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Refrigerator with no-frost freezer

Inactive Publication Date: 2014-06-26
WHIRLPOOL CORP
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The present invention aims to provide a refrigeration appliance that can improve the storing performances of frozen food items without presenting the drawbacks of conventional refrigerators, such as freezing burns and variations in humidity levels. The invention controls the humidity level within the freezer section using a thermoelectric device to melt ice and maintain the desired level of humidity. By fine-tuning the cooling and heating, the invention can accurately maintain the humidity without the need for a fan.

Problems solved by technology

In fact, freezer temperature is not constant and such fluctuation causes changes into air freezer temperature and so air vapor pressure.
After leaving the food surface, moisture condensates on food packaging turning into frost.
As a consequence of such temperature increase and subsequent decrease, moisture migration from and to food changes and could leave to surface defects.

Method used

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  • Refrigerator with no-frost freezer

Examples

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Embodiment Construction

[0016]With reference to the drawings, a refrigerator 10 comprises a freezer compartment FZ and a fresh food compartment FC. The freezer compartment FZ comprises an evaporator 12 which is part of a refrigerating circuit whose only a condenser 14 is shown. The evaporator 12 is of the no-frost type, i.e. it comprises a fan 16 and a defrosting heater 18. Both the heater 18 and the fan 16 are controlled through a control unit 20.

[0017]According to the invention, a Peltier module 22 is mounted on the evaporator 12. In detail, its hot side 22a is in contact with the evaporator 12 while its cold side 22b is in heat exchange relationship with the air flow inside the freezer compartment FZ. The Peltier module 22 is driven through the control unit 20.

[0018]The cyclic process according to the invention is shown in FIG. 1, where step A represents the defrost count down; step B represents the condition when the compressor (not shown) is switched off at the beginning of the defrost phase, in which...

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Abstract

A refrigeration appliance comprises a freezer compartment in which air cooled by an evaporator is circulated by a fan and a thermoelectric device having a hot side in heat exchange relationship with the evaporator or with the freezer compartment and a cold side in heat exchange relationship with air within at least a portion of the freezer compartment in order to reduce temperature oscillations in the freezer compartment or in said portion thereof during evaporator defrost cycle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims priority to EP 12198390.2, filed on Dec. 20, 2012, entitled “Refrigerator with no-frost freezer,” the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE[0002]The present invention relates to a refrigeration appliance comprising a freezer compartment in which air cooled by an evaporator is circulated by a fan. These refrigeration appliances, known also as no-frost refrigerators, may have the evaporator within the freezer compartment itself or in a different “ad-hoc” compartment.[0003]It is well known in the art of freezers the problems related to defects of frozen food items. In particular, when spoiling caused by freezing occurs, food surface is characterized by opaque dehydrated areas or spots which show a decrease of original color. Moreover such changes in food appearance are linked to the presence of frost formation on food surface or internal food packagi...

Claims

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Application Information

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IPC IPC(8): F25B21/02
CPCF25B21/02F25B2321/023F25B2321/0252F25D17/042F25D21/04F25D21/06F25D21/14F25D25/028F25D2317/04111F25D2317/04131F25D2400/34
Inventor BIOTTI, CAROLINAGREWAL, RAMEET SINGHVANELLI, MATTEO LUCIANO
Owner WHIRLPOOL CORP
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