Trent Church

Inventor; 

Two Millimeters Makes all the Difference.

Trent Church is a dedicated inventor who has found a practical solution to Rain Water tank filtration for the urban environment.

It improves water quality and saves on tank cleaning costs. He designed the devices himself with common items such as ping- pong balls and elastic bands. He has a small business operating from his garage.

Project description 

A change in the diameter of ping-pong balls could mean disaster for Victorian Trent Church and he doesn’t even play table tennis.

An international alteration of 2mm will make the difference between his current invention Saferain working and having to be redesigned. And considering he already sells them successfully around Australia, New Zealand and United States the loss would be felt by many more than just Trent.

“I’m okay at the moment because I have bought as many of the smaller balls as possible. It was actually by chance that I found out the size was going to be changed – I guess it isn’t a major event for most people,” Trent said.

Saferain is a water diverter that fits to your rainwater tank system to flush out pollutants that collect on your roof that would otherwise be pushed into your tank when it rains.

“It is amazing what gets on people’s roofs besides the usual rubbish such as leaves, bird droppings, chimney soot, dirt and salt [If you live near the ocean]. I had one poor fellow who lived near a factory and his roof was covered constantly with milk powder that in the heat quickly went off,” he said.

With Saferain these pollutants don’t reach the tank and are flushed out of the system during the first rains. “ This also saves on tank cleaning which can be an expensive business,” Trent said.
Saferain is another level of filtration on tank water that reduces cleaning costs and dramatically improves water quality. And the action of the device is surprisingly simple.

It is fundamentally an automatic valve, connected between the roof and the tank, that has a hollow ping-pong ball, with holes on its surface, connected to an elastic band. When it begins to rain some water enters the ball, which stretches the band down, causing the ball to block the pipe (operating the valve). Before the valve shuts the debris is pushed out of the system and once closed the clean water enters the tank. 

And what will happen when his ping-pong ball stash runs out? Trent just shrugged his shoulders and without hesitation said “I’ll find a solution to that problem as well.” 

Spoken like a true inventor. 

Website: www.saferain.com.au

Evidence of Quality

Patent No. 676709

Trent’s Invention has also been carefully examined by the Triton Foundation for commercial potential. He is also selling the devices – on a small scale- with excellent feedback.