Laundry treating appliance with over-sudsing condition compensation measures

• US 10,415,171 B2
• Filed: 07/24/2018
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Leep, Nicholas
• Primary Examiner(s): Ko, Jason Y
• Application Number:
  US16/043,319
• Publication Number:
  US 20180327953A1
• Time in Patent Office: 420 Days
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/00 User input for the control of domestic laundry washing machines, washer-dryers or laundry dryers
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/20 Operation modes, e.g. delicate laundry washing programs, service modes or refreshment cycles
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/20 Washing liquid condition, e.g. turbidity
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/24 Spin speed; Drum movements
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/42 Detergent or additive supply
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 25/00 Washing machines with receptacles, e.g. perforated, having a rotary movement, e.g. oscillatory movement, the receptacle serving both for washing and for centrifugally separating water from the laundry and having further drying means, e.g. using hot air control of washing or of washing and drying D06F33/00, D06F34/00; domestic laundry dryers D06F58/00
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 33/37 of metering of detergents or additives
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 34/22 Condition of the washing liquid, e.g. turbidity
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 39/02 Devices for adding soap or other washing agents

Abstract

A method of automatically initiating a procedure to adjust dosing of laundry treating chemistry after satisfying a threshold of determined over-sudsing conditions in a laundry treating appliance during a cycle of operation. The number of over-sudsing condition is aggregate. Once the aggregate total satisfies a predetermined threshold, a predetermined dosage of laundry treating chemistry is adjusted. The over-sudsing aggregate total can also be reset in the event of an operational event such as a replenishment of a bulk treating chemistry, input by a user of a default value, or passing of a temporal reference, wherein the predetermined dosage is reset to a default value.

Claims

1. A method for setting a treating chemistry dosage in a laundry treating appliance having a treating chemistry dispenser that dispenses a predetermined dosage of treating chemistry according to a selected cycle of operation, the method comprising:

maintaining an aggregate total of over-sudsing conditions occurring over multiple implementations of the selected cycle of operation; and

adjusting the predetermined dosage for the selected cycle of operation when the aggregate total is greater-than-or-equal-to a predetermined threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically dispensing the treating chemistry from the dispenser.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the dispenser is a bulk dispenser sized to hold multiple doses of the predetermined dosage.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising increasing the aggregate total only when the selected cycle of operation includes the dispensing of treating chemistry from the bulk dispenser.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein the dispenser is a single-dose dispenser sized to hold a single dose of the predetermined dosage.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein maintaining the aggregate total comprises incrementing the aggregate total no more than once per implementation of the selected cycle of operation regardless of the number of over-sudsing conditions during each implementation of the selected cycle of operation.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein maintaining the aggregate total comprises incrementing the aggregate total for each over-sudsing condition during each implementation of the selected cycle of operation.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the aggregate total is reset upon the adjusting of the predetermined dosage.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising increasing the aggregate total only when the over-sudsing condition occurs within a predetermined temporal reference.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the predetermined temporal reference is at least one of a predetermined number of implemented predetermined cycles of operation or a predetermined time.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the adjusting the predetermined dosage comprises reducing the predetermined dosage.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising resetting the predetermined dosage to a default value in response to an operational event wherein the operational event comprises at least one of a replenishment of a bulk treating chemistry, a user input of the default value, or passing of a predetermined temporal reference.

13. A method of mitigating a possible over-sudsing condition in a laundry treating appliance having a single-dose treating chemistry dispenser that dispenses treating chemistry during implementation of a selected cycle of operation, the method comprising:

maintaining an aggregate total of over-sudsing conditions occurring over multiple implementations of the selected cycle of operation;

supplying treating chemistry from the single-dose dispenser and water to the laundry treating appliance to form a wash liquid comprising a mixture of water and treating chemistry;

in response to the aggregate total being greater-than-or-equal to a predetermined threshold, altering the selected cycle of operation by at least one of;

supplying additional water to the laundry treating appliance to form a diluted wash liquid;

draining wash liquid from the laundry treating appliance followed by the addition of more water;

or

dispensing less than all of the single dose of treating chemistry from the dispenser.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising automatically dispensing the treating chemistry from the dispenser.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein maintaining the aggregate total comprises incrementing the aggregate total no more than once per implementation of the selected cycle of operation regardless of the number of over-sudsing conditions during each implementation of the selected cycle of operation.

16. The method of claim 13 wherein maintaining the aggregate total comprises incrementing the total for each over-sudsing condition during each implementation of the selected cycle of operation.

17. The method of claim 13 wherein the aggregate total is reset upon the altering of the selected cycle of operation.

18. The method of claim 13 further comprising increasing the aggregate total only when the over-sudsing condition occurs within a predetermined temporal reference.

19. The method of claim 13 wherein the altering of the selected cycle of operation comprises reducing a predetermined dosage of the treating chemistry.

20. The method of claim 13 further comprising resetting a predetermined dosage of treating chemistry to a default value in response to an operational event wherein the operational event comprises at least one of a replenishment of a bulk treating chemistry, a user input of the default value, or passing of a predetermined temporal reference.