(19)Fresh off Patent
(45) Week of Oct 5, 2026 No. 5 3,852 lapsed 197 picks
Food, farm & garden tech · lapsed Aug 28, 2026

Fruit and vegetable washer with a polygonal outer chamber

A countertop washer where a circular, cylindrical mesh basket spins inside a housing whose top-down cross section is polygonal rather than circular. The mismatch between the circular basket and the polygonal chamber creates alternating wide and narrow clearances so water driven by the rotating basket produces complex turbulence to clean produce. Intended users are home cooks and small-scale food businesses that want a mechanical wash unit for fruit and vegetables.

Sheet 1 of the patent drawingsSheet 2 of the patent drawingsSheet 3 of the patent drawings

(57) What the patent covered

The independent claim covered a device with a housing that has a polygonal (multi‑corner) accommodating chamber, an upper opening and cover, a spin‑and‑turbulence assembly mounted between housing and cover with a rotatable spin‑and‑turbulence plate driven by a motor, and a cylindrical circular‑section cleaning basket unrotatably mounted to the spin assembly so the basket rotates inside the polygonal chamber, creating space with alternating wide and narrow regions.

The distinctive part: The housing’s polygonal inner wall paired with a circular rotating basket to force water through irregular gaps and increase turbulence.

Novelty 3/5. This is a clever improvement on common countertop rotating basket washers, which previously used concentric cylindrical tanks that produced mostly laminar annular recirculation rather than the asymmetric turbulence claimed here.

Making it

injection‑molded plastic housing and mounting plate, stamped or welded metal mesh basket, off‑the‑shelf electric motor and shaft, assembled with fasteners and seals

Materials: stainless steel mesh (basket), injection‑molded ABS or polypropylene housing, rubber or silicone seals/gaskets, steel or aluminum motor shaft

Manufacturability 4/5. Requires several simple molded and stamped parts plus an electric motor and bearings; assembly is straightforward but needs alignment of the rotating shaft and seals for water containment.

Is anyone buying?

We haven't run a demand check on this one yet. Shoppers would likely search for vegetable spinner washer, countertop fruit washer, rotating produce cleaner; the links on the right open those searches.

Who buys it: home cooks, small commercial kitchens, farm‑to‑consumer vendors

Before you make it

We didn't find any related continuation or divisional patents still in force, although that doesn't rule out design patents, trademarks or unrelated patents covering the same product.

Practical risks include water‑tight sealing and motor corrosion, a crowded market of salad spinners and ultrasonic washers, and the patent’s specifics on polygonal chamber geometry may be narrow or vague.

Owners occasionally revive lapsed patents (about 1.5% are), and this page is a research lead rather than legal advice, so get a freedom-to-operate opinion before you manufacture anything.

Claim 1, as granted

1. A fruit and vegetable washer comprising: a housing having: an accommodating chamber formed in the housing and a cross section of the accommodating chamber being polygonal from the top view, the accommodating chamber having: multiple corners formed on an inner surface of the accommodating chamber; an upper opening formed on a top surface of the housing and communicating with the accommodating chamber; an upper cover mounted on the top surface of the housing, and covering the upper opening; a spin-and-turbulence unit mounted on the top surface of the housing, mounted between the housing and the upper cover, and having: a mounting plate mounted between the top surface of the housing and the upper cover; a spin-and-turbulence plate rotatably mounted on a bottom surface of the mounting plate and having multiple first turbulence protrusions formed on a bottom surface of the spin-and-turbulence plate; a power unit mounted securely on the mounting plate and having: a motor mounted on a top surface of the mounting plate; a driving element rotatably mounted on the bottom surface of the mounting plate and connected to the motor, the driving element unrotatably connected to the spin-and-turbulence plate and capable of being driven by the motor to rotate with the spin-and-turbulence plate synchronously; a cleaning basket being cylindrical and a cross section of the cleaning basket being circular from the top view, the cleaning basket unrotatably mounted on the bottom surface of the spin-and-turbulence plate and having: an accommodating space formed in the cleaning basket; multiple turbulence openings formed through a lateral side of the cleaning basket; and a stabilizing shaft rotatably mounted on an inner bottom surface of the accommodating chamber of the housing and unrotatably mounted securely on a bottom surface of the cleaning basket.