| US 7,594,343 B2 | ||
| Drying mode for automatic clothes dryer | ||
| Christopher John Woerdehoff, St. Joseph, Mich. (US); Andrew Charles Reck, Watervliet, Mich. (US); David John Kmet, Paw Paw, Mich. (US); and James Frederick Swanson, Berrien Springs, Mich. (US) | ||
| Assigned to Whirlpool Corporation, Benton Harbor, Mich. (US) | ||
| Filed on Feb. 14, 2006, as Appl. No. 11/353,330. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2007/0186438 A1, Aug. 16, 2007 | ||
| Int. Cl. F26B 3/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 34—491 [34/381; 34/572; 34/554; 34/527; 34/562; 68/20; 307/34; 219/497; 392/496; 324/664] | 22 Claims |
| 1. A method of drying clothes in a clothes dryer comprising a clothes chamber for receiving clothes, an air supply system
for directing air through the clothes chamber, and a heater for heating the air supplied by the air supply system, the method
comprising:
energizing the heater between a lower limit trip point temperature and an upper limit trip point temperature, which is higher
than the lower limit trip point temperature, to define an ON state, with the lower limit trip point temperature defining a
heater reset condition and the upper limit trip point temperature defining a heater trip condition;
deenergizing the heater between the upper limit trip point temperature and the lower limit trip point temperature to define
an OFF state;
cycling the heater between the ON state and the OFF state to supply heat to the clothes chamber;
determining a heater off time corresponding to the duration of the heater in the OFF state by determining the time between
the heater trip condition and the heater reset condition; and
calculating a drying time based on the heater off time.
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