Laundry treating appliance with controlled cycle time

• US 9,027,258 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2010
• Issued: 05/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Original Assignee: Whirlpool Corporation
• Inventors: Bellinger, Ryan R., Kmet, David J., Paustian, Michele A., Williams, David M., Parde, Scott D., Shaw, Joseph M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Jiping
• Application Number:
  US12/909,153
• Publication Number:
  US 20120096736A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,664 Days
• Field of Search: 342/82, 344/91, 345/24, 345/49, 345/95
• US Class Current: 34/427
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/02 Characteristics of laundry or load
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/04 Quantity, e.g. weight
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2101/06 Type or material
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/38 Time, e.g. duration
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2103/44 Current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/28 Electric heating
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/52 Changing sequence of operational steps; Carrying out additional operational steps; Modifying operational steps, e.g. by extending duration of steps
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 2105/58 Indications or alarms to the control system or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 58/02 having dryer drums rotating about a horizontal axis
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 58/38 of drying, e.g. to achieve the target humidity
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 58/46 Control of the operating time
• CPC Class Codes: D06F 58/50 Responding to irregular working conditions, e.g. malfunctioning of blowers

Abstract

A method of operating a clothes dryer having a treating chamber for receiving a laundry load, an air system for supplying and exhausting air from the treating chamber, a heating element for heating the air supplied to the treating chamber, and a controller implementing a cycle of operation, wherein the controller estimates a cycle time of a drying cycle of operation.

Claims

1. A method of operating a clothes dryer comprising a treating chamber for receiving a laundry load for drying, an air system for supplying and exhausting air from the treating chamber, a heating element for heating the air supplied to the treating chamber, and a controller implementing a cycle of operation having a cycle time, the method comprising:

a) sensing a wattage of the heating element during the implementation of the cycle of operation;

b) providing the sensed wattage as input to the controller; and

c) wherein the controller updates the cycle time based on at least the sensed wattage.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the sensing of the wattage comprises sensing a voltage applied to the heating element.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the sensing the voltage applied to the heating element comprises sensing the voltage between electrical mains supplying electricity to the heating element.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the inputting the sensed wattage to the controller comprises inputting the sensed voltage to the controller.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the inputting the sensed voltage to the controller comprises providing a signal indicative of the sensed voltage to the controller.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein the updating the cycle time comprises setting a remaining cycle time.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising repeatedly setting the remaining cycle time during the implementation of the cycle of operation.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the repeatedly setting the remaining cycle time comprises repeatedly sensing the wattage and repeatedly determining the remaining cycle time for each repeated sensing of the wattage.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein updating the cycle time comprises setting a drying time portion of the cycle time.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein setting the cycle time further comprises adding at least one of final dry time and cool down time to the drying time.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising determining at least one physical characteristic of the laundry load in the treating chamber, inputting the at least one physical characteristic to the controller, wherein the controller generates the updated cycle time based on at least the sensed wattage and the at least one physical characteristic.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the determining the at least one physical characteristic comprises sensing the at least one physical characteristic.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the determining the at least one physical characteristic comprises receiving the at least one physical characteristic as input from a user.

14. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one physical characteristic of the laundry load comprises at least one of:

dry weight of the laundry load, wet weight of the laundry load, moisture content of the laundry load, and fabric type of the laundry load.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising running an electrical self-test on a power supply providing electricity to the heating element for a wiring fault of the power supply.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the running of the self-test is conducted prior to the sensing of the wattage applied to the heating element.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the self-test is run a predetermined number of times.

18. The method of claim 15 wherein when the power supply is a three phase power supply having electrical mains (L1, L2) and a neutral line N, the testing comprises determining voltages for L1, L2 and L1 to L2, and comparing the voltages.

19. The method of claim 15 wherein the self-test generates fault data indicative of a fault condition that is received as input by the controller to alter the operation of the clothes dryer for the fault condition.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the updating the cycle time further comprises the controller estimating the cycle time based on at least the sensed wattage.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising displaying the estimate of the cycle time on a user interface of the clothes dryer.