Importance

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Abstract

The invention is related to water vending systems for the automatic dispensing of purified water from a machine which is preferably activated by coin or other form of payment. Reverse osmosis filtration of local water together with other water treatment operations is used to improve the quality of the vended water. Stagnation of stored permeate is automatically prevented to assure the freshness of dispensed water. The system is designed to reduce the frequency of servicing and the life of components without decreasing the quality of the vended water. In one embodiment the vending system comprises control means for automatically dumping the filtered water stored in a tank in the system if there has not been at least a predetermined number of vends of water within a predetermined period of time. After the storage tank has been dumped the drain is automatically closed and fresh filtered water is produced to refill the storage tank. Another embodiment allows the storage tank to remain at atmospheric pressure at all times thereby preventing leaks due to high pressure or aspiration due to below atmospheric pressure in the system. Contamination of the filtered water in the storage tank by breather air is prevented by ultraviolet sterilization of such breather air continuously before it enters the tank.

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First Claim