Method for operating a laundry treatment appliance and laundry treatment appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10815596-B2
Application number	US-201716307243-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 24, 2017
Priority date	Jun 13, 2016
Publication date	Oct 27, 2020
Grant date	Oct 27, 2020

Abstract

A method for operating a laundry treatment appliance having a casing within which a drum rotated by a motor is arranged, an opening provided in the casing for loading the laundry into the drum and a door adapted to open or to close the opening. The method includes performing a treatment cycle that includes: a) determining the amount of laundry load in the drum; and b) if the determined amount of laundry is outside a laundry load threshold range, issuing a warning to the user and waiting for a prescribed waiting time before starting the cycle, whereby during the waiting time the laundry treatment appliance switches to an operating mode in which the user to is allowed to change the amount of laundry load in the drum.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for operating a laundry treatment appliance, comprising a casing within which a drum rotated by a motor is arranged, an opening provided in the casing for loading the laundry into the drum and a door adapted to selectively open and close the opening, the method comprising performing a laundry treatment cycle comprising:
a) determining the amount of laundry load in the drum;
b) if the determined amount of laundry is outside a laundry load threshold range, issuing a warning to the user and waiting for a prescribed waiting time before starting the cycle; and
during the prescribed waiting time, switching the laundry treatment appliance to an operating mode in which the user to is allowed to change the amount of laundry load in the drum,
wherein a changing of the amount of laundry loaded into the drum by the user is detected by the opening and the closure of the door during the waiting time.

2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
c) determining if the amount of loaded laundry has been changed after the warning has been issued;
d) upon determining that the amount of laundry load in the drum has not changed, starting the at least one laundry treatment cycle; and
e) upon determining that the amount of laundry load has changed, re-performing steps a) to e).

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the treatment cycle further comprises the step of indicating if and/or how much the amount of laundry load lies outside the laundry load threshold range.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the warning comprises an acoustic signal and/or message.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the laundry treatment appliance comprises a display, and the warning comprises displaying an indication on the display.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the prescribed waiting time is between 10 and 120 seconds.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the prescribed waiting time is 30 seconds.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the appliance comprises a tub, and step a) is performed without and/or before supplying water to the tub.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in step a) the laundry load amount is determined by rotating the drum and measuring parameters related to the motor.

10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising selecting the laundry load threshold range based on a selected washing program of the appliance and/or on the kind of laundry.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the laundry treatment appliance is a combined washer/dryer, and wherein the laundry treatment cycle is a combined washing and drying cycle, and wherein an upper bound of the laundry load threshold range of step b) is a threshold value based on the maximum laundry load that can be dried in the combined washing and drying cycle.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein in the combined washing and drying cycle, the drying operations are performed after all washing operations.

13. A laundry treatment appliance, comprising:
a casing;
a rotatable drum inside the casing;
a motor configured to rotate the rotatable drum
an opening provided in the casing for loading laundry into the drum;
a door adapted to selectively open and close the opening;
and a control unit configured to operate the laundry treatment appliance by:
a) determining the amount of a laundry load in the drum;
b) if the determined amount of laundry is outside a laundry load threshold range, issuing a warning to the user and waiting for a prescribed waiting time before starting the cycle; and
during the prescribed waiting time, switching the laundry treatment appliance to an operating mode in which the user to is allowed to change the amount of laundry load in the drum,
wherein a changing of the amount of laundry loaded into the drum by the user is detected by the opening and the closure of the door during the waiting time.

14. The laundry treatment appliance according to claim 13 , wherein the laundry treatment appliance is configured as a front-loading washing machine or a combined washer/dryer.

15. The laundry treatment appliance according to claim 13 , wherein the control unit is further configured to operate the laundry treatment appliance by:
c) determining if the amount of loaded laundry has been changed after the warning has been issued;
d) upon determining that the amount of laundry load in the drum has not changed, starting the at least one laundry treatment cycle; and
e) upon determining that the amount of laundry load has changed, re-performing steps a) to e).

Assignees

• Electrolux Appliances AB

Inventors

• De Luca Fernando
• Mazzon Andrea

Classifications

• D06F33/74 Primary

  Responding to irregular working conditions, e.g. malfunctioning of pumps  (safety arrangements for washing machines D06F37/42) · CPC title

• D06F33/47 Primary

  Responding to irregular working conditions, e.g. malfunctioning of pumps  (safety arrangements D06F37/42) · CPC title

• D06F2105/50

  Starting machine operation, e.g. delayed start or re-start after power cut · CPC title

• D06F25/00

  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 title

• D06F2105/60

  Audible signals · CPC title