Patent ID: 7799108

Claim:
A filter comprising a housing having a bottom and a top, each having a respective port therethrough, one of said ports being an inlet port, the other of said ports being an outlet port, a plurality of filter elements in said housing, each defining a respective filtering flow path therethrough from said inlet port to said outlet port, said filtering flow paths being in parallel with each other, said housing having a fluid flow path therethrough selected from the group consisting of: a) bottom-in, top-out; and b) top-in, bottom-out providing space efficiency and greater use of existing volume in designated applications, wherein said fluid flow path through said housing is split into plural branches, each provided by a respective said parallel filtering flow path through a respective said filter element, and comprising first and second said filter elements, and first and second said branches, wherein fluid flows through said outlet port from a merge point of said first and second branches, said first branch flowing through said first filter element to said merge point, said second branch flowing through said second filter element to said merge point, said second branch having at least a first bend therealong, said first bend being upstream of said second filter element such that fluid flow turns at least once while traversing from said inlet port to said second filter element, said first branch having at least first and second bends therealong, each of said first and second bends of said first branch being downstream of said first filter element such that fluid flow turns at least twice while traversing from said first filter element to said outlet port, wherein: said second branch has a second bend; said second bend of said second branch is downstream of said second filter element; said first branch has a third bend; said third bend of said first branch is downstream of said second filter element and downstream of said first and second bends of said first branch and downstream of said first filter element.