Washing machine and rinsing control method thereof

Abstract

Disclosed herein are a washing machine that performs a rinsing operation while rotating a drum at a predetermined RPM without stopping the drum after spin-drying and a rinsing control method thereof The washing machine includes a drum to receive laundry and a motor to rotate the drum. The rinsing control method includes rotating the drum to perform spin-drying and decelerating the drum to a predetermined velocity to perform rinsing. Consequently, it is possible to improve rinsing efficiency even using a small amount of water. Also, it is possible to uniformly distribute the laundry in the drum without eccentricity, although a laundry untangling process for spin-drying is performed only once during the rinsing, which is performed several times, thereby reducing the total rinsing time.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 2008-0006797, filed on Jan. 22, 2008 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, and of Korean Patent Application No. 2008-0006768, filed on Jan. 22, 2008 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a washing machine and a rinsing control method thereof, and, more particularly to a washing machine that performs a rinsing operation while rotating a drum at a predetermined RPM and a rinsing control method thereof.[0004]2. Description of the Related Art[0005]Generally, a washing machine (normally, a drum type washing machine) is a machine, including a water tub to receive water (wash water or rinse water), a cylindrical drum rotatably mounted in the water tub to receive laundry, and a motor to generate a drive force ne...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]Therefore, it is an aspect of the invention to provide a washing machine and a rinsing control method thereof that are capable of performing a rinsing operation, while rotating a drum in a predetermined RPM, thereby improving rinsing efficiency.

[0011]It is another aspect of the invention to provide a washing machine and a rinsing control method thereof that are capable of performing a rinsing operation at a predetermined RPM to maintain a balanced state without stopping a drum after spin-drying, thereby omitting a laundry untangling process performed at the time of every spin-drying, and therefore, reducing the total rinsing time.

[0012]It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a washing machine and a rinsing control method thereof that are capable of performing further rinsing within reduced rinsing time, thereby achieving much more rinsing within the total rinsing time, and therefore, improving rinsing efficiency.

Problems solved by technology

If the drum 12 is rotated at the predetermined RPM (approximately 1000 RPM or more) in an unbalanced state in which the laundry W is nonuniformly distributed along the inner wall of the drum 12 as shown in FIG. 2, an eccentric force is applied to a rotary shaft of the drum 12 with the result that great vibration is generated.

Also, when the spin-drying process is performed in the unbalanced state, spin-drying time may increase and spin-drying errors may occur due to the unbalance.

Furthermore, when the laundry W is picked out after the completion of washing, a large amount of force is necessary to untangle the tangled laundry, which causes dissatisfaction of housewives, main users of the washing machine.

In the washing machine above, however, the laundry untangling process is performed before the drum 12 is rotated at the predetermined RPM (approximately 1000 RPM or more) at the time of every spin-drying process in the rinsing operation, which is repeated several times, and the unbalance value is measured.

To raise the rinsing efficiency, it is required to supply a large amount of water sufficient to fully wet the laundry, which increases the water consumption.

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