Dirt protection for a refrigerator

Abstract

Dirt protection (7) for a refrigerator (1), wherein the refrigerator (1) has at least one removable shelf (3) which defines a bottom side of a refrigerator compartment with a refrigerator compartment height (H) and a refrigerator compartment width (B), wherein the dirt protection (7) has at least one protective wall (9) which can be detachably attached to a rear side (5) of the at least one removable shelf (3) such that the at least one protective wall (9) extends over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment height (H) and over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment width (B).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a dirt protection device for a refrigerator having at least one removable shelf.

[0002] Refrigerators usually cool the interior of the refrigerator using a cooling back panel, which is lower than the temperature inside the refrigerator. This causes condensation to form on the cooling back panel and run down into a condensate drain.

[0003] The problem is that products to be cooled or their packaging or containers often come into contact with the rear wall of the refrigerator. This causes condensation to run onto the product or packaging to be cooled, and the rear wall of the refrigerator becomes dirty. This can lead to mold forming on the product or packaging to be cooled. Food scraps or packaging parts can stick to or freeze on the rear wall of the refrigerator. Over time, the condensation becomes dirty. However, if the condensation, which flows through the condensation drain into a condensation collection container for evaporation, is dirty, germs and other harmful deposits can build up in the condensation collection container and / or unpleasant odors can develop. In addition, the condensation drain can become blocked over time.

[0004] Typically, refrigerator glass shelves are equipped with a slightly raised rear edge that sits on top of the glass shelves. DE 10 2013 103 371 B4, for example, shows such a shelf. However, the raised rear edge does not usually prevent the problem described above.

[0005] It is therefore the object of the present invention to provide a dirt protection for a refrigerator which solves the problem described above.

[0006] According to the invention, to achieve this object, a dirt protection device for a refrigerator is provided, wherein the refrigerator has at least one removable shelf which defines a bottom side of a refrigerator compartment with a refrigerator compartment height and a refrigerator compartment width, wherein the dirt protection device has at least one protective wall which is detachably attachable to a rear side of the at least one removable shelf, such that the at least one protective wall extends over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment height and over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment width.

[0007] Thanks to the dirt protection device according to the invention, products or packaging to be cooled can no longer hit the refrigerator's rear wall when pushed back along the shelf. They then hit the dry protective wall, so that the products to be cooled also remain dry. The protective wall is preferably positioned at a certain distance from the refrigerator's rear wall, so that the protective wall remains dry while still providing sufficient space for convection cooling. It has been shown that the refrigerator's cooling effect is only negligibly affected by the dirt protection device.

[0008] If a shelf already has a rear edge attached, the protective wall can either be attached to this or the rear edge can be removed and replaced with the dirt protection.

[0009] Optionally, at least one protective wall can be made of a resiliently flexible material. This is useful for absorbing any impact forces caused by products to be cooled colliding with it with as little material as possible. The resiliently flexible protective wall can neither push a colliding product to be cooled forward due to its resilient return effect nor provide a user with haptic feedback that the product is about to collide with the protective wall.

[0010] Optionally, the at least one protective wall can be either full-surface or perforated. A full-surface protective wall can be easily manufactured, whereas a perforated protective wall has the advantage of saving material and, at the same time, impairing the cooling effect of the cooling rear wall even less.

[0011] Optionally, the dirt protection can have at least one fastening element, wherein the at least one fastening element can be releasably plugged onto the rear of the at least one removable shelf by means of a friction fit, encompassing the rear of the at least one removable shelf. The shelf is preferably made of glass and the fastening element can be an attachable L-shaped fastening strip. The at least one fastening element can, for example, have a horizontally open first U-profile and a vertically open second U-profile. Using the horizontally open first U-profile, the fastening element can be plugged onto the rear of the shelf and the protective wall can be plugged into the vertically open second U-profile of the fastening element. As a result, the protective wall extends upwards from the shelf essentially vertically to the horizontal shelf.

[0012] Optionally, the at least one fastening element can be releasably attached to the underside of the at least one protective wall by means of a friction fit, encompassing the underside of the at least one protective wall. Alternatively or additionally, the fastening element can already be firmly attached to the underside of the at least one protective wall.

[0013] Optionally, the at least one fastening element can be a first of a plurality of fastening elements, wherein the plurality of fastening elements is designed and intended to be distributed across the width of the refrigerator compartment. Thus, the fastening element does not have to be a continuous strip, but can be made up of several pieces distributed across the width of the refrigerator compartment to save material.

[0014] Optionally, the at least one fastening element can extend across at least 75% of the width of the protective wall. In contrast to a design with multiple fastening elements, a continuous fastening element in the form of a fastening strip that extends across at least 75% of the width of the protective wall has the advantage of replacing the function of a raised rear edge of the shelf and stopping any spreading liquids on the shelf before they run down the rear of the shelf.

[0015] Optionally, the at least one fastening element can be made of aluminum or plastic. Preferably, the fastening element is less flexible than the protective wall. However, the fastening element can preferably have a certain degree of flexibility to ensure sufficient frictional or clamping engagement.

[0016] Optionally, at least one protective wall can be adapted to the refrigerator compartment height and / or width by being able to be broken or cut out of at least one protective wall material template with at least one visually recognizable predetermined breaking point. This is particularly useful if the dirt guard is sold as a retrofit item that is intended to be adaptable to different refrigerator compartment heights and / or widths. The predetermined breaking points can be arranged so that the dirt guard can be adapted to common standard dimensions of refrigerator compartment widths and heights.

[0017] According to a second aspect of the present invention, a dirt protection set is provided with a previously described dirt protection, wherein the dirt protection set comprises a plurality of protective walls and fastening elements that are adapted or adaptable to different refrigerator compartment heights and / or widths. This is particularly useful if the dirt protection is to be equipped for a refrigerator not only for one refrigerator compartment, but for several refrigerator compartments, which may have different refrigerator compartment heights.

[0018] According to a third aspect of the present invention, a refrigerator is provided with a dirt guard as described above. The dirt guard can therefore be sold not only as a retrofit item, but also as part of or as an accessory to a new refrigerator.

[0019] The present invention is explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying figures. They show: Fig. 1 an embodiment of a refrigerator according to the invention with protective protection; Fig. 2 a detailed representation of an embodiment of the dirt protection according to the invention; Fig. 3 a detailed view of another embodiment of the dirt protection according to the invention; Fig. 4 a detailed representation of another embodiment of the dirt protection according to the invention; Fig. 5 is a schematic representation of an embodiment of a protective wall material template for a protective wall of a dirt protection device according to the invention; and Fig. 6 an embodiment of a dirt protection set according to the invention.

[0020] Fig. 1 shows an open refrigerator 1 with four removable shelves 3. A dirt guard 7 is arranged on a rear edge 5 of each of the shelves 3, which prevents products to be cooled that are placed on the shelves 3 from hitting a cooling rear wall of the refrigerator 1.

[0021] For this purpose, the dirt guard 7 has a protective wall 9 for the respective refrigerator compartment, which is detachably attached to the rear side 5 of the respective shelf 3, so that the respective protective wall 9 extends over at least 75% of a refrigerator compartment height H and over at least 75% of a refrigerator compartment width B. The respective protective walls 9 of the dirt guard 7 are here only attached by their underside 11 to the rear side 5 of the respective shelf 3 and otherwise stand freely in the interior of the refrigerator at a distance from the rear cooling wall of the refrigerator 1.

[0022] Fig. 2 shows a first embodiment of the dirt guard 7, wherein the protective wall 9 extends essentially rectangularly orthogonally to the shelf 3 from the rear side 5 of the shelf 3 upwards. The dirt guard 7 here has three fastening elements 13 with which the protective wall 9 is fastened to the shelf 3. The fastening elements 13 are releasably attached to the rear side 5 of the shelf 3 with a frictional connection, encompassing the rear side 5 of the shelf 3. In addition, the fastening elements 13 are each releasably attached to the underside 11 of the protective wall 9 with a frictional connection, encompassing the underside 11 of the protective wall 9. For this purpose, the fastening elements 13 have a first U-profile which is open in a width direction y and towards the front and which is attached to the rear side 5 of the shelf 3 with a frictional connection, encompassing the rear side 5 of the shelf 3.The fastening elements 13 also have a second U-profile extending in the width direction y, which is open at the top to engage around the underside 11 of the protective wall 9 and can be removably attached to the underside 11 of the protective wall 9 with a frictional connection. The fastening elements 13 can be arranged distributed across the refrigerator compartment width B.

[0023] For better orientation in the figures, a right-handed Cartesian coordinate system is shown, with the x-axis running forward, the y-axis in the width direction and the z-axis running vertically upwards.

[0024] In the Fig. In the embodiment shown in Figure 3, the dirt guard 7 has only one fastening element 13 in the form of a fastening strip 13, which extends over at least 75% of the width of the protective wall 9. Although this requires more material, it can be advantageous for retaining liquids that may be present on the shelf 3.

[0025] In Fig. Figure 4 shows an embodiment in which the protective wall is perforated. This has the advantage that, on the one hand, material for the protective wall 9 is saved, and, on the other hand, the protective wall 9 lessens the cooling effect of the cooling rear wall of the refrigerator 1.

[0026] In Fig. 5 shows a protective wall material template 14 having a plurality of visually recognizable predetermined breaking points 16, so that a protective wall 9 with a suitable height and width can be broken or cut out of the protective wall material template 14 in order to adapt the protective wall 9 to a corresponding refrigerator compartment height H and / or refrigerator compartment width B. A dirt protection set can comprise a plurality of such protective wall material templates 14.

[0027] Fig.6 shows a dirt protection set 15 with a dirt protection 7 according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the dirt protection set 15 comprises a plurality of protective walls 9 and fastening elements 13, each of which is adapted or adaptable to different refrigerator compartment heights H and / or refrigerator compartment widths B. The protective walls 9 can be broken out or cut out from protective wall material templates 14 along visually recognizable predetermined breaking points 16. This allows the height of the respective protective walls 9 to be adapted to the required refrigerator compartment heights H. List of reference symbols 1 refrigerator 3 shelves 5 Back of the shelf 7 Dirt protection 9 Protective wall 11 Underside of the protective wall 13 Fastening element 14 Protective wall material template 15 dirt protection set 16 predetermined breaking points H Refrigerator compartment height B Refrigerator compartment width QUOTES CONTAINED IN THE DESCRIPTION

[0000] This list of documents submitted by the applicant was generated automatically and is included solely for the convenience of the reader. This list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions. Cited patent literature

[0000] DE 10 2013 103 371 B4

[0004]

Claims

[1] Dirt protection (7) for a refrigerator (1), wherein the refrigerator (1) has at least one removable shelf (3) which defines a bottom side of a refrigerator compartment with a refrigerator compartment height (H) and a refrigerator compartment width (B), wherein the dirt protection (7) has at least one protective wall (9) which can be detachably attached to a rear side (5) of the at least one removable shelf (3) such that the at least one protective wall (9) extends over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment height (H) and over at least 75% of the refrigerator compartment width (B). [2] Dirt protection (7) according to claim 1, wherein the at least one protective wall (9) is formed from a resiliently flexible material. [3] Dirt protection (7) according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the at least one protective wall (9) is solid or perforated. [4] Dirt protection (7) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the dirt protection (7) has at least one fastening element (13), wherein the at least one fastening element (13) encompasses the rear side (5) of the at least one removable shelf (3) and can be releasably attached to the rear side (5) of the at least one removable shelf (3) with a frictional connection. [5] Dirt protection (7) according to claim 4, wherein the at least one fastening element (13) encompasses an underside (11) of the at least one protective wall (9) and can be releasably attached to the underside (11) of the at least one protective wall (9) with a frictional connection. [6] Dirt protection (7) according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the at least one fastening element (13) is a first of a plurality of fastening elements (13), wherein the plurality of fastening elements (13) are designed and provided to be arranged distributed over the refrigerator compartment width (B). [7] Dirt protection (7) according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the at least one fastening element (13) extends over at least 75% of a width of the protective wall (9). [8] Dirt protection (7) according to one of claims 4 to 7, wherein the at least one fastening element (13) is made of aluminum or plastic. [9] Dirt protection (7) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the at least one protective wall (9) is adaptable to the refrigerator compartment height (H) and / or refrigerator compartment width (B) in that it can be broken out or cut out from at least one protective wall material template (14) with at least one visually recognizable predetermined breaking point (16). [10] Dirt protection set (15) with a dirt protection (7) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the dirt protection set (15) has a plurality of protective walls (9) and fastening elements (13) which are adapted or adaptable to different refrigerator compartment heights (H) and / or refrigerator compartment widths (B). [11] Refrigerator (1) with a dirt protection (7) according to one of claims 1 to 9.

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