Dishwasher having a turbidity sensor

• US 9,456,731 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2008
• Issued: 10/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Miele & CIE KG
• Original Assignee: Miele & CIE KG
• Inventors: Berends, Erik, Ennen, Guenther, Kara, Seyfettin
• Primary Examiner(s): Bugg, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): AKKI, MUNEAR T
• Application Number:
  US12/740,135
• Publication Number:
  US 20100295690A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,897 Days
• Field of Search: 340/603, 340/604, 340/691.1, 134/18, 134/113
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 15/0049 Detection or prevention of malfunction, including accident prevention arrangements to prevent clogging of filters A47L15/4208; safety arrangements for preventing water damage A47L15/421
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 15/4293 Arrangements for programme selection, e.g. control panels; Indication of the selected programme, programme progress or other parameters of the programme, e.g. by using display panels
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2301/00 Manual input in controlling methods of washing or rinsing machines for crockery or tableware, i.e. information entered by a user
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2401/10 Water cloudiness or dirtiness, e.g. turbidity, foaming or level of bacteria
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2501/26 Indication or alarm to the controlling device or to the user
• CPC Class Codes: A47L 2501/30 Regulation of machine operational steps within the washing process, e.g. performing an additional rinsing phase, shortening or stopping of the drying phase, washing at decreased noise operation conditions

Abstract

A dishwasher includes an input element configured to select a first wash cycle from a plurality of wash cycles, a controller configured to control a cycle parameter, a turbidity sensor configured to measure a soil level of a wash liquid, and a display device configured to at least temporarily display the soil level measured by the turbidity sensor.

Claims

1. A dishwasher comprising;

an input element configured to select a first wash cycle from a plurality of wash cycles and configured to select a soil level;

a turbidity sensor configured to measure a soil level of a wash liquid;

a controller configured to control a cycle parameter and configured to perform a comparison as to whether an actual soil level substantially corresponds to the selected soil level; and

a display device configured to display correction information if the actual soil level differs from the selected soil level.

2. The dishwasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the display device is configured to display the measured soil level in a plurality of gradations.

3. The dishwasher as recited claim 1, wherein the display device is configured to display an automatically selected wash cycle of the plurality of wash cycles, the automatically selected wash cycle being based on the measured soil level.

4. The dishwasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the display device is configured to display the correction information after a deviation between the actual soil level and the selected soil level has been detected a plurality of times.

5. The dishwasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to automatically modify at least one sub-cycle of the first wash cycle when the actual soil level differs from the selected soil level.

6. The dishwasher as recited in claim 1, wherein the cycle parameter includes at least one of a duration and temperature profile of a sub-cycle.