A method for operating a clothes treating apparatus comprising a hot air supplying unit provided with a heater and a blowing device, and having a drying function of drying clothes by supplying hot air into a drum by use of the hot air supplying unit, includes rotating the drum with the clothes introduced therein, and supplying hot air into the drum by using the heater and the blowing device while the drum is rotated, wherein an air flow rate supplied by the blowing device changes during the hot air supplying step.

A method for controlling a laundry treating apparatus includes a dry cloth sensing operation of sensing an amount of clothes put into a drum, a wet cloth sensing operation of sensing a washing load based on a moisture content of the clothes by supplying water into a tub, and a cloth material sensing operation of sensing a cloth material of the clothes put into the drum based on a rpm gap and a motor-constrained state where rotation of a motor is restricted. The rpm gap is a difference between a target rpm of a rotator in the drum and an actual rpm of the rotator.

A method for controlling an exhaust type clothes dryer may include measuring humidity of air passing through an interior of the drum to sense a degree of dryness of a target item, and discharging air that has passed through the drum or recirculating at least a portion of air that has passed through the drum to the drum by comparing a degree of dryness of the target item with a predetermined reference value. In the recirculating of air, an amount of recirculated air may be increased according to an increase in the degree of dryness of the target item by adjusting a degree of opening of a recirculation channel.

Disclosed herein is a clothes treatment apparatus. The clothes treatment apparatus includes a drum configured to accommodate clothes, an inputter configured to receive one of a plurality of programs and configured to receive a start command, a storage configured to store information on a setting time corresponding to a weight of clothes for each program and configured to store information on a default time for each program previously executed, in the form of tables, a processor configured to detect a weight of clothes when any one program is received and a start command is received, configured to identify a setting time corresponding to the detected weight of clothes and the received program, configured to control the execution of the received program based on the identified setting time, and configured to store an operation time, which is taken until the completion of the received program, as a default time, and a display configured to display a remaining time during the execution of the received program.

Provided are a clothes dryer using far-infrared heating and a clothes-drying control method thereof. The clothes dryer using far-infrared heating includes a clothes-drying drum, and further includes at least one far-infrared heater, a humidity sensor for detecting exhaust humidity of the clothes-drying drum, a relay and a controller having an output end connected with the relay; where all the far-infrared heaters are connected with a power supply through the relay; a first temperature sensor is mounted inside one of the far-infrared heaters; the first temperature sensor and the humidity sensor are connected with an input end of the controller; and the controller controls on and off of the relay according to a received temperature signal or humidity signal. A control system described above simplifies a circuit, and also saves cost.

A dryer monitoring system receives dryer information from one or more sensors concerning operation of one or more dryers, such as clothes dryers. For example, the dryer monitoring system may receive temperature and/or humidity information from one or more dryers. The dryer monitor analyzes the dryer data to determine whether textiles in the dryer are dry. The dryer monitor may analyze one or more states and/or one or more indicators (patterns in the dryer data) during the dryness determination.

A laundry treatment apparatus that includes: a cabinet; an outer tub that is disposed inside the cabinet; a plurality of heat exchange tubes through which air discharged from the outer tub moves, the plurality of heat exchange tubes being arranged to have a gap between adjacent heat exchange tubes; a heat exchange tube housing that is configured to accommodate the plurality of heat exchange tubes and that defines an interior area configured to store cooling water; a cooling water introduction passage that is coupled to a lower portion of the heat exchange tube housing and through which cooling water is provided to the heat exchange tube housing; and a cooling water discharge passage that is coupled to a upper portion of the heat exchange tube housing and through which cooling water stored in the heat exchange tube housing is discharged is disclosed.

A laundry treating apparatus include: a cabinet; a tub disposed in the cabinet; a drum rotatably disposed in the tub, and having a cylindrical portion formed of a ferromagnetic material and a rear wall portion for closing an open rear end of the cylindrical portion, wherein the cylindrical portion has a plurality of through-holes formed therein and allows laundry to be loaded thereinto through an opening portion formed on a front surface; an induction heater disposed in the tub and configured to heat the drum by inducing an eddy current in the cylindrical portion; a duct disposed on an outer side of the tub, having an inlet communicating with an open front surface of the cylindrical portion, and an outlet communicating with the tub through a side surface of the tub surrounding the cylindrical portion; and an air blower configured to suction air, discharged from the drum, into the inlet.

Disclosed are a method and an apparatus for determining drying of clothes. The method for determining drying of clothes includes: acquiring an intake air temperature at an air inlet of a drum; calculating a change rate of the intake air temperature at the air inlet of the drum; determining that drying of the clothes is completed when a relationship between the change rate of the intake air temperature and a preset temperature change rate k.sub.s satisfies a determination condition. According to the clothes drying determination method of the present disclosure, the determination factors affecting the drying of clothes are reduced, and the accuracy of determination of drying of clothes is improved and the cost of drying clothes is reduced.

A method for measuring the humidity of a laundry mass contained in a laundry treatment chamber of a laundry appliance. The method includes: providing a capacitor in the laundry appliance, the capacitor having, as part of the capacitor dielectric, the laundry mass; measuring a capacitance of the capacitor by means of an electronic circuitry electrically supplied by a supply voltage and a reference voltage. Providing a capacitor comprises: providing in the laundry appliance at least one conductive plate which forms a plate of the capacitor, and exploiting, as a second plate of the capacitor, routing lines distributing inside the laundry drying appliance the reference voltage.