A dryer including a drum; a heat pump including a compressor, evaporator, condenser, and electronic expansion valve; a user interface; a power module to control power supply to the compressor motor and the drum motor; a duct to receive air from the drum so that the received air flows in the duct to be heated by operation of an evaporator and condenser, and to discharge the heated air to the drum; a plurality of temperature sensors to detect temperature of the heat pump, the power module, and the duct; and a controller configured to identify a factor to be controlled from among a plurality of factors that may cause incomplete drying, based on at least one of output data from the plurality of temperature sensors and opening degree data of the electronic expansion valve, and control the user interface to output a notification of the identified factor to be controlled.

A dryer including: a drum; a duct connected to the drum; a compressor connected to an evaporator and a condenser provided inside the duct; a heater provided inside the duct; a fan provided inside the duct; a motor to rotate the fan; and a controller configured to perform a first operation of operating the compressor, the heater, and the motor based on no object being inside the drum, and a second operation of operating the heater and the motor without operating the compressor. The dryer may sterilize the inside of the dryer, particularly, a flow path through which humid air passes.

The heat pump system and the electrical heating system of a clothes dryer are controlled to work cooperatively, thus allowing the clothes dryer to at least comprise a fast mode in which the electrical heating pipe of the heating system is turned on after the compressor of the heat pump system is turned on and operated stably. Air about to enter the clothes drying drum is controlled to be firstly heated by the condenser of the heat pump system and further heated by the electrical heating pipe, and then to enter the clothes drying drum, and the load of the heat pump system is reduced in an auxiliary condensing manner, when the load of the heat pump system is close to the maximum load. Therefore, simultaneous working of the electrical heating system and the heat pump system is ensured, and the clothes drying speed is improved.

The present invention relates to a clothes treating apparatus, including a communication unit to transmit or receive information related to a usage history of the clothes treating apparatus, a memory to store the information related to the usage history, an air supply device to heat air supplied into an accommodation space of the clothes treating apparatus, and a controller to extract a use time zone of the clothes treating apparatus based on the information related to the usage history, drive the air supply device in a preset pattern within the extracted use time zone, and stop an operation of the clothes treating apparatus at a time zone except for the extracted use time zone.

The present disclosure relates to a heat pump based dryer or a combination washer and dryer device comprising a housing receiving a drum for containing associated articles to be dried by air that flows along a pathway between an outlet and an inlet of the housing. A fluid is provided in the pathway to at least partially remove moisture from the air. A heat pump includes a heat source located at least partially within the pathway and a heat sink being operatively adapted to the heat source to circulate a refrigerant therein. An enclosure at least partially containing the heat sink is arranged to accept the fluid from the pathway to exchange heat with the heat sink and return the fluid to the pathway. Fluid may be provided to the pathway by a spray nozzle adjacent the outlet or by an evaporative media downstream of a lint separator.

A drum for a combination washer dryer can include a plurality of sections. The sections can be interconnected by a plurality of flexible gaskets. The drum can be configured to expand and contract radially. The drum can radially expand to dry wet laundry during a drying phase following a washing phase in which laundry is washed.

A laundry treating apparatus is disclosed. The laundry treating apparatus includes a cabinet configured to define a receiving space for receiving laundry, the cabinet having an open surface, a door hingedly provided at the cabinet for opening and closing the open surface of the cabinet, a laundry support unit provided in the receiving space for supporting laundry, and a machinery compartment provided in the cabinet for defining a space that is separate from the receiving space, the machinery compartment being provided therein with an air supply unit for dehumidifying or heating air in the receiving space and supplying the dehumidified or heated air into the receiving space. The air supply unit dehumidifies air in a room that communicates with the receiving space in the state in which the door is open.

Disclosed herein is a heat pump type dryer for reducing the manufacturing cost thereof and maintaining an appropriate quantity of radiation by auxiliary heat exchanger. The clothes dryer D includes housing 1; drum portion 2 installed in the housing 1 and configured to accommodate clothes; a circulation ventilation path 3 configured to pass through the drum portion 2; a heat pump apparatus 5 having a compressor 52, a condenser 53, a throttling device 54, and an evaporator 51, connected to form a flow path through which refrigerant circulates; an auxiliary heat exchanger 55 installed outside the ventilation path, and connected in series to a flow path in the condenser 53 or in parallel to the condenser 53; and a cooling apparatus 6 configured to cool the auxiliary heat exchanger 55.

A clothes treating apparatus is provided that may include an accommodation chamber, in which an object may be accommodated; a first heat pump cycle having a first evaporator, a first compressor, a first condenser, and a first expansion valve; a second heat pump cycle having a second evaporator, a second compressor, a second condenser, and a second expansion valve, and arranged such that air introduced into the accommodation chamber passes through the first evaporator, the second evaporator, the second condenser and the first condenser, sequentially; and a controller configured to control an operation of the first and second heat pump cycles. At least one of the first compressor or the second compressor may be provided with an inverter that changes a drive speed of the compressor through a frequency conversion. The controller may drive the at least one of the first compressor or the second compressor within a predetermined drive range, by controlling the drive speed of the at least one of the first compressor or the second compressor using the inverter.

Washing machine appliances and methods of operating the same are provided. Such methods may include, and/or appliances may be configured for, receiving a command to commence an operating cycle of the washing machine appliance and filling the wash tub with wash liquid from a fluid circulation system configured for providing fluid to the wash tub via an inlet of the fluid circulation system in response to the command. Methods may further include and/or appliances may be configured for, obtaining one or more images of the inlet of the fluid circulation system during the fill step using a camera mounted within the cabinet. The camera is positioned and oriented with the inlet within a field of vision of the camera. Based on the one or more images, a determination is made whether a water pressure provided to the fluid circulation system is above a predetermined minimum water pressure.