Patent ID: 7322126

Claim:
An appliance for drying clothing articles, the appliance comprising: a drum for receiving the clothing articles; a motor for rotating the drum about an axis; a heater for supplying heated air to the drum during a drying cycle; a moisture sensor for providing a moisture signal indicative of the moisture content of the clothing articles; an inlet temperature sensor for sensing temperature of the heated air flowing into the drum; a processor coupled to the moisture sensor for estimating the stop time of the dry cycle as the dry cycle is executed based on a signal representative of the moisture content of the clothing articles and a selected target signal, the processor selecting the selected target signal based on at least one input parameter received from a first parameter generating module; and the first parameter generating module being coupled to the inlet temperature sensor to sense inlet temperature of heated air entering into the drum, the first parameter generating module measuring a first slope corresponding to rise of the inlet temperature of air entering the drum during a first initial time period of operation of the dryer, comparing the first slope with a first value indicative of a first predetermined slope for rise of the inlet temperature during the first initial period, and generating and transmitting to the processor one of a first air flow input parameter or a second air flow input parameter, the first air flow input parameter being generated when the first parameter generating module determines that the first slope is less than the first value and the second air flow input parameter being generated when the first parameter generating module determines that the first slope is greater than the first value.