Many homes have showers consisting of a shower head that directs water on a person who seeks to wash themselves. Many showers have at least three walls and either a shower door or a shower curtain, preventing water either directly from the shower head or indirectly from the walls or person from wetting areas outside of the shower stall. Even though the primary purpose of the shower head is to apply water to the person's body for wetting before soaping and for rinsing, it is difficult to prevent water from wetting the walls of the shower and, if present, the shower curtain. The water that wets the walls is of concern, in that, in many environments, the water accumulating, especially in corners, causes mold, mildew, fungus, etc. Furthermore, as water on the walls evaporates, it leaves behind any impurities such as iron, calcium, soap residue, etc, as deposits on the walls and, if present, shower curtain. This residue makes the shower look dirty, covering the shine of wall materials such as tile, glass, etc. Furthermore, the residue provides additional resistance to water flow downward towards the shower drain. During subsequent showers, the residue from previous showers leads to additional retention of water on the walls, thereby leading to additional buildup of deposits, until the walls are later cleaned using cleaning fluids that break down the deposits and rinse them away, often requiring the use of a bristle brush to free the deposits from the wall surfaces.
Early attempt for correct this problem and/or warm a person who is within the shower are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,128,161 to Marie Antoinette Hudon and U.S. Pat. No. 6,962,005 to Michael Khosropeur. Both provide warm air directed at the occupant of a shower/shower stall from the shower walls. It is unclear that moving air, even heated air, across a wet object (person) will indeed warm the wet object, but perhaps the air is heated to a very high temperature. As for the cleaning aspects, the heated air will increase the rate of drying of the water which was deposited on the walls of the shower during bathing. This may reduce mold and mildew, but has limited effect on reducing build-up of residue and may even increase the build-up due to faster drying not allowing the water to flow down the walls and out the drain. Excessive humidity caused by the rapid evaporation of the water from the walls of the shower may, lead to mold and mildew buildup in other locations in the bathroom and/or house.
What is needed is a system that will dry a shower area, reducing accumulations on the shower walls, floor and/or shower curtain while reducing humidity increases to other areas of the, for example, home.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds