Controlling method for clothes dryer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10895035-B2
Application number	US-201816227046-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2018
Priority date	Mar 29, 2011
Publication date	Jan 19, 2021
Grant date	Jan 19, 2021

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 clothes, the dryer comprising:
a main body;
a drum rotatably installed inside the main body for accommodating clothes therein;
a driving motor for driving the drum;
a heating unit including a heat pump system constructing a thermodynamic cycle, for heating air supplied into the drum, by including an evaporator at an exhaust side from the drum, a condenser at an inlet side of the drum, an expansion valve and a compressor and a heater installed at downstream of the condenser for heating air supplied into the drum, wherein a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than that of the heater;
a control panel having a variety of manipulation buttons for operating 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 inputted through the control panel and the controller is further configured to turn the heater on at an initial time before the heat pump system is normally operated and also after the heat pump system is normally operated.

2. The dryer of claim 1 , wherein the controller activates one of a normal drying mode and a high-speed drying mode according to the user selection, turns on the heat pump system in the normal mode, and turns on both the heat pump system and the heater in the high-speed drying mode.

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

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

5. The dryer of claim 3 , wherein the controller determines whether or not a compressor included in the heat pump system normally operates, and drives the compressor so as to turn the heat pump system on after the normal operation of the heat pump system is checked.

6. The dryer of claim 5 , wherein the controller determines whether or not the compressor normally operates by comparing a temperature variation of a refrigerant having passed through the compressor with a preset reference temperature variation.

7. The dryer of claim 5 , further comprising a display unit, wherein when the compressor abnormally operates, the controller turns the compressor off, and controls the display unit to display an existence of error in the dryer.

8. The dryer of claim 5 , wherein the determining of whether or not the compressor normally operates is performed by measuring discharge pressure of the compressor.

9. The dryer of claim 3 , 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 after the heater is turned on, and activates the normal drying mode when the number of turning the heater off reaches a predetermined reference number of times.

10. The dryer of claim 3 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to the temperature of the refrigerant having passed through the compressor after the heater is turned on.

11. The dryer of claim 3 , wherein the controller turns the heater on and off in a repetitive manner according to the temperature of a refrigerant having passed through the compressor after normally turning the heater on.

12. The dryer of claim 3 , 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.

13. The dryer of claim 12 , wherein when the number 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.

14. A controlling method for a dryer capable of drying clothes, wherein the dryer includes a heat pump system and a heater for heating air supplied into a drum, the method comprising:
receiving a user selection signal through a control panel included in the dryer, and
turning on or off at least one of the heat pump system or the heater based on the user selection signal, wherein a heat supply capacity of the heat pump system is more than that of the heater wherein the turning on or off at least one of the heat pump system or the heater according to a user selection comprises;
activating one of a normal drying mode and a high-speed drying mode based on the user selection signal; and
turning on the heat pump system in the normal mode and turning on both the heat pump system and the heater in the high-speed drying mode.

Assignees

• Lg Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Jung Kiwook
• Lee Junseok

Classifications

• D06F58/50

  Responding to irregular working conditions, e.g. malfunctioning of blowers · CPC title

• D06F58/48

  Control of the energy consumption · CPC title

• D06F58/20

  General details of domestic laundry dryers  (D06F59/00 takes precedence) · CPC title

• D06F58/10

  Drying cabinets or drying chambers having heating or ventilating means · CPC title

• D06F2105/62

  Stopping or disabling machine operation · CPC title