Patent ID: 8080160

Claim:
A pitcher water purifier comprising a casing divided into upper and lower parts, as a raw water reservoir portion and a purified water reservoir portion, and having a purified water pouring opening in communication with the purified water reservoir portion and a disposable purification cartridge placed in communication between the raw water reservoir portion and the purified water reservoir portion, the purification cartridge comprising: at least one raw water inlet, at least one purified water outlet, a single case member having an interior, and a filter dividing the interior of the single case member into an upper part and a lower part, wherein an adsorbent is filled in said upper part of the interior of the single case member, and is in communication with the raw water inlet, and hollow fiber membranes, each having a cross-sectional area based on the outer fiber diameter, which includes an interior cross-sectional area based on the hollow portion of the hollow fiber membrane, are filled in a filling space whose cross-sectional area is constant and communicate with the purified water outlet in said lower part of the interior of the single case member, said raw water reservoir portion configured to deliver a very low water pressure of about 0.0005-0.003 MPa, which corresponds to a water head difference of between about 5-30 cm in said raw water reservoir portion; a percentage s (%) of a total of the cross-sectional area of the hollow fiber membranes filled in the filling space to the cross-sectional area of the filling space is 25-58%, the percentage s being defined as: s (%)={( A×F )/ S}× 100; in which A represents the cross-sectional area based on the outside diameter of one of the hollow fiber membranes to be filled, F represents the total number of openings that are in communication with the purified water outlet in said hollow fiber membranes and S represents the cross-sectional area of the space with which said hollow fiber membranes are filled in said purification cartridge; when the purification cartridge is placed in the pitcher water purifier, the absorbent does not remain in contact with the purified water; and the upper part filled with the adsorbent is separable from the lower part filled with the hollow fiber membranes through use of a screw engagement.