JPH03205055A - Air bubble generator for bathtub - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent giving the cold feeling of the air bubble stream on a body in a bathtub by installing a means for heating the hot water which passes through a passage from a pump to a nozzle. CONSTITUTION:A means for heating the passing hot water is installed in a passage formed between a pump 3 which sucks up and pressurizes the hot water in a bathtub and a nozzle 4 which jets the injection stream from the pump 3 into the bathtub. As for the hot water heating means, a heating body 7 which generates heat by the dc supplied from the lead wires 7A and 7B is embedded in a housing 3B, and the heating body 7 is used as ceramics heater, and since the housing 3B is made of oxide ceramics, the electric current due to the electric conduction of the heating body 7 does not leak, and safety for a person in the bathtub is secured. Accordingly, even if an air bubble generator is used continuously, giving the cold feeling of the air bubble stream on a body can be prevented.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applied to a health bath device that generates air bubbles in hot water in a bathtub.

〔overview〕

The present invention is a bubble generator for a bathtub that sucks hot water in a bathtub with a pump, increases the pressure, mixes air, and squirts the hot water into the bathtub from a nozzle.By heating the hot water that passes through the path from the pump to the nozzle, This prevents the bather from feeling that the air bubbles hitting his body in the bathtub are cold.

[Conventional technology]

The configuration of this type of device is as shown in FIG. The hot water WT in the bathtub BT is passed through the filter 2 from the water intake port 21.
2, the hot water WT is suctioned and pressurized by a pump 23 driven by an electric motor 23A, and outputted from a discharge port 23B of the pump 23. The hot water WT is squeezed by a nozzle 24 and is ejected as a bubble stream into the bathtub BT. In order to generate this bubble flow, a connecting portion 25 is provided in the hot water path from the pump 23 to the nozzle 24 to guide the air taken in from the air intake port 25A to the hot water WT. This connecting portion 25 may be provided at a position 25' indicated by a broken line in the figure, that is, in a path between the water intake port 21 and the pump 23.

Furthermore, in FIG. 6, the part shown within the - dotted chain line SDL,
That is, there is a structure in which the filter 22, pump 23, electric motor 23A, air intake port 25A, and connection part 25 are integrated into one. These are either fixed to the bathroom wall or movably installed in a group near the bathtub.

As another structure, there is one in which the portion shown within the two-dot chain line DDL in this figure is mounted in one or more portable casings.

Various forms of these devices are selected according to the preferences of the bather, depending on the state of the bubble flow and the bathtub used. Particularly in recent bathtubs, it is easy to adjust the water temperature preferred by each bather, so this type of device has become widespread.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, recently there have been complaints that when this type of device is used continuously (for about 30 minutes), the water temperature drops significantly. Also, since the bubble flow mixes in outside air, if the outside temperature is low, the temperature of the ejected water will drop, and it may feel cold when it hits your body.

As an experiment, we put a portable charger (the ones inside the two-dot chain line DDL in Figure 6 are mounted in one housing) into a bathtub with a water volume of about 0.6 m', and set the water temperature to 44℃. After that, the heating operation of the bathtub pot was stopped, the bathroom was sealed, and the temperature was maintained at 26±1.0°C. Under these conditions, the water temperature was measured after a certain period of time when the device was operated and when the device was not operated. The temperature inside the bathroom was controlled to be within a certain range, so the internal volume of the bathroom had no effect. The measured value of the hot water temperature in this experiment was 40°C after 1 hour when the equipment was in operation, and 41°C after 1 hour when the equipment was not in operation, and the drop in water temperature due to equipment operation was only 1°C. .

According to another experiment, the amount of hot water spouted from the nozzle of this device was approximately 50 β per minute, and the amount of air jetted was approximately 17 β per minute.
It was β. In other words, the amount of hot water jetted out is approximately 3 per hour.
000β, and assuming that the hot water in the entire bathtub was spouted uniformly, the hot water would have been cycled at least 5 times in this experiment, and the amount of heat lost from this would be due to the amount of heat lost by the lid of the bathtub, as mentioned above. Because it is open, the amount of heat transferred from the hot water to the air in the bathroom is smaller.

The results of this experiment revealed that when the temperature in the bathroom drops, the air bubbles mix with the hot water, making the flow feel colder.

However, in the device described above, a flexible tube with an inner diameter of 1 mark is used as the path for the air to be taken in, and the same applies to other types of devices. This is regulated in terms of the shape and weight of the device. For this reason, the flow velocity of the air flowing through the path is approximately 3 m/sec or more, and means for raising the temperature of this air by at least 10° C. is complicated and requires a large amount of energy.

An object of the present invention is to solve these problems and provide a bubble generator for a bathtub that does not give a bather a cold feeling when the bubble flow hits the body of the bather.

[Means to solve the problem]

The present invention includes a pump that suctions hot water in a bathtub to increase the pressure;
A bubble generator for a bathtub comprising a nozzle that throttles the discharge port of the pump and spouts a jet stream into the bathtub, characterized by comprising means for heating the hot water that passes through it in its path from the pump to the nozzle. shall be.

The means for warming may include means for warming the housing of the pump.

The heating means can be provided in a conduit connecting the discharge port of the pump and the nozzle.

It is desirable that the amount of heat of the heating means corresponds to the amount of heat used to cool the hot water ejected from the nozzle with the air mixed in the hot water.

A circuit may be provided that opens and closes the heating means in conjunction with the operation of the pump of the bubble generator.

[Effect]

The reason why the bubble flow feels cold is presumed to be because as the temperature drops and this air mixes with hot water, the heat of the hot water is lost to the air.

Therefore, we installed a heating means in the path from the pump to the nozzle.
By heating the hot water mixed with air or the hot water just before being mixed with air, the amount of heat lost in the hot water can be compensated for.

When only hot water is circulated through this path, the temperature of the hot water that passes through this path reaches thermal equilibrium in a short period of time, so the temperature decrease due to the amount of heat lost in the path is small. Therefore, the amount of heat to be compensated may be small, for example 20 to 100 watts.

〔Example〕

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a housing 1 carried into a bathtub according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the structure of 0. In this figure, an opening 10B provided in a leg 10A of a housing 10 communicates with a water intake port 1 to suck hot water. This water inlet 1 is connected via a filter 2 to a water inlet 3C provided on the lower surface of a housing 3B of a pump 3 driven by an electric motor 3A. The housing 3B is provided with a water outlet pipe 3D for outputting pressurized hot water, and a nozzle 4 is connected to the outlet of the water outlet pipe 3D via a flexible pipe 4A. The part of the housing in contact with this nozzle 4 is a spherical seat 10.
Since C is formed, the nozzle 4 whose outer shape is spherical can change the ejection direction. A runner 3E rotated by an electric motor 3Δ is provided inside the housing 3B. The water outlet pipe 3D is provided with a connecting pipe 5 that guides air taken in from the air intake port 5A via a hose 5B to hot water passing through the interior of the water outlet pipe 3D. Reference numeral 6 indicates a cable for supplying drive current, control current, etc. for the electric motor 3A from a power source (not shown), and reference numeral 6A indicates a push switch operated by the bather. FIG. 2 is a view of the housing 3B, which is a main part view of this embodiment. In FIG. 2, the direction of the water outlet pipe 3D is changed compared to FIG. 1 for ease of explanation. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 3F indicates a water outlet pipe 3D through which hot water is sucked in from the water inlet 3C and pressurized by the aforementioned lunch 3E.
It is an opening that leads to.

A feature of the present invention is that a means for heating hot water passing through the path from the pump (reference numeral 3 in FIG. 1) to the nozzle (reference numeral 4) is provided. That is, in this embodiment, the housing 3B shown in FIG.
A heating element 7 that generates heat using a direct current supplied through lead wires 7A and 17B is embedded therein. In this case, specifically, the heating element 7 is a ceramic heater, and the housing 3B is made of oxide ceramic.
It is safe for bathers because the current applied to the bath does not leak into the hot water.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of main parts of a second embodiment of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the housing 3B is made of heat-resistant plastic, and the heating element 7C is made by applying a heat-generating paint with an insulating layer formed on the surface to the inner surface of the housing 3B, including the bottom surface, and baking it.

In the device having the structure shown in FIG. 1, the pump 3 is operated when the water temperature is kept constant and air at various temperatures is taken in from the air intake port 5A, and when the air intake port 5A is closed. The equilibrium temperature of the pump housing was measured in each case and the difference was approximately 2° C. in the maximum case. Therefore, the amount of heat generated by the heating element may be such that the temperature of the housing made of each material increases by 2°C. The calculation result is 40 to 60 W, which is approximately 172 or less compared to the 150 W capacity of the electric motor that drives the pump. Therefore, even if the device is supplied with power supply current from a battery, the burden on the battery will not be large.

FIG. 4 is a control block configuration diagram of the first and second embodiments. In this figure, a DC current from a battery IIA of a power supply device 11 is supplied to a housing 10 via a cable 6. When the bather closes the push switch 6A of the housing 10, the line S supplies direct current to the electric motor 3A of the housing 10 from the line O at the switch section 11B of the power supply device 11 to drive it. In each of the first and second embodiments described above, the heating element 7 or 7C is connected in parallel with the electric motor 3A.

This is to prevent overheating of the heating element and unnecessary consumption of the battery.

FIG. 5 is a diagram of main parts of a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a ball joint 8 including a fixed part 8A and a rotating part 8B is provided between the water outlet pipe 3I) of the pump 3 provided with the connecting pipe 5 and the nozzle 4. The fixed part 8A and the water outlet pipe 3D are connected by a flexible pipe 4B to facilitate assembly of the casing 10, but in this embodiment, the flexible pipe 4B has a flexible pipe inside. It is a flexible rubber tube containing a heating element 7D. This heating element 7D is provided with lead wires 7A and 7B.

The flexible tube 4B of this third embodiment is deformed only when the housing is assembled, and is often deformed like the flexible tube 4A of the first and second embodiments shown in FIG. do not have. Therefore, the heating element 7D can be easily included in the flexible tube 4B of this embodiment. This flexible pipe 4B is provided in the hot water path from the pump to the nozzle, and is particularly located downstream of the connecting pipe 5, so that it compensates for the temperature of the hot water after air has been mixed in.

As explained above, in the present invention, the amount of heat compensated by the heating element is extremely small. Therefore, even if this heating element is used in an environment where the bubble flow does not feel cold, the bubble flow will not be too hot for the human body.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the bubble generating device of the bathtub from ejecting a stream of bubbles that would make the bather feel cold, so that the bather can enjoy a healthy bathing experience.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram of the main parts of the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram of main parts of a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a control block configuration diagram of the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram of main parts of a third embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a conventional example. 1.21...Water inlet, 2.22...Filter, 3.
23... Pump, 3A, 23A... Electric motor, 3B.
...Housing, 3C...Water inlet, 3D...Outlet pipe, 3E...Runner, 3F, IOB...Opening, 4.2
4... Nozzle, 4A, 4B... Flexible tube, 5... Connection tube, 5A, 25A... Air intake port, 5B... Hose, 6... Cable, 6A... Push switch, 7.
7C, 7D... Heating element, 7A, 7B... Lead wire,
Death: Ball joint, 8A: Fixed part, 8B: Rotating part,
10... Housing, IOA... Leg, IOC... Spherical seat, 11... Power supply device, IIA... Battery, 11B
...Switch part, 23B...Discharge port, 25.25'
...Connection part, BT mountain bathtub, DDL...double-dashed line, S.
...Line, SDL...--dotted chain line, WT...Hot water.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A bubble generator for a bathtub, comprising a pump that sucks hot water in a bathtub to increase the pressure, and a nozzle that throttles the discharge port of the pump and spouts a jet into the bathtub, comprising: 1. A bubble generating device for a bathtub, comprising means for heating hot water that passes through the nozzle on the way from the nozzle to the nozzle. 2. The bubble generator for a bathtub according to claim 1, wherein the heating means includes means for heating the housing of the pump. 3. The bubble generator for a bathtub according to claim 1, wherein the heating means is provided in a conduit connecting the discharge port of the pump and the nozzle. 4. The bubble generating device for a bathtub according to claim 1, wherein the amount of heat of the heating means corresponds to the amount of heat cooled by the air mixed in the hot water jetted from the nozzle. 5. The bubble generator for a bathtub according to claim 1, further comprising a circuit that opens and closes the heating means in conjunction with the operation of a pump of the bubble generator.