Controlling method for clothes dryer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10081902-B2
Application number	US-201414570895-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 15, 2014
Priority date	Mar 29, 2011
Publication date	Sep 25, 2018
Grant date	Sep 25, 2018

Abstract

A controlling method for a dryer is applied to a dryer, in which at least one of a heat pump system and a heater is selected as a heat source for heating air supplied in to a drum and a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than that of the heater. The controlling method includes, when both the heat pump system and the heater are selected as the heat sources, turning the heat pump system on, turning the heater on after the heat pump system is normally turned on, turning the heater off to cool the drum and terminate drying after the drying is performed, and turning the heat pump system off after the heater is turned off.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A dryer capable of drying items to be dried, the dryer comprising:
a main body;
a drum rotatably installed inside the main body to accommodate items to be dried therein;
a drive motor to drive the drum;
a heating apparatus including a heat pump system forming a thermodynamic cycle, to heat air supplied into the drum, the heat pump system including an evaporator at an air exhaust side of the drum, a condenser at an air inlet side of the drum, an expansion valve, and a compressor; and a heater installed at a downstream side of the condenser to heat air supplied into the drum, wherein a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is greater than a heat supply capacity of the heater;
a control panel having a variety of manipulation buttons to operate the dryer; and
a controller configured to turn on or off at least one of the heat pump system or the heater according to a user selection input through the control panel, wherein the controller activates one of a normal drying mode or a high-speed drying mode according to the user selection, turns on the heat pump system in the normal drying mode, and turns on both the heat pump system and the heater in the high-speed drying mode.

2. The dryer of claim 1 , wherein in the high-speed drying mode, the controller turns the heat pump system on, turns the heater on after the heat pump system is turned on in a normal operation, turns the heater off to cool the drum and terminate drying after the drying is performed, and turns the heat pump system off after the heater is turned off.

3. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller reversely rotates and forwardly rotates the drive motor to drive the drum, and drives the compressor so as to turn the heat pump system on after forwardly rotating the drive motor.

4. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller determines whether or not the compressor included in the heat pump system operates in the normal operation, and drives the compressor so as to turn the heat pump system on after the normal operation of the heat pump system is determined.

5. The dryer of claim 4 , wherein the controller determines whether or not the compressor operates in the normal operation by comparing a temperature variation of a refrigerant having passed through the compressor with a predetermined reference temperature variation.

6. The dryer of claim 4 , further comprising a display, wherein when the compressor operates abnormally, the controller turns the compressor off, and controls the display to display an existence of an error in the dryer.

7. The dryer of claim 4 , wherein the determining of whether or not the compressor operates in the normal operation is performed by measuring a discharge pressure of the compressor.

8. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to a temperature of air supplied into the drum or a temperature of air discharged from the drum after the heater is turned on, and activates the normal drying mode when a number of times of turning the heater off reaches a predetermined reference number of times.

9. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to a temperature of the refrigerant having passed through the compressor after the heater is turned on.

10. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to a temperature of a refrigerant having passed through the compressor after turning the heater on in the normal operation.

11. The dryer of claim 2 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to temperature of air supplied into the drum or temperature of air discharged from the drum.

12. The dryer of claim 11 , wherein when a number of times of turning the heater off reaches a predetermined reference number of times, only the heat pump system is used as the heat source to control the dryer to be converted into the normal drying mode.

13. A dryer capable of drying items to be dried, the dryer comprising:
a main body;
a drum rotatably installed inside the main body to accommodate items to be dried therein;
a drive motor to drive the drum;
a heating apparatus including a heat pump system forming a thermodynamic cycle, to heat air supplied into the drum, the heat pump system including an evaporator at an air exhaust side of the drum, a condenser at an air inlet side of the drum, an expansion valve, and a compressor; and a heater installed at a downstream side of the condenser to heat air supplied into the drum, wherein a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is greater than a heat supply capacity of the heater;
a control panel having a variety of manipulation buttons to operate the dryer; and
a controller configured to activate one of a normal drying mode or a high-speed drying mode according to a user selection through the control panel, wherein the controller turns on the heat pump system and not the heater in the normal drying mode, and wherein the controller turns on both the heat pump system and the heater in the high-speed drying mode.

14. Apparatus for controlling a dryer capable of drying items to be dried, wherein the dryer includes a heat pump system and a heater to heat air supplied into a drum, the apparatus comprising:
means for receiving a user selection signal through a control panel included in the dryer; and
means for activating one of a normal drying mode or a high-speed drying mode based on the user selection signal;
means for turning on the heat pump system and not the heater in the normal drying mode; and
means for turning on both the heat pump system and the heater in the high-speed drying mode, wherein a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than a heat capacity of the heater.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Jung Kiwook
• Lee Junseok

Classifications

• D06F2105/28

  Electric heating · CPC title

• D06F2103/44

  Current or voltage · CPC title

• D06F2105/46

  Drum speed; Actuation of motors, e.g. starting or interrupting · CPC title

• D06F2103/50

  related to heat pumps, e.g. pressure or flow rate · CPC title

• D06F2103/34

  Humidity · CPC title