Clothes dryer

Claim 1

A clothes dryer having a drying system that includes, in combination, a. a heat generating chamber having heat generating means therein; b. a clothes tumbling and drying chamber; c. a first conduit running from the heat generating chamber to the tumbling and drying chamber and communicating exclusively with said chamber so that essentially all gaseous drying medium introduced through the heat generating chamber is required to pass to and through the tumbling and drying chamber; d. a second conduit means connected to conduct the gaseous drying medium from the tumbling and drying chamber to a reheating chamber which surrounds the heat generating chamber in intimate heat exchanging relation therewith; e. a third conduit means connected to deliver the drying medium from the reheating chamber to a neutral chamber having discharge openings, one from which it may be discharged to the atmosphere, and the other connected to said heat generating chamber so that part of said drying medium may be returned for recirculation through the heat generating chamber; f. drying medium impelling means in certain of said conduits for causing the drying medium to progress as described; g. thermostatic switch means associated with the tumbling and drying chamber and responsive to the temperature thereof; and h. means responsive to said thermostatic switch means for activating the heat generating means and causing drying medium to be freshly introduced from the heat generating chamber for transmittal in its entirety to and through the tumbling and drying chamber so long as the temperature in the tumbling and drying chamber has not attained a predetermined maximum value, but effective upon the attainment of such maximum value to cut off the furnishing of fresh drying medium through the heat generating chamber and to suspend the generation of heat in said chamber, with the consequence that drying medium already in the system at such cut-off is caused to recirculate through said chambers, including particularly the heat generating chamber, until the temperature in the tumbling and drying chamber has fallen to a predetermined minimum, at which point the thermostatic means reinstitutes the generation of heat in the heat generating chamber and the delivery of fresh drying medium therefrom.