The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 28, 1992
Filed:
Jun. 12, 1991
Timothy E Powell, Tallassee, AL (US);
Rheem Manufacturing Company, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
An electric water heater is provided with a vertically enlarged, sealed bottom end cap which functions as an integral drainage catch basin to receive water leaking from the water heater's internal hot water storage tank into the annular space between the storage tank and the outer jacket of the water heater. A drain pipe extends through a sealed opening in the end cap and is used to drain away water entering the cap, thus eliminating the previous necessity of providing the water heater with a separate drainage catch pan structure. The storage tank is electrically grounded to the outer water heater jacket at a point above the bottom end cap, thus eliminating the necessity of forming this grounding interconnection with a grounding screw extending upwardly through the bottom end cap and forming a water leak path through the bottom of the end cap.