Importance

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Abstract

A clothes washing machine is provided with a wash tub (1) and a rotating arm (2) accommodated within the wash tub and adapted to contain washload items and capable of being driven so as to rotate both at high and low rotating speeds. A pressure switch (3) is arranged within an appropriate air chamber connected with the intake thereof at a location (4) situated below the lower level (5) of the wash tub. An inlet and shut-off (6) governs the water supply from the water delivery mains to the wash tub. The inlet and shut-off is arranged to detect average soaking characteristics of the washload items placed in the drum by first measuring their overall capacity of absorbing a defined amount of water, and then processing the measured capacity on the basis of the weight of the washload items, the weight being known. The machine operates by letting defined water amounts into the wash tub, wherein the water is allowed to be absorbed by the washload up to the maximum soaking capacity thereof and the amount of absorbed water is then measured at the difference between the amount of water let into the tub and the residual amount of water. Alternatively, the machine operates by performing a substantially similar procedure, except the washload undergoes a spin-extraction phase before the amount of residual water is measured and the calculations are made on the basis of the different water retention characteristics of the spin-extracted washload items.

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First Claim