Patent ID: 7490490

Claim:
A drum type washing machine for carrying out a dehydration of laundry articles by rotating a drum with the laundry articles contained therein at a high speed around a horizontal or inclined rotation shaft, comprising: a motor for rotating the drum; a speed change detector for detecting a change in a speed of the drum under a condition that the motor is controlled to rotate at a constant speed so that the drum rotates at a first speed for an agitating operation that agitates the laundry articles contained in the drum at a start-up of a dehydrating operation; and a dehydration start-up controller for controlling the motor so that the speed of the drum is raised to a speed where the laundry articles are pressed onto an inner circumferential wall of the drum by centrifugal force when the change in the speed detected by the speed change detector is smaller than a predetermined value, wherein the dehydration start-up controller reverses a rotating direction of the drum and conduct an agitating operation in the reversed direction when the speed change detector detects a sudden change in the speed within a short period of time during the first speed for agitating operation.