Grey Water Recycling Assembly

A grey water recycling assembly for recycling grey water from a sink for filling a tank on a toilet includes a hose that is fluidly coupled to a drain of a sink for capturing grey water from the sink. The hose is fluidly coupled to a tank of a toilet. Additionally, the hose is oriented to angle downwardly between the drain and the tank to gravity feed the grey water into the tank. In this way the hose directs the grey water into the tank of the toilet for filling the tank of the toilet with recycled water. The hose is comprised of a flexible material thereby facilitating the hose to be routed in a preferred route between the drain of the sink and the tank of the toilet.

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Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

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THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

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INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM.

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STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION (1) Field of the Invention. (2) Description of Related Art including information disclosed under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98.

The disclosure and prior art relates to recycling devices and more particularly pertains to a new recycling device for filling a tank of a toilet with grey water from an adjacent sink.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a hose that is fluidly coupled to a drain of a sink for capturing grey water from the sink. The hose is fluidly coupled to a tank of a toilet. Additionally, the hose is oriented to angle downwardly between the drain and the tank to gravity feed the grey water into the tank. In this way the hose directs the grey water into the tank of the toilet for filling the tank of the toilet with recycled water. The hose is comprised of a flexible material thereby facilitating the hose to be routed in a preferred route between the drain of the sink and the tank of the toilet.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that 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 disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.

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

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)

The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a top perspective view of a grey water recycling assembly according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart view of an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to FIGS. 1 through 3 thereof, a new recycling device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral 10 will be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 1 through 3, the grey water recycling assembly 10 generally comprises a hose 12 that is fluidly coupled to a drain 14 of a sink 16. The sink 16 may be a plumbing fixture in a public bathroom or a residential bathroom. The hose 12 captures grey water 18 from the sink 16 and the hose 12 is fluidly coupled to a tank 20 of a toilet 22. The hose 12 is oriented to angle downwardly between the drain 14 and the tank 20 to gravity feed the grey water 18 into the tank 20. In this way the hose 12 directs the grey water 18 into the tank 20 of the toilet 22 for filling the tank 20 of the toilet 22 with recycled water.

The hose 12 is comprised of a flexible material thereby facilitating the hose 12 to be routed in a preferred route between the drain 14 of the sink 16 and the tank 20 of the toilet 22. The hose 12 has a first end 24 and a second end 26 and the first end 24 is fluidly coupled to an outlet 28 of a trap 30 of the drain 14. The trap 30 may be a P-trap, an S-trap or any other plumbing trap commonly employed for a sink drain. The second end 26 of the hose 12 is fluidly coupled to an outer wall of the tank 20 for filling the tank 20.

A motion sensor 32 may be coupled to the sink 16 to sense a user approaching the sink 16. The motion sensor 32 turns the sink 16 on when the motion sensor 32 senses motion. Additionally, the motion sensor 32 may be an infrared motions sensor or other electronic motions sensors commonly employed on public sinks. A flow sensor 34 is fluidly coupled to a faucet 36 of the sink 16 to sense the rate and volume of the flow of water from the faucet 36. Moreover, the flow sensor 34 turns the sink 16 off when the flow sensor 34 senses a predetermined volume of water has flowed from the faucet 36 of the sink 16. The flow sensor 34 may be an electronic fluid flow sensor or the like, and the predetermined amount of water may range between 0.35 gpm and 0.50 gpm.

In use, the sink 16 is turned on for washing hands and the grey water 18 that flows into the drain 14 is routed into the tank 20 of the toilet 22. In this way the tank 20 can be filled with recycled grey water 18 from the sink 16, rather than water from a water supply line or the like. Additionally, the hose 12 can be implemented in conjunction with a conventional water supply line. In this way the recycled grey water 18 from the sink 16 reduces the amount of water used from the water supply line for filling the tank 20. Any grey water 18 that is directed into the tank 20 when the tank 20 is full will pass through the tank overflow drain that is conventional to flushing toilets and flow into a sewer system.

With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded.

A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.

Claims

1. A grey water recycling assembly being configured to fill a toilet tank with grey water from a sink, said assembly comprising:

a hose being fluidly coupled to a drain of a sink, said hose capturing grey water from the sink, said hose being fluidly coupled to a tank of a toilet, said hose being oriented to angle downwardly between the drain and the tank wherein said hose is configured to gravity feed the grey water into the tank, said hose directing the grey water into the tank of the toilet wherein said hose is configured to fill the tank of the toilet with recycled water, said hose being comprised of a flexible material thereby facilitating said hose to be routed in a preferred route between the drain of the sink and the tank of the toilet.

2. The assembly according to claim 1, wherein said hose has a first end and a second end, said first end being fluidly coupled to an outlet of a trap of the drain, said second end being fluidly coupled to an outer wall of the tank.

3. A grey water recycling assembly being configured to fill a toilet tank with grey water from a sink, said assembly comprising:

a hose being fluidly coupled to a drain of a sink, said hose capturing grey water from the sink, said hose being fluidly coupled to a tank of a toilet, said hose being oriented to angle downwardly between the drain and the tank wherein said hose is configured to gravity feed the grey water into the tank, said hose directing the grey water into the tank of the toilet wherein said hose is configured to fill the tank of the toilet with recycled water, said hose being comprised of a flexible material thereby facilitating said hose to be routed in a preferred route between the drain of the sink and the tank of the toilet, said hose having a first end and a second end, said first end being fluidly coupled to an outlet of a trap of the drain, said second end being fluidly coupled to an outer wall of the tank.

4. The assembly according to claim 3, further comprising a motion sensor being coupled to the sink wherein said motion sensor is configured to sense a user approaching the sink, said motion sensor turning the sink on when said motion sensor senses motion.

5. The assembly according to claim 4, further comprising a flow sensor being fluidly coupled to an output of the sink wherein said flow sensor is configured to sense the rate and volume of the flow of water from the output, said flow sensor turning the sink off when said flow sensor senses a predetermined volume of water has flowed from the output of the sink.

Patent History
Publication number: 20200256045
Type: Application
Filed: Feb 13, 2019
Publication Date: Aug 13, 2020
Inventor: Charles Trout (Huntington Beach, CA)
Application Number: 16/274,655
Classifications
International Classification: E03D 5/00 (20060101); E03D 1/00 (20060101);