Dishwasher sanitation cycle
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorRichard Edward Hornung
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dishwasher sanitation cycle includes sampling a temperature of rinse water inside a dishwasher, executing a heating cycle to keep water temperature at optimal levels, and executing a heat sum cycle to ensure that dishes are sanitized according to accepted standards.
Claims11
A method for sanitizing contents of a dishwasher with rinse water, the dishwasher including a rinse water temperature sensor and a rinse water heater and a controller coupled to the sensor and the heater, said method comprising the steps of:
- executing a temperature cycle to determine rinse water temperature;
- executing a heating cycle to optimize rinse water temperature;
- indexing a heat sum value for the determined rinse water temperature;
- executing a heat sum cycle to monitor heating of the dishwasher contents;
- and
- repeating the above steps at fixed time intervals until a predetermined heat sum value is obtained.
A controller for a dishwasher including a water temperature sensor, a water heater, and a water pump, said controller programmed to:
- monitor a rinse water temperature at a fixed time interval and operate the water heater and water pump in response thereto when a dishwasher sanitation cycle is selected;
- index a heat unit equivalent value at the fixed time interval when said rinse water temperature is within an acceptable sanitization range;
- and
- cumulatively sum a heat unit equivalent total at each successive fixed time interval until a selected cumulative sum is reached.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.