A washing appliance is provided, including a tub configured to house items to be washed; an inlet valve configured to be operated in an open condition for causing washing fluid to be loaded into the tub and in a closed condition for preventing washing fluid to be fed to the appliance; a circulation pump configured to circulate the washing fluid in the tub during a washing cycle; a control unit configured to determine an operative state of the circulation pump between a saturation state indicative that sufficient washing fluid is present in the tub to prevent air from being drawn out by the circulation pump, and a starvation state indicative that insufficient washing fluid is present in the tub to prevent air from being drawn out by the circulation pump. The control unit is further configured to receive an indication of a target speed for the circulation pump based on a user-selected washing cycle and/or on a phase of the user-selected washing cycle; control the current speed of the circulation pump based on the target speed, the inlet valve condition, the operative state of the circulation pump; operate the inlet valve based on: the target speed, the current speed of the circulation pump, and the operative state of the circulation pump.

A cleaning composition dispensing device for use in an automatic dishwasher is provided for dispensing the right cleaning composition at the right time during a wash cycle. The device includes wash cycle sensing system that controls the release of cleaning composition via temperature and water flow data measured with respect to time. The device includes a refill compartment receiving a multi-section refill including at least two cleaning composition sections divided by separable seams. The multi-section refill separates into individual cleaning composition sections during placement in the refill compartment that fall into the slots forming the refill compartment.

A dishwasher includes a housing having walls defining a tub having an outlet and inlet for humid air to flow out from and into the tub, respectively. A drying system contacts at least one wall of the tub. The drying system includes an inlet conduit fluidly connected to the outlet and an outlet conduit fluidly connected to the inlet with the inlet conduit and the outlet conduit forming an inverted V-shaped air circuit defining an airflow path therethrough. The drying system also includes at least one adsorbent component having an adsorbent material positioned along the airflow path, and at least one gate check valve blocking airflow from the tub to the adsorbent material during a wash cycle. The adsorbent material is regenerated via heat transfer through the at least one wall from the tub during a wash cycle when the gate check valve is closed.

A method of controlling operation of an appliance, comprising: presenting at a user interface, an option to change an operating program of the appliance; operating the appliance according a selected change of the operating program; displaying, on the user interface, an indicator representing the change in the operating program; and displaying, on the user interface, separately from the displayed indicator representing the change in the operating program, a degree of ecological impact caused by the selected change of the operating program, wherein the degree of ecological impact indicates a level of resource consumption used by the appliance to operate according to the selected operating program. Also provided are appliances, such as dishwasher or refrigerators, configured to perform the method.

An automated cleaning machine may include one or more short cleaning cycles in which the duration of a cleaning cycle is shortened relative to the duration of a default cleaning cycle. During a short cleaning cycle, other cleaning cycle parameters may also be adjusted to ensure that the articles subjected to the short cleaning cycle are adequately cleaned and sanitized. For example, the wash temperature, rinse temperature, and/or cleaning product amounts or concentrations, may be adjusted to account for the shortened duration of the cleaning cycle. The automated cleaning machine may further include one or more short cycle mode(s) during which short cleaning cycle parameters are used and one or more default cycle mode(s) during which default cleaning cycle parameters are used.

An apparatus for dispensing a detergent solution from a solid detergent into a dishwasher can be attached to a dishwasher rack around a perimeter of the rack and collect water in the dishwasher and use the collected water to produce the detergent solution by dissolving a portion of the solid detergent. In various embodiments, the apparatus can include a detergent chamber to accommodate the solid detergent and optionally an end-of-detergent indicator to indicate an amount of the solid detergent in the detergent chamber. In various embodiments, release of the detergent solution can be controlled passively using size of a liquid outlet or actively using operational state of the dishwasher and/or a sensed signal indicative of the concentration of the detergent in the dishwasher water.

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