Patent ID: 9671338
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: A47L,D06F,G01N

Claim:
1. A water quality sensor for a household appliance, comprising: a housing forming an inner space and having at least one transparent panel in contacting to a cleaning medium of said household appliance; a circuit board having a microcontroller configured thereon, said circuit board being positioned within said inner space and housed by said housing; a light emitting element configured on said circuit board for emitting a detecting beam passing through said transparent panel; a light receiving element configured on said circuit board for receiving a backscattered beam generated from said detecting beam and backscattered by said cleaning medium; and a sensor holder attached to said circuit board and receiving said light emitting element and said light receiving element therein, said sensor holder having a plurality of non-transparent walls surrounding said light emitting element and said light receiving element, and a first opening for the detecting beam to pass and a second opening for the light receiving element to receive the light in a straight ahead direction, said first and second openings being formed on a top of said sensor holder, wherein said light emitting element and said light receiving element configured on said circuit board are positioned on and facing a same plane, and said detecting beam emitted from said light emitting element is blocked by said sensor holder from being directly received by said light receiving element and only passes said opening of said sensor holder, such that said water quality sensor determines the water quality of said cleaning medium contained in said household appliance based on said backscattered beam received by said light receiving element.