Water supply circuit for a laundry treating appliance

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11053628-B2
Application number	US-201715643687-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 7, 2017
Priority date	Jul 7, 2017
Publication date	Jul 6, 2021
Grant date	Jul 6, 2021

Abstract

A laundry treating appliance and method of operating a laundry treating appliance includes a treating chamber receiving laundry for treating, a dispenser fluidly coupled to the treating chamber and a faucet. A water supply circuit includes a hot water inlet and a cold water inlet supplying hot water, cold water, or a mixture of hot and cold water to the faucet.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A laundry treating appliance comprising:
a treating chamber receiving laundry for treatment;
a dispenser having at least a first and second treating chemistry reservoir fluidly coupled to the treating chamber;
a faucet having an outlet fluidly coupled to the treating chamber; and
a water supply circuit comprising:
a mixing chamber;
a cold water inlet;
a hot water inlet;
a first cold water supply conduit fluidly coupling the cold water inlet to the mixing chamber;
a second cold water supply conduit bypassing the mixing chamber and fluidly coupling the cold water inlet to the second treating chemistry reservoir;
a hot water supply conduit fluidly coupling the hot water inlet to the mixing chamber;
a supply conduit fluidly coupled to the mixing chamber;
a faucet supply conduit fluidly coupling the supply conduit to the faucet, and without a controllable valve provided along the faucet supply conduit;
a detergent supply conduit fluidly coupling the supply conduit to the first treating chemistry reservoir, with a dispenser valve fluidly coupled to and controlling a flow of water through the detergent supply conduit;
wherein the supply conduit and the faucet supply conduit define a direct fluid coupling from the mixing chamber to the faucet; and
a controller configured to operate the laundry treating appliance according to a cycle of operation, the controller being further operably coupled to the water supply circuit and configured to actuate the dispenser valve to selectively supply water leaving the mixing chamber through the supply conduit to the detergent supply conduit;
wherein the water leaving the mixing chamber is supplied to the faucet during the cycle of operation or by request of a user through the controller, such that the water leaving the mixing chamber is supplied to the faucet.

2. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , further comprising a user interface configured to receive as input a selected temperature of water to supply to the faucet.

3. The laundry treating appliance of claim 2 , wherein the controller is communicably coupled with the user interface and configured to selectively control a ratio of hot and cold water supplied to the faucet based on input to the user interface.

4. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the water supply circuit comprises an array of pilot valves controlling a flow of water through the hot water supply conduit and the first and second cold water supply conduits.

5. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , further comprising a door movable to selectively close the treating chamber in a closed position and to provide access to the treating chamber in an open position, wherein the faucet becomes accessible when the door is in the open position.

6. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the water supply circuit further comprises at least one temperature sensor for sensing a temperature of water supplied to at least one of the faucet, the first treating chemistry reservoir, or both.

7. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the water supply circuit is configured to selectively supply water to the faucet independent of supplying water to the first and second treating chemistry reservoirs during an automatic cycle of operation.

8. The laundry treating appliance of claim 7 , wherein the water supply circuit supplies water to the faucet when water is supplied to the first treating chemistry reservoir during the automatic cycle of operation.

9. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein water is only supplied to the at least one of the first and second treating chemistry reservoirs when water is supplied to the faucet.

10. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein water is always supplied to the faucet when water is supplied to the at least one of the first and second treating chemistry reservoirs.

11. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the supply conduit is provided upstream of both the faucet supply conduit and the detergent supply conduit to fluidly couple both the faucet supply conduit and the detergent supply conduit to the mixing chamber.

12. The laundry treating appliance of claim 11 , wherein the dispenser valve selectively fluidly couples the supply conduit to the detergent supply conduit downstream of the coupling of the supply conduit with the faucet supply conduit.

13. The laundry treating appliance of claim 12 , wherein the supply conduit supplies hot water, cold water, or a mixture of hot and cold water from the mixing chamber to both the faucet supply conduit and the dispenser valve.

14. The laundry treating appliance of claim 13 , wherein water is only supplied to the dispenser valve when water is supplied to the faucet.

15. The laundry treating appliance of claim 14 , wherein the water leaving the mixing chamber is always supplied to the faucet when water is supplied to the dispenser valve.

16. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the first cold water supply conduit includes a first cold water valve to selectively supply cold water to the mixing chamber.

17. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the second cold water supply conduit includes a second cold water valve to selectively supply cold water to the second treating chemistry reservoir.

18. The laundry treating appliance of claim 1 , wherein the dispenser is configured to dispense water from at least one of the first chemistry treating reservoir and the second chemistry treating reservoir.

Assignees

• Whirlpool Co

Inventors

• Alarcon Celso Andres
• Cannon Marcus A
• Gonzaga Emmanuel F
• Stormo Guy

Classifications

• D06F39/028 Primary

  Arrangements for selectively supplying water to detergent compartments · CPC title

• D06F39/088 Primary

  Liquid supply arrangements · CPC title

• D06F33/34

  of water filling · 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

• D06F37/12

  adapted for rotation or oscillation about a vertical axis · CPC title