Patent ID: 6926821

Claim:
An end-of-faucet filter for filtering water flowing through a faucet, the end-of-faucet filter comprising: a housing having an inlet aperture for attachment to the faucet; and an outlet aperture; a channel extending between said inlet and outlet apertures; a filter positioned in said channel to filter water flowing therethrough; a flow reactive device positioned in the channel and exposed to the flowing water; a magnetic signal generating member positioned on the flow reactive device; a counterbalance comprising an element, other than an additional magnetic signal generating member, having a wieght or mass designed to counterbalance the weight of the member positioned on the flow reactive device; a sensor positioned proximate to the flow reactive device sensitive to the movement of the signal generating member, the sensor able to communicate electric signals indicative of the motion of the signal generating member; a resettable microcontroller having an output device, and a plurality of performance thresholds programmed therein, the microcontroller in electric communication with the sensor; the microcontroller also having a time counter for counting the time lapse since the microcontroller was last reset, wherein the microcontroller interprets at least the electric signals from the sensor and the time lapse as performance data and compares the performance data against the performance thresholds to determine if any of the performance thresholds have been surpassed, and when surpassed actuating the device.