DFP W1 WALL HOOD

Abstract

Mechanical Building Code, Section 504.1, states “Clothes dryers shall be exhausted in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions.” Since at least one major manufacturer required at least one of the following, they've been incorporated into this product. 1. The opening must be sufficient so the exhaust flows unimpeded. 2. There must be 12 inches of unobstructed outflow upon leaving the hood. 3. There must be a damper. 4. There must be a wildlife barrier. 5. There can be NO SCREENS covering the exhaust port. Made by thermoforming ABS with a UV protectant, the DFP W1 Wall Hood is designed to fit over a standard four inch pipe where it exits a building on a vertical wall. Its opening has an area larger than a four inch pipe's. It directs airflow perpendicular to the building. Its damper flap completely covers the opening. The flap fits inside three ridges that prevent wildlife from opening the flap. No screens are used.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application incorporates by reference in its entirety and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/204,476 filed Jan. 8, 2009, by inventor Philip Charron.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is directed to equipment venting apparatus for clothes dryers venting out an exterior, vertical wall.

2. Description of Related Art

Products used to shield exhaust ports are well known. But their design does not completely satisfy all requirements for clothes dryers.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is well known that an opening in a building must be protected from entry of unwanted weather elements and wildlife. Clothes dryer exhaust ducts have several unique requirements. The purpose of this invention is to supply a product that satisfies all clothes dryer manufacturer's requirements, hereby providing for maximum safety and efficiency in dryer operation.

All manufacturers of residential clothes dryers mandate dryers be exhausted to the exterior of the building. The reasons for these requirements are for fire safety, health and structural integrity.

• • 1. The lint that clothes dryers produce, if left unattended, can lead to significant clogging of exhaust ducts. Improper venting and lack of thorough cleaning have made clothes dryers a leading appliance cause of home fires.
  • 2. Flimsy venting material and loose connections allow lint, fumes and warm moist air into the interior of homes. Lint is a common cause of allergies. Fumes, especially those from gas dryers, can cause illness. Warm moist air can cause mold to grow on and in the walls. Mold can cause illness.
  • 3. Mold can also cause serious structural damage.
  • 4. Structural damage can also occur when lint clogs cause water to condense in the duct. This condensation has caused wood rot in roofs and wall studs.

Efficient venting of all dryer exhaust products to the exterior of the home will avoid all these potential problems. Manufacturers, Building Code writers, and safety organizations have worked to prescribe exhaust systems that provide an efficient exhaust flow and ways to keep them safe.

Some of these requirements are:

• • 1. A four inch, smooth wall pipe must be used for the developed duct (The part which is inside the wall).
  • 2. Where that duct exits the building, a hood is used to protect against: air entry; elements of weather and wildlife from entering the duct and gaining access to the interior. In addition to acting as an air, weather and wildlife barrier, the hood must not hinder the dryer's outflow of lint, fumes and warm, moist air.
    • a. A damper flap that opens when air from the dryer needs to flow out of the building and closes when the dryer is not operating. Hoods without damper flaps, or with poorly designed damper systems, can allow air into the interior of the home. If there is a fire in the home, this air can fuel the fire. Even if there is no fire, cold or hot air intrusion can waste utility resources.
    • b. In existing hoods, the damper flap can be locked into one position by lint. In the closed or nearly closed position, lint build up is accelerated and exhaust may be forced into a home.
    • c. When the wildlife barrier is absent or easily defeated, animals can build nests in the duct, this greatly accelerates lint build up and can force exhaust air into the interior of the home.
    • d. Periodic cleaning of the entire exhaust system is in all manufacturers' installation and care manuals. Easy access to the duct is an unstated but inferred requirement.

The use of duct hoods or vent covers is known in the prior art. More specifically, clothes dryer vent covers heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar and obvious structural configurations. The many and various designs encompassed by prior art have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.

Known prior art clothes dryer vents include U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,351; U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,831; U.S. Pat. No. D277,131; U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,247; U.S. Pat. No. D281,451; U.S. Pat. No. D335,174 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,091. While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents are satisfactory for most ventilation systems but they do not meet all clothes dryer manufacturer's requirements for hoods.

The DFP W1 Wall Hood includes a flange plate with a raised center that forms a box that tapers from approximately one half an inch at the top to one and one half inches at the bottom, around an air passage, creating an angled damper flap closure that utilizes gravity to keep it shut and ridges around the damper flap that create a fulcrum point. A damper flap that connects to a swivel shaft located outside of the airflow; if anything tries to pry the damper flap open from the front, the fulcrum forces a sideways motion that jams the opposite side of the flap into the ridge. Thus the DFP W1 Wall Hood departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus developed exclusively to meet all dryer manufacturer requirements for wall mounted clothes dryer duct hoods.

A cover prevents weather elements from entering the wall hood.

Although the best mode known to the inventor is set forth herein, it should be apparent that the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments shown.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is described more particularly hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a three dimensional view of the flange plate showing the large flange, raised center section and the smaller flange, that frames the air passage, nested inside ridges across the bottom of the raised center section and up both sides.

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C are views of the flange plate from front, bottom and side views.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C, and 2D are views of the damper flap/wildlife barrier from the top, front, side and oblique perspectives.

FIG. 3 shows views of the swivel shaft from top and oblique perspectives.

FIG. 4 shows the DFP W1 WALL HOOD COVER from an oblique perspective.

FIG. 5 shows an assembled DFP W1 WALL HOOD.

So the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated.

There are additional features of the invention that will be described later and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

Before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Further, the purpose of the abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application. The abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application, which is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood apparatus that satisfies all present Building Code, Mechanical Section 504 and clothes dryer manufacturers' requirements for wall mounted vent hoods.

The present invention provides a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood apparatus and method which may have some of the advantages of the clothes dryer vents mentioned heretofore and which does have several features that result in a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art clothes dryer vents, either alone or in any combination thereof.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood which may be easily and efficiently manufactured and marketed.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood which is of a durable and reliable construction.

An even further object of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood which is capable of a low cost of manufacture with regard to both materials and labor, thereby making such Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood economically available to the buying public while made in the USA.

Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood which provides in the apparatuses and methods of the prior art some of the advantages thereof, while simultaneously overcoming some of the disadvantages normally associated therewith.

Still yet another object of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood that eliminates the use of any screen which can become plugged with lint which in turn can cause overheating and damage to a clothes dryer, illness, structural damage and can also lead to longer drying time which wastes increasingly precious resources.

Even still another object of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood that reduces maintenance by eliminating the need to frequently clean lint from an exhaust vent that has its swivel rod(s) in the dryers' exhaust airflow.

One last objective of the present invention is to provide a new Wall Mounted Dryer Vent Hood that provides easy access to the dryer exhaust duct for manufacturer recommended, periodic, thorough cleaning.

These together with other objects of the invention, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure.

For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there are illustrated preferred embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The Mechanical Building Code, section 504.1 states “Clothes dryers shall be exhausted in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Dryer exhaust systems shall be independent of all other systems and shall convey the moisture and any products of combustion to the outside of the building.” Manufacturers' instructions regarding wall vent hoods include:

• • 1. Unobstructed outflow;
  • 2. A damper flap that opens during dryer operation and closes when the dryer is idle;
  • 3. A barrier to wildlife;
  • 4. An opening equal to the size of the exhaust duct. This is mandated to be four inches in diameter by The Mechanical Building Code, section 504.6.

In accordance with the invention, when the dryer exhaust duct terminates on a vertical exterior wall, the invention provides a particularly effective method of preventing air, weather elements and wildlife from entering the dryer duct. It still allows for unrestricted airflow and easy access to the duct for required cleanings.

FIG. 1 of the drawing is a three dimensional view of the flange plate 100, a rectangular flange plate 100 having an opening in its center 110 for air passage, a front surface 120, and a back surface. This flange plate 100 is designed to be fastened to the exterior wall, with the air passage centered over the duct pipe, using flat head screws appropriate to the material of the wall, or any appropriate form of adhesive. Four holes, 130 one in each corner, are tapered to allow the screws to be flush with the front surface 120 of the flange plate 100 when tightened. Equi-distant from each edge is a raised center section 140. The sides of this center section are also the anchor points 145 for the base of the quick release assembly. The top of the raised center 150 is about one half an inch from the front surface of the flange plate 120. The bottom of the raised center 160 is about one and one half inches above the front surface of the flange plate 120. The sides of the raised center 170 taper upward from top to bottom forming a box around the air passage 110. A second flange 180 recessed inside said box to provide a base for the damper flap FIG. 2, and transform the sides 170 and bottom of the box 160 into ridges. It has an open center forming the air passage 110. A swivel shaft FIG. 3 that fits through holes 190 on both sides of the air passage box formed by the side ridges 170 and near the top of the raised center 150, and from FIG. 2, the loops 210 of the flap 200 in such a manner as to place the flap 200 longitudinally over the air passage 110. When the clothes dryer is in operation, the swivel shaft 300 lets the flap 200 easily swing outward to allow the outflow of the dryer's exhaust. When the dryer is idle, the swivel shaft 300 allows the flap 200 to rest against the inner flange 180 whose sides 170 form the air passage 110. The protrusion 160 at the bottom of the flange plate 120, rising away from the plate, makes the flap close over the air passage 110 before coming vertical. Thus gravity always works to keep said flap 200 closed. The swivel shaft 300 is located above the air passage 110 thereby eliminating the problem of lint collecting on the swivel shaft 300 and locking the flap 200 into one position.

FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C represent the flange plate from the front, top and side.

FIGS. 2A, 2B, 2C and 2D show the damper flap/wildlife barrier 200 with loops 210 for a swivel rod to fit through from the top, front, side and a three dimensional view.

FIG. 3 shows the swivel shaft 300 from side and three dimensional views.

FIG. 4 shows the one piece cover, from a three dimensional angle, that fits over the flange plate FIG. 1. The cover 400 with the opening at its bottom extends far enough away from the box around the air passage to provide as much of an open area as a four inch duct, thereby facilitating outflow of the clothes dryer's exhaust. This cover 400 is attached to the sides of the box plate 140 with easily released fasteners, one on each side, through predrilled holes 410, which mate to the fasteners 145 on the side of the box plate 140. This enables the cover to be easily removed and allow cleaning equipment into the exhaust duct.

FIG. 5 shows the DFP W1 wall hood assembled from a side view.

Claims

1-12. (canceled)

13. An apparatus designed to cover a dryer duct terminating on an exterior, vertical wall comprising:

a substantially planar flange plate having a front surface, a back surface, an elevated section, a top edge, a bottom edge, a left edge, a right edge, and a hole of predetermined size wherein said hole of predetermined size comprises an interior edge.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said elevated section further comprises a left riser component and a right riser component wherein said left riser component rises away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate at a first distance from said left edge of said substantially planar flange plate and said right riser component rises away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate at said first distance from said right edge of said substantially planar flange plate.

15. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said elevated section further comprises a left riser component and a right riser component wherein said left riser component and said right riser component rise away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate three times further from said bottom edge than from said top edge.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said elevated section further comprises a left riser component comprising a left riser component inner side, a top riser component comprising a top riser component inner side, a bottom riser component comprising a bottom riser component inner side, and a right riser component comprising a right riser component inner side wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component rise away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component connect wherein said left riser component inner side, said top riser component inner side, said bottom riser component inner side, and said right riser component inner side form perimeter of said hole of predetermined size wherein air from a dryer exhaust is capable of passing through said hole of predetermined size.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said left riser component further comprises a left riser flange orthogonally connected to said left riser component inner side, wherein said top riser component further comprises a top riser flange orthogonally connected to said top riser component inner side, wherein said bottom riser component further comprises a bottom riser flange orthogonally connected to said bottom riser component inner side, and wherein said right riser component further comprises a right riser flange orthogonally connected to said right riser component inner side.

18. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising four tapered holes in the substantially planar flange plate wherein said four tapered holes provide fastening points.

19. The apparatus of claim 13 further comprising a damper flap connected to said interior edge wherein said damper flap comprises essentially the same size and shape as said hole of predetermined size.

20. The apparatus of claim 17 further comprising a damper flap connected to said interior edge wherein said damper flap is capable of resting against said left riser flange, said top riser flange, said bottom riser flange, and said right riser flange.

21. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said interior edge further comprises a swivel rod, and wherein said damper flap further comprises loops, and wherein said swivel rod connects to said loops.

22. The apparatus of claim 21 further comprising a swivel rod wherein said left riser component further comprises a left swivel rod hole and said right riser component further comprises a right swivel rod hole wherein said swivel rod is capable of passing through said loops and capable of being secured by said left swivel rod hole and said right swivel rod hole.

23. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cover wherein said cover mates to said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said cover does not block said hole of predetermined size.

24. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising a cover made of weather and Ultra Violet A, B, and C resistant material wherein said cover mates to said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said cover does not block said hole of predetermined size.

25. The apparatus of claim 23 wherein said cover further comprises a quick release feature.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein said quick release feature further comprises thumb screws.

27. An apparatus designed to cover a dryer duct terminating on an exterior, vertical wall comprising:

a substantially planar flange plate having a front surface, a back surface, an elevated section, a top edge, a bottom edge, a left edge, a right edge, and a hole of predetermined size wherein said hole of predetermined size comprises an interior edge, wherein said elevated section further comprises a left riser component comprising a left riser component inner side, a top riser component comprising a top riser component inner side, a bottom riser component comprising a bottom riser component inner side, and a right riser component comprising a right riser component inner side wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component rise away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component connect wherein said left riser component inner side, said top riser component inner side, said bottom riser component inner side, and said right riser component inner side form perimeter of said hole of predetermined size wherein air from a dryer exhaust is capable of passing through said hole of predetermined size, wherein said left riser component further comprises a left riser flange orthogonally connected to said left riser component inner side, wherein said top riser component further comprises a top riser flange orthogonally connected to said top riser component inner side, wherein said bottom riser component further comprises a bottom riser flange orthogonally connected to said bottom riser component inner side, and wherein said right riser component further comprises a right riser flange orthogonally connected to said right riser component inner side; and

a damper flap connected to said interior edge wherein said damper flap is capable of resting against said left riser flange, said top riser flange, said bottom riser flange, and said right riser flange.

28. The apparatus of claim 27 wherein said interior edge further comprises a swivel rod, and wherein said damper flap further comprises loops, and wherein said swivel rod connects to said loops.

29. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising a swivel rod wherein said damper flap further comprises loops, wherein said left riser component further comprises a left swivel rod hole and said right riser component further comprises a right swivel rod hole wherein said swivel rod is capable of passing through said loops and capable of being secured by said left swivel rod hole and said right swivel rod hole.

30. The apparatus of claim 27 further comprising a cover wherein said cover mates to said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said cover does not block said hole of predetermined size.

31. An apparatus designed to cover a dryer duct terminating on an exterior, vertical wall comprising:

a substantially planar flange plate having a front surface, a back surface, an elevated section, a top edge, a bottom edge, a left edge, a right edge, and a hole of predetermined size wherein said hole of predetermined size comprises an interior edge, wherein said elevated section further comprises a left riser component comprising a left riser component inner side, a top riser component comprising a top riser component inner side, a bottom riser component comprising a bottom riser component inner side, and a right riser component comprising a right riser component inner side wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component rise away from said front surface of said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said left riser component, said top riser component, said bottom riser component, and said right riser component connect wherein said left riser component inner side, said top riser component inner side, said bottom riser component inner side, and said right riser component inner side form perimeter of said hole of predetermined size wherein air from a dryer exhaust is capable of passing through said hole of predetermined size, wherein said left riser component further comprises a left riser flange orthogonally connected to said left riser component inner side, wherein said top riser component further comprises a top riser flange orthogonally connected to said top riser component inner side, wherein said bottom riser component further comprises a bottom riser flange orthogonally connected to said bottom riser component inner side, and wherein said right riser component further comprises a right riser flange orthogonally connected to said right riser component inner side;

a damper flap connected to said interior edge wherein said damper flap is capable of resting against said left riser flange, said top riser flange, said bottom riser flange, and said right riser flange; and

a cover wherein said cover mates to said substantially planar flange plate and wherein said cover does not block said hole of predetermined size and wherein said cover further comprises thumb screws.