Process for the cleaning of a drying condenser in clothes dryer

• US 5,226,203 A
• Filed: 01/24/1992
• Issued: 07/13/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Electrolux Zanussi SpA (AB Electrolux)
• Original Assignee: Zanussi Elettrodomestici SPA (Zanussi SpA)
• Inventors: Steffanon, Italo, Sacconato, Emanuele
• Primary Examiner(s): Stinson, Frankie L.
• Application Number:
  US07/825,029
• Time in Patent Office: 536 Days
• Field of Search: 68/13, 68/20, 8/158, 8/159, 34/42, 34/85
• US Class Current: 8/159
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 58/24 Condensing arrangements

Abstract

A procedure that is applied for cleaning and removing lint from the drying air condenser for laundered clothes in a combined washer and dryer machine, a procedure suitable for obtaining said cleaning by washing the internal walls of said condenser with water taken from inside the basin during one or more phases of a washing cycle.

Claims

1. A process for cleaning internal walls of a drying air condenser in a combined machine for washing and drying clothing in a basin by condensation comprising the steps of:

heating the drying air by means of a heating element (9);

forcing circulation of said air by means of a ventilator (11);

condensing humidity contained in said air with a jet of fresh water entering said circulating air, said condensation occurring in a suitable condenser (7,8);

discharging the condensed humidity outside the machine; and

cleaning said condenser, in particular its lower portion (7), by means of forced circulation of a portion of washing or discharge liquid inside said condenser.

2. A process for washing the internal walls of a condenser according to claim 1, in which said condenser is in communication with said basin through an opening (13) in the lower part of the condenser, the step of cleaning the condenser being characterized by the fact that during at least one period in which the level of water in the basin surpasses the level of said opening, suction of the circulating air used for drying is activated by said ventilator (11) to raise water from the basin into said condenser.

3. A process for washing the internal walls of a condenser according to claim 1, further wherein the machine comprises a recirculating pump (20) for suction of washing liquid from the bottom of the basin (4) and the subsequent admission of the liquid into the basin through a corresponding conduit of recirculation (6), characterized by the fact that said recirculating pump (20) through an additional conduit (22) sends a jet of washing liquid inside the condenser.

4. A process for cleaning according to claim 3, characterized by the fact that said jet originating from said second conduit (22) enters inside said condenser with a speed capable of reaching and hitting a condenser wall opposite the conduit entrance and then a condenser wall adjacent the conduit entrance so as to cause a continuous bouncing of said jet substantially in every direction so as to wet and therefore wash the internal surface of said condenser, in particular in the vicinity of its lower part (7).