Wet laundry dewatering apparatus

An appliance for dewatering washed laundry articles, comprising:

• a cylindrical vessel (12) for receiving the laundry articles to be dewatered, a lower counterpressure plate (27) permeable to water, a pressure plunger (26) which is located at a distance above the vessel and which can be pressed onto a top edge (13) of the vessel or moved into it, a device for monitoring the top edge of the vessel to check for laundry articles left lying on said edge when the laundry articles are introduced into the vessel, and an electrical control device operatively connected to the edge-monitoring device for controlling a hydraulic drive of the pressure plunger, wherein the edge-monitoring device comprises an electrical conductivity-measuring device (42) disposed at the top vessel edge (13) and extending in a same direction thereas, and a conductivity evaluation unit (46), and wherein said conductivity-measuring device and said evaluation unit (42, 46) are operatively connected to one another and to an electrical control line of a hydraulic control valve (57) located in a hydraulic fluid inflow to and flow-off from a pressure cylinder (31) of the pressure plunger (26) such that when a current flow is detected by the conductivity-measuring device (42) in response to the presence of a wet laundry article it is not possible for the pressure plunger (26) to execute a descending movement.