US Patent 11680360 Hybrid RF/conventional clothes dryer

The present application encompasses methods and apparatus for heating a load such as clothes immersed in a medium such as water during a heating period. A method embodiment of the present invention comprises heating the load and medium within an enclosure by subjecting said load and medium to heated air originated from a conventional energy source; and applying heat to said load and medium within the enclosure via an AC electrical field, embodied as a capacitor, originated from an RF power source.