Laundry washing machine with automatic detection of detergent deficit
AssigneesMidea America Corporation, Midea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorsPhillip C. Hombroek, Christopher G. Hoppe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A laundry washing machine and method utilize a fluid property sensor to determine a detergent deficit subsequent to manual addition of detergent by a user, such that additional detergent may be automatically dispensed.
Claims18
A laundry washing machine, comprising:
- a wash tub disposed within a housing;
- a detergent dispenser configured to dispense detergent for washing a load disposed in the wash tub;
- a fluid property sensor configured to sense turbidity and/or conductivity of fluid from the wash tub;
- and
- a controller coupled to the detergent dispenser and the fluid property sensor, the controller configured to initiate a fill phase of a wash cycle to dispense water into the wash tub subsequent to a manual addition of detergent by a user to form a wash fluid, determine a detergent deficit in the wash fluid based upon a fluid property value sensed by the fluid property sensor, and cause the detergent dispenser to automatically dispense additional detergent in response to determining the detergent deficit.
A method of operating a laundry washing machine of the type including a wash tub disposed within a housing, a fluid property sensor configured to sense turbidity and/or conductivity of fluid from the wash tub, and a detergent dispenser configured to dispense detergent for washing a load disposed in the wash tub, the method comprising:
- initiating a fill phase of a wash cycle to dispense water into the wash tub subsequent to a manual addition of detergent by a user to form a wash fluid;
- determining with a fluid property sensor a detergent deficit in the wash fluid;
- and
- automatically dispensing additional detergent with a detergent dispenser in response to determining the detergent deficit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.