Patent Publication Number: US-9850620-B2

Title: Dryer vent

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application claims benefit under 35 USC section 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No 62/008,088, filed Jun. 5, 2014, entitled DRYER VENT, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to dryer vents and building air vents, and more particularly relates to a vent apparatus mountable to a building wall for passing air to the outside of a building, with the present vent apparatus including features preventing birds and animals from entering the vent, and discouraging them from building nests in or on the vent. A scope of the present apparatus is not believed to be limited to only dryer vents, and instead the present invention is believed to be applicable to any air outlet from a building, such as bathroom fans, kitchen fans, furnace air outlets and other air outlets. 
     Dryer vents on a building&#39;s exterior walls are attractive to animals, especially birds, because they are warm, often sheltered, and often in hidden or non-busy locations. However, the presence of birds, animals and/or their nests can restrict air flow and/or cause debris to accumulate in the air outlet passageway, creating fire and/or smoke hazards and otherwise adversely affect a dryer&#39;s operation. It can also lead to a foul smell and unsanitary conditions. Notably, these are the kind of problems that are rarely recognized ahead of time, but instead are usually found when more serious issues arise. 
     Some bird/animal restricting vent devices exist or have been proposed, but known vent devices are undesirably complicated and/or expensive and/or not as durable and robust as desired and/or do not function effectively. One such device (see Vagedes U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,538) includes a rotating paddlewheel or fan blade that purportedly blocks entry of birds and also creates movement frightening any bird or animal away. However, the rotating paddlewheel adds considerable expense to the device based on part cost. Also, as a practical matter, it doesn&#39;t take much to cause the paddlewheel to hang up or stop moving freely, resulting in lack of function, warranty (if the problem is even noticed), and potentially other in-service problems related to lack of function and/or poor air flow. Most homeowners will not realize that the paddlewheel has stopped moving, nor that his/her dryer has lost efficiency, until a serious problem arises with the dryer. Also, there are questions about whether the paddle-wheel&#39;s movement will actually frighten birds after the birds become desensitized over a period of time. 
     Another such device, shown in Vanden Bosch U.S. Pat. No. 7,988,544 includes complexly shaped parts with overlapping flanges (see  FIGS. 3 a  and 3 b   ). The parts complexity (see  FIGS. 4, 5   a ,  6   a ), requires that they he injection molded of plastic, which potentially results in high tooling and manufacturing cost. Also, the up-facing lower flange of the door and also a top of the housing (see  FIG. 3 a   ) provides semi-horizontal surfaces that a bird or animal (or wasp) could potentially start to build a nest on, such as if the vent is not used for a period of time. Notably, the door&#39;s movement will not tend to dislodge any partially-built nest (see  FIG. 3 b   ). Still further, the part&#39;s complex shapes and overlapping flanges potentially lead to clearance and tolerance problems in the assembled product, such that considerable assembly time and quality control effort must be made to assure the door will move as intended both during initial manufacture and also during extended use in the field. 
     An improvement is desired that provides savings and improvements in terms of simpler and lower cost parts, lower capital investment, increased efficiency and ease of installation, robustness, safety, and improved long term operation. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In one aspect of the present invention, a vent apparatus for assembly to a building exterior wall, comprises: a mount adapted for attachment to a building exterior wall and having an air flow opening generally matching an air outflow passageway in the building exterior wall; a housing attached to and covering the mount, the housing including a top wall, opposing side walls, and an angled wall connecting the top and side walls; and a door pivoted to the mount for movement by gravity to a closed position but being movable to an open position when air flows out from the air outflow passageway. The side walls join with the angled wall to form a downwardly and outwardly-extending chute extending below a bottom edge of the mount and door. By this arrangement, the angled wall and side walls make bird access to the air outflow opening very difficult. 
     In another aspect of the present invention, a vent apparatus for assembly to a building exterior wall, comprises: a mount formed from a first metal sheet with a folded stiffening flange on at least three edges and adapted for attachment to a building exterior wall and having an air flow opening generally matching an air outflow passageway in the building exterior wall; a housing formed from a second metal sheet with a center flat panel and at least three folded edge sections, the housing being attached to and covering the mount with the center flat panel located over the mount, the center flat panel forming an angled wall with the three folded edge sections forming opposing side walls and a top wall of the housing; and a door formed from a third metal sheet with at least three edge flanges. The door is pivoted to one of the mount and the housing for movement about an axis that causes the door to fall by gravity to a. closed position, but is movable to an open position when air flows through the air flow opening outward from the air outflow passageway. 
     These and other aspects, objects, and features of the present invention will be understood and appreciated by those skilled in the art upon studying the following specification, claims, and appended drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing a building wall with dryer vent. 
         FIGS. 2-3  are side views of the vent apparatus with the closest side section of the housing removed to show underlying components,  FIG. 2  showing the door closed, and  FIG. 3  showing the door open. 
         FIG. 4  is an exploded perspective view of the housing, the door, and the mount of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view of  FIG. 1  from the mount-side of the assembly. 
         FIGS. 6-7  are bottom perspective and side views of the apparatus in  FIG. 3  with the door open. 
         FIG. 8  is a fragmentary view of an inside lower half of the mount, including rubber grommets eliminating noise from the door closing. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     The present vent apparatus  30  ( FIGS. 1-4 ) for a building exterior wall  20  comprises a mount  31  with air flow opening  32 , a housing  33  covering the mount  31 , and a door  34  pivoted for movement to fall by gravity to a closed position ( FIG. 2 ) but being movable to an open position ( FIG. 3 ) when air flows from the air outflow passageway  21  through air flow opening  32 . A shape of the housing  33  and the overlapping construction of the mount  31  and door  34  reduce a likelihood of a bird, animal or even insects from building a nest on or in the apparatus  30 , as discussed below, 
     The housing  33  ( FIG. 4 ) is made from one piece and includes opposing side walls  40 ,  41 , an angled wan  42 , and a top wall  43  that join to form a downwardly and outwardly-extending chute extending well below a bottom edge of the mount  31  and door  34 . A size and shape of the chute discourages birds from approaching the air flow opening  32  and from building a nest inside or on the apparatus  30  due to lack of a large flat horizontal surface to do so. The door  34  and mount  31  include bottom flanges  34 ′ and  31 ′ extending in non-parallel planes but extending generally horizontally, such that they overlap when the door  34  is in the closed position. This overlap further discourages bird, animal, or insect entry. The mount  31 , housing  33  and door  34  are all metal of relatively simple construction, each including a relatively flat main panel and having stiffening bends or bent panel sections that extend from edges of the flat main panel. This provides an unusually low part cost, low assembly cost, and a highly robust and reliable function. 
     As noted above, the housing  33  includes opposing side walls  40 ,  41  and an angled wall  42  and top wall  43  that join to form a downwardly and outwardly-extending chute extending well below a bottom edge of the mount  31  and door  34 . The housing  33  can be made from a single flat sheet, with the walls  40 - 41 ,  43  being formed by single bends along edges of the main angled panel  42 . Three self-threading screws  44  extend through holes  45  in the housing  33  into holes  46  in the mount  31  to fix the housing  33  to the mount  31 . Notably, a bottom edge of the angled wall  42  extends below the mount  31  sufficiently to better accomplish its purpose of preventing access the opening  32 . For example, a preferred dimension D 1  is preferably at least about 50% of the diameter D 2  of the air flow opening  32 . However, it is noted that this dimension can be varied as needed to satisfy requirements of a particular installation. Also, the side walls  40 - 41  of the housing  33  define an inner lower corner  48  adjacent the building that preferably extends at least about a ½″ below the mount  31 . The outer corner  48 ′ of the housing  33  extends significantly downward from the inner lower corner  48 , which also help prevent access to the air flow opening  32 . Atop flange of the housing  33  is sufficiently small to make it difficult for a bird to build a nest on the housing  33 , especially when combined with the angled outer wall  42 . 
     A size and shape of the chute defined by the housing  33  can be varied as desired for a particular installation or geographic region. The illustrated housing has a top wall dimension of about 1½″×7″, and an angled wall dimension of about 7″×10½″. The angled wall is angled at about 20-30 degrees from vertical, and the side wall dimensions are about 7½″ vertical and about 4½″ width (measured horizontally from a lower edge under the mount  31 ), with a maximum length of 10½″ along its longest edge that is connected to the angled wall of the housing  33 . The narrow top wall  43  prevents (or at least discourages) a nest from being built on top of the apparatus  30 , and the angled orientation of the angled wall  42  along with the door  34  and mount  31  prevent any nest from being built inside the housing  33 . 
     The mount  31  is about 7″ vertically and 7″ wide, and includes stiffening flanges  50  on all four edges of its main flat panel that defines the air flow opening  32 . All of the stiffening flanges  50  are about ½″ in width, and are formed perpendicularly to the main flat panel, except the bottom stiffening flange  50 . The bottom stiffening flange  50  is angled upwardly toward the door  34 , such as about 20 degrees from horizontal, and is slightly longer in length than the bottom flange of the door  34 . This creates an overlap that is difficult for birds or animals to open. It is noted that some birds and animals can learn how to open doors if there is sufficient structure for them to do so. Notably, dust, debris and lint can accumulate in vents, resulting in a door being held partially open, leading to a problem over time. 
     The illustrated door  34  includes a main flat panel and includes stiffening flanges  52  on its sides along with bottom flange  34 ′. The illustrated door  34  does not include any stiffening flange on its top edge. A threaded bolt  53  extends through a hole  54  in each side of the housing  33  and includes a first nut  55  that fixedly captures the mount  31  on the housing  33 . The bolt  53  extends through a 2 nd  hole  56  at a top of the door&#39;s side edge flanges, and a second nut  57  spaced from not  55  loosely captures the door  34  on the bolt  53 , allowing the door  34  to pivot freely on the bolt  53 . When assembled, the axes A 1 -A 3  are all collinear. 
     Rubber grommets  60  ( FIG. 8 ) can be added in the mount  31  to dampen door closure, thus reducing noise from the door falling closed. The illustrated grommets  60  are in a low location on the mount in a location where they do not interfere with the overlapping flanges on the mount  31  and door  34 . 
     Thus, it is to be understood that variations and modifications can be made on the aforementioned structure without departing from the concepts of the present invention, and further it is to be understood that such concepts are intended to be covered by the following claims unless these claims by their language expressly state otherwise.