The invention relates to a household appliance for the care of items of laundry, with an air-guiding device arranged in the region of the rear side of the household appliance, with the air-guiding device having a flow duct, which has two opposite open end regions, with a fan device being arranged on one end region and a covering being positioned in such a manner that at least the fan device is covered by the covering.
During operation of this known clothes dryer relatively high energy losses occur, particularly at metal parts of the clothes dryer. This frequently increases the energy consumption of such household clothes dryers considerably. Also air-guiding noise is emitted over large metal surfaces of the household clothes dryer, causing a considerable noise output. Also the known household clothes dryers have the disadvantage that drying times are frequently relatively long, which is also due to inadequate air guiding.
The object of the present invention is therefore to create a household appliance for the care of items of laundry, having a reduced energy consumption and also relatively low noise output during operation. It is an object of the present invention in particular to create a clothes dryer, which can also guarantee a reduction in drying time as well as low energy consumption and quiet operation.
This object is achieved by a household appliance for the care of items of laundry, having the features of claim 1.
An inventive household appliance for the care of items of laundry has an air-guiding device arranged in the region of the rear side of the household appliance. The air-guiding device has a flow duct, which has two opposite open end regions, with a fan device being arranged on one end region and a covering being positioned in such a manner that at least the fan device is covered by the covering. One important concept of the invention is that at least the fan device is covered in a double-walled manner in the region facing away from the household appliance. Such double-walled covering of the fan device on the outside of the fan device allows a significantly improved insulation effect to be achieved. The energy consumption of the inventive household appliance can also be reduced as a result and in particular if the inventive household appliance is embodied as a clothes dryer it is also possible to reduce the drying time for items of laundry to be cared for in the clothes dryer.
The double-walled covering of the fan device is advantageously embodied by the covering and an additional separate cover, arranged between the fan device and the covering. The fan device is thus covered by two separate elements in the region facing away from the household appliance, with these two elements being guided within one another to cover the fan device, thereby also allowing an extremely space-saving embodiment to be achieved.
The additional separate cover is preferably made of plastic. This allows the number of metal surfaces in the household appliance to be reduced and the separate cover can be produced relatively easily.
The air-guiding device preferably has a closed flow duct with open end regions, with the closed flow duct preferably being embodied in two parts and being embodied by a wall region of the rear side of the household appliance facing the outside of the household appliance and an element with a U-shaped cross-section arranged on this wall region. This allows very effective and efficient air guidance between the fan device and a heating device, which can be connected to an open end region of the air-guiding device. A flow duct closed in this manner also allows the energy consumption of the household appliance to be reduced further and the drying time of items of laundry to be cared for in the household appliance can also be decreased further.
The fan device and heating device are advantageously connected to the air-guiding device, it being possible to connect the heating device to the first open end region and the fan device to the second open end region of the closed flow duct.
The fan device advantageously has a fan impeller, with the fan impeller being arranged in a housing, said housing having an opening, which opens into the second open end region of the closed flow duct. This allows the guiding of air from the fan device, in particular from the fan impeller by way of the closed flow duct to the heating device and from this into a drum of the inventive household appliance, in which the items of laundry to be cared for are contained, to be optimized.
Further advantageous refinements of the invention are set out in the subclaims, which can be combined with each other in any manner according to the invention.
A preferred exemplary embodiment of the invention is described in more detail below with reference to the schematic drawings, in which:
In
In the perspective illustration according to
In the exemplary embodiment the fan device 4 has a fan impeller 41 (not shown), which is enclosed by a housing 42 (not shown). The fan device 4 and in particular the fan impeller 41 are covered in the inventive manner in the region facing away from the clothes dryer 1 by an additional separate cover 43. The region of the fan device 4 facing away from the wall region 5 is referred to here as the region facing away from the clothes dryer 1. At least the fan device 4, in particular the fan impeller 41, is also covered with a further covering 6. In the exemplary embodiment shown according to
As also shown in the illustration in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2005 023 442.9 | May 2005 | DE | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/EP2006/060163 | 2/22/2006 | WO | 00 | 11/19/2007 |