A laundry treating apparatus may include a drum in which laundry is stored, an air flow passage through which air is circulated, and a heating duct configured to supply hot air to the drum. The air flow passage and heating duct may be configured to prevent or reduce or cooling or condensing of moisture in the circulated air. A steam compressor may be provided to compress some of the air flowing through the air flow passage.

A drying appliance includes a cabinet. A drum processes articles of laundry. The drum is positioned for rotational operation within the cabinet. A blower directs process air through a recirculating airflow path that includes the drum. The drum and the blower are activated in an operating state and deactivated in an idle state. A first operable vent is positioned proximate a front of the cabinet. A second operable vent is positioned proximate a rear of the cabinet. The first and second operable vents define an open position after the drum and the blower define the idle state. The first and second operable vents define a closed position after the drum and the blower define the operating state.

A clothing treatment apparatus according to the present disclosure includes a cabinet which forms a treatment space for accommodating clothing, a duct in which an inside air channel which sucks inside air from the treatment space and guides the inside air to discharge the inside air to the treatment space, and an outside air channel which sucks outside air from an outer space of the cabinet and guides the outside air to discharge the outside air to the treatment space are preset, a fan which moves air in the duct, and (i) an opening and closing module which is operated to change whether or not a through-channel including at least one of an outside air inlet channel between the outer space and the outside air channel and (ii) an exhaust outlet channel between the treatment space and the outer space is blocked.

A disclosed dryer includes a receptacle configured to contain material to be dried, an air duct configured to route recirculating air and/or fresh air to the receptacle, a heating device configured to heat the recirculating air, and at least one sensor. The sensor is configured to determine a relative humidity and/or temperature, and the air duct includes at least one adjusting element configured to modify a portion of recirculating air routed to the receptacle. The dryer further includes a control or regulating device configured to control or regulate the portion of recirculating air routed to the receptacle and/or a heating capacity of the heating device during a drying process. A disclosed method includes controlling a portion of recirculating air routed to the receptacle and/or a heating capacity of the heating device. Further, a mixture of recirculating air and fresh air are varied during heat-up, drying, and cool-down phases.

A clothing treatment apparatus includes a cabinet which forms a treatment space for accommodating clothing, a duct in which an inside air channel which sucks inside air from the treatment space and guides the inside air to discharge the inside air to the treatment space, and an outside air channel which sucks outside air from an outer space of the cabinet and guides the outside air to discharge the outside air to the treatment space are preset, a fan which moves air in the duct, and (i) an opening and closing module which is operated to change whether or not a through-channel including at least one of an outside air inlet channel between the outer space and the outside air channel and (ii) an exhaust outlet channel between the treatment space and the outer space is blocked.

A clothes-treating apparatus includes: a housing including an accommodating space to accommodate clothes therein; and a plurality of air conditioning modules provided inside the housing and different in an air conditioning function from each other, wherein each of the plurality of air conditioning modules is provided to be switched over between an exposing status in which the air conditioning function is activated and a blocking status in which the air conditioning function is inactivated, and a first air conditioning module among the plurality of air conditioning modules is in the exposing status while a second air conditioning module is in the blocking status. Thus, the clothes-treating apparatus prevents the air conditioning functions of the plurality of air conditioning modules from being offset by each other, thereby improving the effects of the air conditioning functions and extending the life of each air conditioning module.

A laundry treatment apparatus includes a washing machine module and a drying machine module that are integrally installed in a common cabinet, and a single drying module configured to produce dry hot air. The laundry treatment apparatus has a reduced product size and performs a method for drying laundry in a washing drum and a drying drum. The method includes detecting a dryness in real time while performing drying processes simultaneously in the washing drum and the drying drum by the common drying module, and controlling an amount of supplied dry hot air and an amount of recovered dry hot air to be different to reduce an overall drying process time and electric power consumption. The drying processes performed in the drying machine of the washing machine are simultaneously completed to improve convenience for a user.

A clothes drying device, including an air channel, an air path switching assembly, multiple clothes drying apparatuses, and multiple heating apparatuses. The air path switching assembly includes a first multi-position switching component and a second multi-position switching component. The first multi-position switching component and the second multi-position switching component are respectively provided between a hot air input section and intermediate heat source sections and between a hot air output section and the intermediate heat source sections; the first multi-position switching component and the second multi-position switching component have the same number of switching positions and are configured to work in conjunction to each other so that at least one clothes drying apparatus is selectively communicated with the corresponding hot air input section, the hot air output section, and the intermediate heat source sections so as to form a circulation loop.