end of the primary tube portion via a connecting element to effect fluid communication between each independent section and the primary tube portion. The secondary tube portion may comprise two independent sections and so the connecting element may, for example, be T-shaped so that each end of the ‘T’ forms a connector that is a push fit within the end of each tube to be connected. If the connecting element is substantially T-shaped, each independent section may extend away from each other in opposite directions and the primary tube portion may extend substantially at right-angles to each independent section.

[0015]According to a sec

Problems solved by technology

This results in air being drawn into the heating chamber 4 rather than water, preventing efficient steam generation.

Furthermore, the appliance need not

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