Patent ID: 9637854
Date: 2017-05-02
CPC Classifications: D06F

Claim:
1. A method of controlling a washing machine including a drum to accommodate laundry; a motor to rotate the drum; and a balancer mounted to the drum, the balancer including a balancer housing having an annular channel and a plurality of the masses made of metal disposed in the annular channel, an inner surface of the balancer housing including circumferentially spaced grooves to accommodate the masses, and an outer surface of the balancer housing including circumferentially spaced magnets positioned to correspond to the grooves, the magnets being configured to restrict the masses to the grooves when the drum is rotated in a ball distributing rpm range, the method comprising: (a) determining a current cycle is a spin-drying cycle; (b) performing a ball distributing cycle to evenly distribute the masses in the grooves of the balancer housing; (c) performing a laundry untangling cycle to evenly distribute the laundry in the drum; (d) accelerating the motor to a spin drying speed; and (e) while the motor is accelerating to the spin drying speed, sensing unbalance of the drum by comparing a rate of rotation of the drum to a current variable of the motor, and re-performing at least one of (b) and (c) when the drum is unbalanced.