Laundry treating appliance detergent dispenser

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10982374-B2
Application number	US-201916700647-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 2, 2019
Priority date	Feb 27, 2017
Publication date	Apr 20, 2021
Grant date	Apr 20, 2021

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance includes a cabinet defining an interior and having an access opening to the interior, a treating chamber located within the interior and accessible through the access opening, a dispenser having a drawer with at least one chemistry container and a faucet, and a water supply fluidly coupled to the faucet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance comprising:
a cabinet defining an interior and having an access opening to the interior;
a treating chamber located within the interior and accessible through the access opening;
a pre-treatment faucet having an outlet fluidly coupled to the treating chamber, the pre-treatment faucet configured for pre-treating a laundry item prior to the laundry treating appliance beginning an automatic cycle of operation;
a treating chemistry dispenser comprising:
at least one first container fluidly coupled to the outlet of the pre-treatment faucet, and wherein the pre-treatment faucet can dispense water mixed with treating chemistry from the at least one first container;
at least one second container dispensing treating chemistry during operation of the laundry treating appliance;
a water supply having at least one valve selectively fluidly supplying water to the pre-treatment faucet and the at least one second container; and
an actuator accessible by the user and operably coupled to the at least one valve to control the supply of water to the pre-treatment faucet or the at least one second container whereby a user can select which container to dispense via the water supply.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the at least one second container includes multiple containers selectively coupled to the water supply whereby the contents of the multiple containers are selectively dispensed via the selective actuation of water supply.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the multiple containers include a first container for receiving detergent and a second container for receiving fabric softener.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the multiple containers can hold differing types of treating chemistry.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 4 wherein the water supply further comprises a hot water supply connected to a first one of the at least one second containers, a cold water supply connected to a second one of the at least one second containers, and a mixed hot and cold water supply connected to a third one of the at least one second containers.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 wherein the water supply further comprises a cold water supply connected to the at least one of the second containers.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the outlet of the pre-treatment faucet is spaced from the at least one first container.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 7 wherein the outlet is spaced from the treating chemistry dispenser.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 8 wherein the cabinet comprises a shroud defining the access opening and the outlet is located on the shroud.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 9 wherein the shroud comprises an aperture defining the outlet.

11. The laundry treating appliance of claim 10 wherein the pre-treatment faucet comprises a conduit connecting the at least one first container to the aperture.

12. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 wherein the actuator is provided on the shroud.

13. The laundry treating appliance of claim 12 wherein the actuator is adjacent the aperture.

14. The laundry treating appliance of claim 12 wherein the water supply further comprises a water supply line fluidly coupled to the at least one first container and the at least one valve comprises a valve fluidly coupled to one of the water supply line and the conduit, and the actuator is operably coupled to the valve.

15. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 wherein the treating chemistry dispenser comprises a drawer and the at least one first container is carried by the drawer.

16. A laundry treating appliance comprising:
a cabinet defining an interior and having a shroud defining an access opening to the interior;
a basket located within the interior, the basket having an open top and rotatable about a vertical axis;
a faucet having an outlet located within the shroud;
a treating chemistry dispenser drawer carrying the faucet, the treating chemistry dispenser drawer having containers and slidable relative to the shroud between a first position, where at least one of the containers underlies the shroud, and a second position, where the at least one of the containers extends at least partially beyond the shroud and overlies the basket; and
a water supply comprising:
multiple water lines, with each water line fluidly coupled to a different one of the containers;
a conduit coupling the at least one of the containers to the outlet of the faucet;
at least one valve selectively coupling the multiple water lines to a water supply; and
an actuator accessible by a user, wherein actuation of the actuator controls the at least one valve to selectively control a supply of water to the multiple containers and the outlet of the faucet via the at least one of the containers, and wherein the faucet can dispense water mixed with treating chemistry.

17. The laundry treating appliance of claim 16 wherein the containers can hold differing types of treating chemistry.

18. The laundry treating appliance of claim 16 wherein the multiple water lines further comprise a hot water line connected to a first one of the containers, a cold water line connected to a second one of the containers, and a mixed hot and cold water line connected to a third one of the containers.

19. The laundry treating appliance of claim 16 wherein the multiple water lines further comprise a cold water line connected to at least one of the containers.

20. The laundry treating appliance of claim 16 wherein the actuator is located on one of the shroud or the treating chemistry dispenser drawer, or adjacent the outlet.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Beres Benjamin A
• Brownie Paul E
• Gallagher Eric A
• Kazmierzak Guy M
• Kubasiak Andrew C

Classifications

• D06F39/028 Primary

  Arrangements for selectively supplying water to detergent compartments · CPC title

• D06F33/34 Primary

  of water filling · CPC title

• D06F2105/04

  from separate hot and cold water inlets · CPC title

• D06F2103/16

  Washing liquid temperature · CPC title

• D06F39/022

  in a liquid state (D06F39/024 takes precedence) · CPC title