Collapsible Sauna

Abstract

The sauna includes a collapsible enclosure having front and rear walls joined by foldable sidewalls with upper and lower walls hingedly affixed to the rear wall for movement into horizontal positions to form a complete enclosure in the extended position. An adjustable heating element and water containing device associated therewith are affixed to the rear wall to provide the desired heat and humidity during operation.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

During recent years saunas which are bath houses for relatively low humidity, high heat type of baths, have become increasingly more popular. The sauna is utilized as a relaxing, body conditioning type activity, rather than cleansing.

Description of the Prior Art

All known prior art saunas are constructed as a separate room, useful only as a sauna. Because of the expense of providing a special room for the sauna and the amount of space utilized thereby, it is relatively difficult and expensive to provide a sauna in the average house.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to a collapsible sauna including front and rear walls joined by foldable side walls with upper and lower walls hingedly attached thereto for completing an enclosure in an extended position and further including an adjustable heating element mounted within said enclosure and means associated therewith for receiving water to provide the desired humidity and temperature.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved collapsible sauna.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a collapsible sauna which is easily installed in substantially any house, or other suitable structure, and which requires substantially no additional room in the collapsed position while providing a highly useful sauna in an extended position.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the accompanying specification, claims and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring to the drawings, wherein like characters indicate like parts throughout the figures:

FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of the collapsible sauna in an extended position;

FIG. 2 is a view in perspective of the collapsible sauna in a collapsed position;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view in top plan of the collapsible sauna in a partially collapsed position;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view as seen from the line 4--4 in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a view in exploded perspective of portions of the structure of FIG. 1 illustrating construction details, portions thereof broken away and shown in section.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to the figures, the numeral 10 generally designates a collapsible sauna having a rear wall 11, a front wall 12 and two opposed side walls 13 and 14. The side walls 13 and 14 are hingedly attached along the rear and front vertical edges thereof to the rear wall 11 and front wall 12, respectively. Each of the side walls 13 and 14 is formed in two sections hingedly attached together to form a central pivotal joint 15. The hingedly connected edges of each of the side walls 13 and 14 and the central pivotal joints 15 cooperate to allow the side walls to fold inwardly from an extended or enclosure-defining position to a collapsed position in which the rear and front walls 11 and 12 fold together in an accordionlike fashion. While a specific folding embodiment is illustrated, it should be understood that variations and modifications of this embodiment may be devised by those skilled in the art, such as for example forming a plurality of foldable joints in each of the side walls 13 and 14.

The rear wall 11 is formed with a flange 20 around the edges thereof which extends inwardly toward the front wall 12 and forms a shallow cavity or depression 21 in the inwardly directed surface of the rear wall 11. An upper wall 22 is hingedly affixed along the rear edge thereof to the upper edge of the rear wall 11 for pivotal movement between a generally horizontal or extended position and a downwardly depending or collapsed position. The upper wall 22 is affixed to the rear wall 11 so as to be positioned within the depression 21 in the rear wall 11 when the upper wall 22 is in the collapsed position (as illustrated in FIG. 4). A lower wall or floor 23 may optionally be included in the sauna 10. The lower wall 23 is hingedly attached along its rear edge to the lower edge of the rear wall 11 for movements between an extended or generally horizontal position and a collapsed or upwardly folded position. When the lower wall 23 is in its upwardly folded position it lies within the depression 21, as illustrated in FIG. 4. Thus, in the collapsed position of the sauna 10 the upper and lower walls 22 and 23 fold into the depression 21 of the rear wall 11 and the two sections of each of the side walls 13 and 14 fold into a flat parallel orientation so that the entire structure requires very little space.

A heating element 30 is fixedly mounted to the inner surface of the rear wall 11 adjacent the lower end thereof. In this embodiment, the lower wall 23 has an outwardly extending stop 31 adjacent each edge thereof to prevent the lower wall 23 from damaging the heating element 30 in the collapsed position. It should be understood that stops might be affixed to the rear wall 11 adjacent the heating element 30 to prevent the lower wall 23 from damaging the heating element 30. The heating element 30 is adapted to be connected to a suitable source of power, either permanently or through the use of a standard plug arrangement, depending upon the particular way in which the sauna 10 is mounted and used. A rheostat is connected in the energizing circuit of the heating element 30 and controllable through a knob 32, mounted on the outwardly directed surface of the rear wall 11, to control the amount of electrical power supplied to the heating element 30 and, thus, the amount of heat produced thereby. It should be understood that other types of heating elements might be utilized and the amount of heat supplied thereby can be varied through a variety of apparatus and methods to control the heat within the sauna 10.

Mounted directly above the heating element 30 so as to be generally in contact with the frame thereof are water receiving means, which in this embodiment is an elongated trough 35. The elongated trough 35 extend across the entire width of the heating element 30 and contains a plurality of heat retaining objects 34, such as rocks, pieces of metal, or the like. The trough 35 may be permanently attached to a source of water or it may simply have a portable container associated therewith which is filled with water externally and brought into the sauna 10 for introducing the water into the trough 35. A light 36 is mounted to the inwardly directed surface of the rear wall 11 and protected from damage by the upper wall 22 through stops 37, attached to the lower surface of the upper wall 22. The light 36 is connected to the suitable source of power through a switch 38, affixed to the rear wall 11 adjacent the knob 31 for convenience.

A door 40 is hingedly mounted within an opening in the front wall 12 for outwardly opening movements. The door 40 is mounted for outwardly opening movements so that the sauna 10 can be conveniently moved to the extended position. In some instances, the collapsible sauna 10 will be permanently affixed to the wall of a structure, such as a house, and may actually be built into a wall so as to be flush with the surface of the wall in the collapsed position. In other installations, the rear wall 11 of the sauna 10 may simply be affixed to a wall so that the sauna 10 is collapsed to a position adjacent to the wall during non-use. In either case, the sauna 10 is moved to the extended position by opening the door 40 and moving the front wall 12 away from the rear wall 11 until the side walls 13 and 14 are in the extended position. If a lower wall 23 is included, the lower wall 23 is then pivoted downwardly to the horizontal position to provide a floor and aid in maintaining the sauna 10 in the extended position. The upper wall 22 is then pivoted upwardly to the horizontal position and locked in place. In the present embodiment a spring biased detent 45 is provided in the front wall 12. The detent 45 normally extends inwardly from the inner surface of the front wall 12 toward the rear wall 11 with the upper edge thereof forming a generally horizontal surface and the lower edge thereof forming a ramp or cam surface. As the upper wall 22 is pivoted upwardly the outermost edge thereof engages the cam surface of the detent 45 and urges the detent 45 into the front wall 12 so that the upper wall 22 can pivot upwardly beyond the detent 45. As the upper wall 22 passes the detent 45 the spring urges the detent 45 outwardly to prevent the upper wall 22 from swinging downwardly out of the horizontal position.

With the sauna 10 in the extended position, a relatively tight enclosure is defined therein and an occupant simply adjusts the knob 31 to obtain the desired heat within the enclosure from the heating element 30. During the time the heating element 30 is raising the heat within the sauna 10 or after the objects 34 are sufficiently hot the occupant may pour a small quantity of water over the objects to provide the desired humidity within the sauna 10. In general, the occupant will only pour small amounts of water over the objects 34 periodically rather than filling the trough 35.

Upon completing the sauna-type bath the occupant allows the sauna 10 to cool to a safe temperature whereupon he depresses the detent 45 manually and lowers the upper wall 22. The lower wall 23 is then raised and the front wall 12 is moved toward the rear wall 11 in accordian-like fashion to collapse the entire sauna 10 into a convenient size for storage.

Thus, a collapsible sauna is disclosed which is relatively inexpensive to construct and which requires very little room, since it can be conveniently collapsed and stored. While I have shown and described a specific embodiment of this invention, further modifications and improvements will occur to those skilled in the art. I desire it to be understood, therefore, that this invention is not limited to the particular form shown and I intend in the appended claims to cover all modifications which do not depart from the spirit and scope of this invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A collapsible sauna comprising:

a. vertically extending, rigid front and rear walls each having an upper, a lower and two side edges, said rear wall having top, bottom and side flanges around the edges thereof extending toward said front wall to form with said rear wall a box-like structure;

b. oppositely disposed foldable side walls pivotally affixed to the side edges of said front wall and to the edges of said side flanges, said side walls each comprising two hingedly connected portions and being inwardly foldable for allowing movement between an extended position wherein said side walls are each co-planar to define an enclosure and a collapsed position wherein said front and rear walls move adjacent each other;

c. a rigid upper wall hingedly affixed to said top flange for movement between an extended position wherein said upper wall completes the enclosure and a collapsed position within the box-like structure;

d. a door hingedly attached to an opening in said front wall;

e. an adjustable heating element operatively mounted to said rear wall within said box-like structure;

f. means associated with said heating element adapted to receive water therein for providing a humid, relatively high temperature within the enclosure; and

g. a rigid lower wall hingedly affixed to said bottom flange for movement between an extended floor position and a collapsed position within the box-like structure.