Washing machine with balancer and control method thereof
AssigneeSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
InventorsMin Sung Kim, Jeong Hoon Kang, Dong Ha Jung, Doo Young Rou
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Abstract
Disclosed herein are a washing machine with a balancer to counterbalance unbalanced load produced during rotation of a drum and a control method thereof. The washing machine having a balancer to counterbalance unbalanced load produced during rotation of the drum seats a mass in a groove in the balancer before rotation of the drum possibly producing unbalance as in the spin-drying cycle begins, thereby efficiently maintaining balance of the drum. Accordingly, vibration in the drum may be reduced and product liability incident due to touch of the frame may be prevented.
Claims19
A method of controlling a washing machine including a drum, a motor to rotate the drum, and a balancer including a plurality of masses, a groove including an inclined sidewall to accommodate the plurality of masses, and at least one magnet coupled to a surface of a balancer housing to counterbalance unbalanced load produced in the drum during rotation of the drum, the method comprising operations of:
- (a) rotating the drum in one direction for a first length of time in a spin-drying cycle;
- (b) stopping the drum for a second length of time after rotating the drum in the one direction for the first length of time;
- (c) rotating the drum in a reverse direction for a third length of time after the second length of time elapses;
- (d) stopping the drum for the second length of time after rotating the drum in the reverse direction for the third length of time,
- wherein a clockwise and a counterclockwise stirring operation of the drum comprising the operations (a) to (d) is performed at least once to perform a ball distributing cycle of evenly distributing at least some of the plurality of masses in the balancer in a balancer housing, and
- wherein a force applied to at least one of the plurality of masses by the rotating the drum is counterbalanced by a supporting force applied to the at least one of the plurality of masses by the inclined sidewall of the groove, and
- wherein a movement of at least one of the plurality of masses in the groove is restricted by a magnetic force produced by the at least one magnet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.