Household appliance with control element

Abstract

A household appliance includes at least one control element for modifying at least one operating parameter of the household appliance. At least one modification of at least one operating parameter which modification has been executed last is resettable by a reset control element. In a method for operating a domestic appliance, a most recently executed modification of an operating parameter can be reset by an operator.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation, under 35 U.S.C. § 120, of U.S. application Ser. No. 14 / 238,201, filed Feb. 11, 2014, now allowed, which is a U.S. national stage application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of PCT / EP2012 / 066637, filed Aug. 28, 2012, which designated the United States; this application also claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, to German Application No. 10 2011 081 767.0, filed Aug. 30, 2011.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]The invention relates to a household appliance with at least one control element for modifying at least one operating parameter of the household appliance. The invention further relates to a method for operating a household appliance.[0003]It is known that if a control element which is provided for modifying at least one operating parameter of the household appliance is not operated correctly, an operator or user must reset this operating parameter. The difficulty which arises in such cases is that the op...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0006]The object is achieved by a household appliance with a least one control element for modifying at least one operating parameter of the household appliance. The household appliance also has at least one reset control element which is intended for resetting at least one most recently carried out modification. This gives the advantage that the operator no longer has to remember the incorrectly set value but merely needs to actuate the reset control element in order to return the value to its original setting. Such resetting is also able to be executed especially easily, especially with a few actuations.

[0017]Another embodiment is that a modification is able to be reset after the household appliance is switched off up to a third predefined period of time, which is especially shorter than the second predefined period of time. The provision of the third predefined period of time prevents a household appliance deliberately switched off and switched back on again much later being reset to operating parameter values before it was switched off.

[0024]Another embodiment is that a resetting by the reset control element is only then able to be initiated if there is no incorrect actuation present. Thus a new modification following on directly from the resetting can be avoided because of the non-rectified incorrect actuation function.

[0027]Another embodiment is that the reset control element is coupled to a memory device, wherein the memory device is configured to store the at least one modification made most recently. This makes a simple resetting possible. The memory device might be a memory device assigned permanently to the reset control element for example or might be present as a memory area of a memory unit of a central control unit of the household appliance.

[0028]A development is to restore the at least one modification with a respective actuation of the resetting control element (and to do so into a memory or into memory areas in which the values of the operating parameters are able to be stored or are stored during operation of the household appliance). The restoring makes an especially simple resetting implementation possible.

[0032]A further embodiment is that a storage of a modification is able to be deleted automatically (i.e. is deleted or is not even made at all) if the associated at least one operating parameter has not been modified by the modification. This might be the case for example for a modification of an operating parameter in which a target value corresponds to an initial value. This enables storage space to be saved and an operator is not confused during resetting by not recognizing any change on actuating the reset control element.

Problems solved by technology

The difficulty which arises in such cases is that the operator frequently no longer remembers the value of the operating parameter set incorrectly by the incorrect operation of the control element.

It can even occur that a number of operating parameters are set incorrectly by the incorrect operation of a control element, which further complicates making a new setting.

Images