Importance

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Abstract

An improved purified water supply system is provided of the type including a reverse osmosis unit for producing relatively pure water from ordinary tap water or the like. The reverse osmosis unit receives incoming tap water and produces separate outflows of purified water and relatively impure reject water. The purified water is supplied from the reverse osmosis unit to a purified water chamber within a compact storage vessel, wherein the purified water chamber is separated within the vessel by a movable barrier from a reject water chamber. When use of the purified water is desired, one or more faucet valves are opened to open a discharge path permitting purified water to flow from the storage vessel through a discharge spout or the like for use. An improved control valve assembly operates in conjunction with the faucet valve or valves to apply reject water under sufficient pressure to the reject water chamber to force purified water from the storage vessel through the open discharge path. The control valve assembly maintains the pressure within the storage vessel at a pressure substantially less than tap water line pressure to permit use of a relatively lightweight and economical storage vessel construction. In some embodiments, when the purified water discharge path is closed, the control valve assembly functions further to substantially relieve pressure within the storage vessel to correspondingly minimize system backpressure applied to the reverse osmosis unit.

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First Claim