Water jet pool cleaner with opposing dual propellers

摘要

A robotic pool or tank cleaner is propelled by water jets, the direction of which is controlled by the direction of rotation of a horizontally mounted pump motor within the pool cleaner housing, having a propeller attached to either end of the motor drive shaft which projects from opposing ends of the motor body, each of the propellers being positioned in a water jet discharge conduit that terminates in discharge ports in opposing ends of the housing. Each discharge conduit has a pressure-sensitive flap valve downstream of the respective propellers. When the propellers rotate in one direction, the water is drawn through one or more openings in the base plate, passes through one or more filter assemblies associated with the pool cleaner and is discharged through one of the discharge ports as a water jet of sufficient force to propel the pool cleaner along the surface being cleaned.

主权项

1. A method for cleaning a submerged surface of a pool with a self-propelled robotic pool cleaner, said pool cleaner including a housing having a first water jet discharge port at a first end of the housing and a second water jet discharge port at an opposing second end of the housing and a longitudinal axis extending through the opposing first and second ends of the housing, traversing means attached to the housing for supporting and moving the cleaner along the surface of the pool to be cleaned, at least one inlet port formed in a bottom surface of the housing, and a water pump mounted within an interior of the housing and having a driveshaft and a pair of propellers, the driveshaft having opposing ends and extending in a direction along the longitudinal axis, each propeller being affixed to one of the opposing ends of the driveshaft, the method comprising:
activating the water pump and simultaneously rotating the pair of propellers affixed to the opposing ends of the driveshaft; drawing water from the pool into the housing through the at least one inlet port for filtering; closing the first water jet discharge port; opening the second water jet discharge port; and cleaning a submerged surface of the pool by discharging filtered water from the interior of the housing through the open second water jet discharge port in the form of a water jet having sufficient force to propel the cleaner in an opposite direction of the water jet and generally corresponding to the longitudinal axis of the pool cleaner.