Patent Publication Number: US-2004055082-A1

Title: Water recreational apparatus with sweep jets

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001] Water recreational apparatuses, such as portable spas, hot tubs, above ground pools and water recirculating bath tubs have become very popular. Many such water recreational apparatuses have water filters wherein a portion of the water within the basin is withdrawn via a filter opening, filtered to remove suspended debris and reintroduced into the water basin.  
       [0002] A problem with the use of water recreational apparatuses of the prior art concerns the tendency of debris to collect at the bottom of the apparatus where the water at the bottom of the apparatus is relatively stagnant, compared to water disposed high above the bottom of the basin. Because the water is relatively stagnant, the debris is not easily moved to the filter opening. The debris therefore tends to accumulate at the bottom of the basin.  
       [0003] Accordingly, there is a need for a water recreational apparatus which avoids this problem in the prior art.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0004] The invention satisfies this need. The invention is a water recreational apparatus comprising (a) a water basin having side walls and a bottom wall, (b) a pump having a suction side and a discharge side, and (c) one or more downwardly directed sweep jets disposed within the water basin proximate to the side walls, the sweep jets being disposed above the bottom wall by a distance of less than 10 inches, the one or more downwardly directed sweep jets being in fluid tight communication with the discharge side of the pump.  
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
     [0005] These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings where:  
     [0006]FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view of a water apparatus having features of the invention;  
     [0007]FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic isometric view of a water recreational apparatus having features of the invention;  
     [0008]FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic plan view of the water recreational apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2;  
     [0009]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional side view of another water recreational apparatus having features of the invention;  
     [0010]FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional side view of still another water recreational apparatus having features of the invention; and  
     [0011]FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional side view of still another water recreational apparatus having features of the invention.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
     [0012] The following discussion describes in detail one embodiment of the invention and several variations of that embodiment. This discussion should not be construed, however, as limiting the invention to those particular embodiments. Practitioners skilled in the art will recognize numerous other embodiments as well.  
     [0013] The invention comprises a water recreational apparatus  10 , such as a portable spa, hot tub, above ground pool or water recirculating bath tub. The water recreational apparatus  10  comprises a water basin  12 , a filter  14 , a pump and one or more downwardly directed sweep jets  18 .  
     [0014] The water basin  12  typically has a plurality of generally vertical side walls  20  and a generally horizontal bottom wall  22 . The water basin  12  also typically comprises one or more user seat locations  24  and a plurality of recreational jets (not shown) disposed in the upper portions  26  of the side walls  20 . The water recreational jets provide an inlet stream of pressurized and aerated water to massage, amuse and otherwise impact the upper torsos of users disposed at the user seat locations  24 . The recreational jets are disposed so as to project pressurized and aerated water in a generally horizontal direction within the water basin  12 . The recreational jets are disposed more than 10 inches above the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12 .  
     [0015] The water basin  12  further comprises at least one filter opening  28  for allowing a slip stream of water  29  to flow from the water basin  12  and into the filter  14 , the filter  14  typically being disposed external of the water basin  12 . In the embodiments illustrated in the drawings, the filter opening  28  is disposed in the upper portions  26  of the side walls  20 . Additional filter openings (not shown) can also be provided disposed, for example, in the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12 .  
     [0016] The pump  16  is typically a centrifugal pump driven by an electric motor  30 . The pump has a suction side  32  and a discharge side  34 . The discharge side  34  of the pump  16  is disposed in fluid tight communication with the filter  14  via a suction line  36 . The discharge side  34  of the pump  16  is connected via discharge lines  38  to the recreational jets in the upper portions  26  of the side walls  20  and to the sweep jets  18  disposed in the lower portions  40  of the side walls  20 .  
     [0017] In the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, the one or more sweep jets  18  comprise a plurality of sweep jets  18 . In FIG. 1, two sweep jets  18  are illustrated. In FIGS. 2 and 3, three sweep jets  18  are illustrated. The sweep jets  18  are downwardly directed openings for allowing the pumping of water from the pump  16  to the bottom of the water basin  12 . The sweep jets  18  can be disposed so that water discharged from the sweep jets  18  is projected substantially vertically. The sweep jets  18  can alternatively be disposed at an angle with respect to the vertical. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 2, each of the three sweep jets is  18  disposed at an angle with respect to the vertical, such that each of the sweep jets  18  projects downwardly to the right. By this configuration, the discharge of water from the combined three sweep jets  18  tends to the swirl water at the bottom of the water basin  12  in a counter clockwise direction.  
     [0018] The sweep jets  18  are disposed above the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12  by less than about 10 inches. In a typical embodiment, the sweep jets  18  are disposed between about 3 inches and about 6 inches above the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  18 . In a spa having a water basin capacity of about 100 gallons,  4  to  8  equally spaced apart sweep jets  18  can be used. For such a spa, the total water discharged from each sweep jet  18  is typically between about 10 gpm and about 400 gpm. Thus, the totality of the water discharged from all of the sweep jets  18  is typically between about 10 gpm and about 60 gpm.  
     [0019] As illustrated in FIG. 1, the water basin  12 , the filter  14 , the pump  16 , the suction lines  36  and the discharge lines  38  are housed within a spa surround  41 .  
     [0020]FIG. 4 illustrates another typical embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, the suction lines  36  comprise a side wall discharge port  43  and the discharge lines  38  further comprise a heater  42 , a main manifold  44  and a sweep jet manifold  46 . The heater  42  can be used to heat water circulated through the discharge lines  38 . The main manifold  44  divides water in the discharge lines  38  into two streams. In a first stream, the water is routed to the recreational jets in the upper portions  26  of the side walls  20  via recreational jet main lines  48 . The second stream is routed to the sweep jet manifold  44 . The sweep jet manifold  44  separates water into individual streams for each of the sweep jets  18 . In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, there are four sweep jets  18 , one disposed in each of the four side walls  20 .  
     [0021]FIG. 5 illustrates another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment of the invention, a portion of the water from the discharge lines  38  flows to an ozone injector  50  disposed along the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12 . Also, a drain valve  52  is provided in the discharge lines  38 .  
     [0022]FIG. 6 illustrates yet another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment of the invention, a pair of pumps  16 , driven by a single motor  30 , is used. One of the pumps  16  provides water to the sweep jets  18  while the other pump  16  provides water to the heater  42 , the recreational jets and to the ozone injector  50 .  
     [0023] In operation, debris, such as dirt and other solid materials, typically accumulate along the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12 . As explained in the Background Section, this debris along the bottom wall  22  is difficult to move to the filter opening  28 , especially when the filter opening  28  is disposed in the upper portion  26  of the side walls  20 . By use of the sweep jets  18 , water discharged from the pump  16  through the sweep jets  18  roils the water at the bottom of the water basin  12  sufficiently to move debris along the bottom wall  22  of the water basin away from the bottom wall  22 . In a preferred embodiment, such roiling of the water in the bottom of the water basin  12  is sufficient to displace debris at the bottom of the water basin  12  all the way to the upper water levels in the water basin  12 , where the debris can be withdrawn in the slip stream  29  flowing through a filter opening  28  disposed in the upper portion  26  of the side walls  20 . The slip stream  29  passes to and through the filter  14  where debris, once disposed along the bottom wall  22  of the water basin  12 , is filtered out.  
     [0024] Thus, the invention provides a simple and inexpensive way of preventing the build-up of unwanted debris at the bottom of the water basin of a water recreational apparatus.  
     [0025] Having thus described the invention, it should be apparent that numerous structural modifications and adaptations may be resorted to without departing from the scope and fair meaning of the instant invention as set forth hereinabove and as described hereinbelow by the claims.