Method and apparatus for determining load amount in a laundry treating appliance
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorFarhad Ashrafzadeh
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for determining the amount of laundry in a laundry treating appliance comprises determining a first load amount based on a characteristic of the oscillating of a drum and determining if the first load amount satisfies a load amount threshold. When the first load amount satisfies the load threshold, the drum may be rotated in accordance with a laundry inertia algorithm to determine inertia of the load. The second load amount may then be determined based on the inertia of the laundry.
Claims29
A method for determining the amount of laundry in a laundry treating appliance comprising a drum defining a treating chamber for receiving the laundry and a motor for rotating the drum about an axis of rotation, the method comprising:
- oscillating the drum about a predetermined position;
- determining at least one first load amount characteristic based on a characteristic of the oscillating of the drum;
- determining whether the at least one first load amount characteristic satisfies a load threshold characteristic;
- rotating the drum in accordance with a laundry inertia algorithm to determine the inertia of the load when the at least one first load amount characteristic satisfies the load threshold characteristic;
- and
- determining a second load amount characteristic based on the inertia of the laundry.
A method for determining the amount of laundry in a laundry treating appliance comprising a drum defining a treating chamber for receiving the laundry and a motor for rotating the drum about an axis of rotation, the method comprising:
- rotating the drum at a speed below a speed threshold according to a first load amount algorithm;
- determining a first load amount characteristic based on a characteristic of the rotating of the drum below the speed threshold;
- determining whether the first load amount characteristic satisfies a load threshold characteristic;
- rotating the drum above the speed threshold according to a second load amount algorithm, when the first load amount characteristic satisfies the load threshold characteristic;
- and
- determining a second load amount characteristic based on a characteristic of rotating the drum above the speed threshold.
A laundry treating appliance comprising:
- a drum defining a treating chamber for receiving laundry and rotatable about an axis of rotation;
- a motor operably coupled to the drum to rotate the drum about the axis of rotation;
- a controller operably coupled to the motor to rotate the drum according to a first load amount algorithm to determine a first load amount characteristic and a second load amount algorithm to determine a second load amount characteristic, the first load amount algorithm configured to rotate the drum at a different speed than the second load amount algorithm,
- wherein the controller is configured to determine whether the first load amount characteristic satisfies a load threshold characteristic, and is further configured to determine the second load amount characteristic only when the first load amount characteristic satisfies the load threshold characteristic.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.