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:
Sep. 21, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 02, 1998
Jacob H Hall, Dadeville, AL (US);
David L Henderson, Millbrook, AL (US);
Jeffrey A Leep, Wetumpka, AL (US);
Rheem Manufacturing Company, New York, NY (US);
Abstract
A fuel-fired water heater has a series of control and operating components which, with electrical power being supplied to the water heater circuitry via a power switch, are electrically actuatable in a predetermined sequence to supply combustion heat to water contained in a tank portion of the water heater to return the temperature of the water to a heated setpoint temperature in response to the water temperature falling below such setpoint temperature. LED diagnostic indicating lights are wired into the water heater circuitry in a manner such that each indicating light is associated with a different one of the electrically coupled components. As the components are sequentially actuated during a water heating cycle, the LED lights are successively illuminated. If one of the components malfunctions during such heating cycle, one or more of the indicating lights remains unilluminated, with the last illuminated light being indicative of the last component in the sequence which functioned properly, thereby facilitating the ready identification of the component which malfunctioned. The LED indicating lights are supported in a single row on a housing-mounted circuit board to which electrical indicating light leads from the water heater control circuit are connected. One of the LED lights is a power indicating light and, like the other indicating lights, has a resistor in an electrical trace leading to the light. The power indicating light and its associated resistor are physically isolated from the other indicating lights and their associated resistors by an interior housing barrier wall.