Refrigerator

Abstract

An evaporator which enables respective side surfaces of an inner liner defining a storage compartment to be uniformly cooled to provide uniform distribution of temperature in the storage compartment. A refrigerator includes the evaporator positioned on an outer surface of the inner liner to absorb heat from the inner liner. The evaporator includes at least two side surface cooling portions respectively positioned on at least first and second side surfaces of the inner liner. The side surface cooling portion positioned at a downstream side to allow refrigerant of lower cooling capability to flow therethrough is longer than the side surface cooling portion positioned at an upstream side to allow refrigerant of higher cooling capability to flow therethrough. The refrigerant cools the inner liner while flowing through the side surface cooling portion positioned at the downstream side for a longer period, enabling a uniform distribution of temperature in the storage compartment.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0066301, filed on Jul. 21, 2005 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to a refrigerator. More particularly, the present invention relates to a refrigerator which enables opposite sides of an inner liner defining a storage compartment to be uniformly cooled. [0004] 2. Description of the Related Art [0005] Generally, a conventional refrigerator is an electrical appliance used to preserve various foods in a fresh state for a long period of time by maintaining a storage compartment storing the foods at low temperatures. [0006] For example, a kimchi refrigerator disclosed in Korean Patent Laid-open Publication No. 10-2000-54515 includes a storage compartment adapted to open forwardly when storing foods, ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] The first side surface cooling portion is bent to form a plurality of arrays in a vertical direction, and positioned on an outer surface of the first side surface, and the second side surface cooling portion is bent to form a plurality of arrays in the vertical direction, and positioned on an outer surface of the second side surface, the number of arrays of the second side surface cooling portion being more than that of the arrays of the first side surface cooling portion.

Problems solved by technology

Thus, when passing through the first side surface cooling portion positioned at the upstream side of the second side surface cooling portion, the refrigerant has excellent cooling capability in comparison to when passing through the second side surface cooling portion, so that non-uniform cooling is performed between one side of the inner liner cooled by the first side surface cooling portion and the other side of the inner liner cooled by the second side surface cooling portion, resulting in non-uniform distribution of temperature in the storage compartment.

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