System and method for controlling a dryer appliance

System and method for controlling an appliance for drying clothing articles is provided. The appliance has a container for receiving the clothing articles. A motor is provided for rotating the container about an axis. A heater is provided for supplying heated air to the container during a dry cycle. A sensor is provided for providing a signal indicative of moisture content of the articles. Memory is provided memory for storing historical stop time data of respective dry cycles. A noise-reduction filter is coupled to receive the signal from the moisture sensor to provide selectable filtering to that signal. A timer provides a signal indicative of elapsed time upon start of the dry cycle. A module is responsive to the historical data in the memory for determining an initial estimate of the stop time of the dry cycle to be executed. A processor allows for estimating the stop time of the dry cycle as the cycle is being executed. The estimation of the stop time is based on a respective functional relationship of the noise-reduced sensor signal, and the timer signal, relative to one or more characteristics of the articles and one or more desired values of predetermined dry-cycle parameters selectable by a respective user of the dryer. The initial estimate of the stop time is superceded by the stop time estimated by the processor as the cycle is being executed.