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[0001] The invention relates to a steam-cleaning appliance and, more particularly, the invention provides a steam-cleaning appliance that operates according to water or coffee machine mode.
[0002] House furniture such as carpet and textile-based sofas need regular cleaning. In consideration of the material and size of those furniture elements, steam-cleaning appliances provide effective cleaning. Steam-cleaning appliances that are presently sold typically operates according to the following manner. A metallic boiler is placed in the housing of the steam-cleaning appliance. When the user wants to use the steam-cleaning appliance, the user opens a cover of the housing to pour cold water in the boiler. The boiler then is electrically turned on to boil cold water therein, thereby generating steam. This type of steam-cleaning appliance has at least the following inconveniences.
[0003] The user needs to wait a certain interval of time (about 5 to 10 minutes) before water effectively boils to produce steam. Steam can be therefore externally sputtered through a nozzle of the steam-cleaning appliance without warning signal, hence potentially hurting the user not attentive. Moreover, after a certain time of utilization, the user needs to refill water in the boiler. The previous heating operation and waiting time is therefore repeated. To refill water, the user further needs to open the cover, steam pressure within the boiler is thus suddenly outputted, which may easily hurt the user. Because the cover is usually designed with a reduced size to increase the heating time to boiling, steam pressure is therefore even more dangerously higher when the user opens the cover. Furthermore, the housing is usually made of plastics for lightweight consideration. To prevent a continuous heating of the boiler, a temperature sensor is typically mounted to control the turn on/off of the boiler. However, because the boiler generates heat to boil water and the boiling temperature cannot be precisely determined, steam therefore is sputtered in intermittence, which increases the danger of hurting the user.
[0004] It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a steam-cleaning appliance that overcomes the above disadvantages.
[0005] To accomplish the above and other objectives, a steam-cleaning appliance of the invention comprises a housing in which a water storage chamber, a pump, and a steam device are mounted. The pump pumps cold water from the water storage chamber and delivers cold water to the steam device. The steam device includes a water-flowing path and a heating unit that heats water flowing through the water-flowing path. Cold water pumped by the pump penetrates into the water-flowing path via a water inlet to be heated. The increasingly heated water is sputtered into steam through a steam pipe to a nozzle of the steam-cleaning appliance.
[0006] With the above apparatus, the water storage chamber is not heated, the user thus can refill water without any danger. Furthermore, a multi-state controller mounted onto the nozzle allows the user to control the pump, thereby the steam output of the nozzle can be selected to a continuous, intermittence, or stop mode to obtain a convenient operation of the steam-cleaning appliance. Moreover, a temperature sensor is mounted at the location of the water inlet of the steam device that is at the lowest temperature. The heating unit can be thereby effectively controlled while preventing excessive heating temperature that may damages internal elements, and steam formation can be furthermore effectively ensured.
[0007] To provide a further understanding of the invention, the following detailed description illustrates embodiments and examples of the invention, this detailed description being provided only for illustration of the invention.
[0008] The drawings included herein provide a further understanding of the invention. A brief introduction of the drawings is as follows:
[0009]
[0010]
[0011]
[0012]
[0013] Wherever possible in the following description, like reference numerals will refer to like elements and parts unless otherwise illustrated.
[0014] Referring to
[0015] A water storage chamber
[0016] The steam device
[0017] When the user wants to use the steam-cleaning appliance, he or she first turns on a principal switch
[0018]
[0019] Because both water-flowing path
[0020] To prevent excessive external heating of the housing
[0021] It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the above description is only illustrative of specific embodiments and examples of the invention. The invention should therefore cover various modifications and variations made to the herein-described structure and operations of the invention, provided they fall within the scope of the invention as defined in the following appended claims.