Patent Application
20190003758
Residential refrigerators generally include both fresh food compartments and freezer compartments, with the former maintained at a temperature above freezing to store fresh foods and liquids, and the latter maintained at a temperature below freezing for longer-term storage of frozen foods. For many years, most refrigerators have fallen in to one of two categories. Top mount refrigerators, for example, include a freezer compartment near the top of the refrigerator, either accessible via a separate external door from the external door for the fresh food compartment, or accessible via an internal door within the fresh food compartment. Side-by-side refrigerators, on the other hand, orient the freezer and fresh food compartments next to one another and extending generally along most of the height of the refrigerator.
Door-mounted ice dispensers (which are often combined with water dispensers) are common convenience features on many of these residential refrigerators. Incorporating these features into top mount and side-by-side refrigerators has generally been straightforward because it is generally possible to mount such dispensers on the external door for the freezer compartment at a convenient height for a user, as well as at a location suitable for receiving ice produced by an ice maker mounted in the freezer compartment.
More recently, however, various types of bottom mount refrigerator designs have become more popular with consumers. Bottom mount refrigerators orient the freezer compartment below the fresh food compartment and near the bottom of the refrigerator. For most people, the fresh food compartment is accessed more frequently than the freezer compartment, so many of the items that a user accesses on a daily basis are accessible at a convenient height for the user. Some bottom mount refrigerators include a single door for each of the fresh food and freezer compartments, while other designs commonly referred to as “French door” refrigerators include a pair of side-by-side doors for the fresh food compartment. Some designs may also utilize sliding doors instead of hinged doors for the freezer compartment, and in some designs, multiple doors may be used for the freezer compartment.
Placing the freezer compartment at the bottom of a refrigerator, however, complicates the design of door-mounted ice dispensers, since every freezer compartment door is generally located too low for a door-mounted ice dispenser, and since placement of an ice dispenser on a fresh food compartment door orients the ice dispenser opposite the above-freezing fresh food compartment. Most ice dispensers rely at least in part on gravity to convey ice from an ice maker mold to a storage receptacle and/or to convey ice from the storage receptacle to an exit chute for the ice dispenser, so it is generally desirable to orient the ice maker at a higher elevation than the ice dispenser.
As a result, many designs have sought to locate the ice maker and storage receptacle in one or more separate sub-compartments either in a fresh food compartment door or in the fresh food compartment itself, and direct cool air from the freezer compartment to the sub-compartment(s) in order to maintain the ice maker and storage receptacle at a temperature suitable for producing and storing ice. Existing designs, however, are often fraught with compromises, leading to reduced energy inefficiency, increased costs, reduced storage capacity, and complicated arrangements of ducts and ports.
Accordingly, a need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of providing door-mounted ice dispensing, particularly within a bottom mount refrigerator.
The herein-described embodiments address these and other problems associated with the art by providing a refrigerator and method that utilize a pair of tandem evaporators to provide cooling for both a compartment and an ice making system of a refrigerator. An upstream evaporator in the pair of tandem evaporators provides cooling for a compartment such as a freezer, fresh food, flexible cooling, or quick cooling compartment, while a downstream evaporator is in fluid communication with the upstream evaporator to receive a portion of the air cooled by the upstream evaporator and further cool the received portion for use in cooling one or more components of the ice making system.
Therefore, consistent with one aspect of the invention, a refrigerator may include a cabinet with a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment defined therein, a door coupled to the cabinet adjacent an opening of the fresh food compartment and configured to provide access to the fresh food compartment, an ice maker mold configured to produce ice, an ice dispenser disposed on the door and configured to dispense ice produced by the ice maker mold, a first evaporator in fluid communication with one of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment to cool air received thereby and supply a first portion of the cooled air to the one of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment, and a second evaporator in fluid communication with the first evaporator to receive a second portion of the cooled air and further cool the second portion of the cooled air and supply at least a portion of the further cooled second portion of the cooled air to the ice maker mold.
In some embodiments, the door is a first fresh food door, and the refrigerator further includes a second fresh food door adjacent the opening of the fresh food compartment and arranged in a side-by-side relationship with the first fresh food door. Also, in some embodiments, the door is a fresh food door, the fresh food compartment is disposed above the freezer compartment, and the refrigerator further includes a freezer door adjacent an opening of the freezer compartment and below the fresh food door.
Also, in some embodiments, the ice maker mold is disposed in the fresh food compartment. Further, in some embodiments, the ice maker mold is disposed in a sub-compartment of the fresh food compartment. Further, in some embodiments, the sub-compartment is disposed along a top, back or side wall of the fresh food compartment. Some embodiments may also include a storage receptacle configured to store ice produced by the ice maker mold. In addition, in some embodiments, the storage receptacle is disposed in the door, while in some embodiments, the storage receptacle is disposed in the sub-compartment. In some embodiments, the ice maker mold is disposed in the door, and in some embodiments, the second evaporator is integrated into the ice maker mold. In addition, in some embodiments, the second evaporator is disposed in a first sub-compartment of the fresh food compartment, and the ice maker mold is disposed in a second sub-compartment of the fresh food compartment.
In addition, in some embodiments the ice dispenser further includes a water dispenser. Further, in some embodiments, the first evaporator is disposed in and in fluid communication with the freezer compartment to cool air received thereby and supply the first portion of the cooled air to the freezer compartment. In other embodiments, the first evaporator is disposed in and in fluid communication with the fresh food compartment to cool air received thereby and supply the first portion of the cooled air to the fresh food compartment.
Some embodiments may also include a damper disposed between the first and second evaporators and configured to proportion air flow from the first evaporator between the second evaporator and the one of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment. Some embodiments may also include a fan disposed between the first and second evaporators. Some embodiments may also include a fan downstream of the second evaporator. In addition, in some embodiments, the fan and the ice maker mold are disposed in the fresh food compartment.
Some embodiments may also include a refrigeration circuit configured to circulate refrigerant through the first and second evaporators. The refrigeration circuit may include a compressor, a condenser in fluid communication with the compressor, and at least one valve disposed between the condenser and the first and second evaporators and configured to direct refrigerant to each of the first and second evaporators. Moreover, in some embodiments, the at least one valve includes a proportional valve configured to proportion refrigerant flow between the first and second evaporators.
Some embodiments may also include a third evaporator in fluid communication with the other of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment to cool air received thereby and supply the cooled air to the other of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment. Also, in some embodiments, the first evaporator may be further configured to supply cooled air to the other of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment. In addition, in some embodiments, the first and second evaporators may be coupled together in series such that refrigerant flows sequentially through the first and second evaporators.
Further, some embodiments may also include a port disposed downstream of the ice maker mold to output air cooled by the second evaporator to the fresh food compartment. In addition, some embodiments may further include a port disposed downstream of the ice maker mold to return air to the freezer compartment.
Some embodiments may further include a controller configured to independently control the first and second evaporators. Also, in some embodiments, the controller may be configured to maintain activation of the second evaporator during a defrost cycle of the first evaporator. Further, in some embodiments, the controller may be configured to control the first evaporator during an ice production cycle for moisture removal during cooling by the second evaporator.
Consistent with another aspect of the invention, a method of operating a refrigerator may include cooling one of a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment of the refrigerator using a first evaporator in fluid communication with the one of the freezer compartment and the fresh food compartment, cooling an ice maker mold of the refrigerator using a second evaporator that further cools a portion of air cooled by the first evaporator, and dispensing ice produced by the ice maker mold from an ice dispenser disposed in a door disposed adjacent an opening of the fresh food compartment of the refrigerator.
Some embodiments may further include operating the second evaporator to cool the ice maker mold during a defrost cycle of the first evaporator. In addition some embodiments may further include controlling the first evaporator for moisture removal during cooling by the second evaporator.
Consistent with yet another aspect of the invention, a refrigerator may include a cabinet with first and second compartments defined therein, an ice maker mold configured to produce ice, a first evaporator in fluid communication with one of the first and second compartments to cool air received thereby and supply a first portion of the cooled air to the one of the first and second compartments, and a second evaporator in fluid communication with the first evaporator to receive a second portion of the cooled air and further cool the second portion of the cooled air and supply at least a portion of the further cooled second portion of the cooled air to the ice maker mold.
In some embodiments, the ice maker mold is disposed in the first compartment, and the refrigerator further includes a door coupled to the cabinet adjacent an opening of the first compartment and configured to provide access to the first compartment, and an ice dispenser disposed on the door and configured to dispense ice produced by the ice maker mold. Also, in some embodiments, the first compartment is a fresh food compartment. Further, in some embodiments, the first evaporator is in fluid communication with the second compartment to cool air received thereby and supply the first portion of the cooled air to the second compartment, and the second compartment is a freezer compartment, a fresh food compartment, a flexible cooling compartment, or a quick cool compartment.
These and other advantages and features, which characterize the invention, are set forth in the claims annexed hereto and forming a further part hereof. However, for a better understanding of the invention, and of the advantages and objectives attained through its use, reference should be made to the Drawings, and to the accompanying descriptive matter, in which there is described example embodiments of the invention. This summary is merely provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description, and is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Turning now to the drawings, wherein like numbers denote like parts throughout the several views,
Fresh food compartment 14 is generally maintained at a temperature above freezing for storing fresh food such as produce, drinks, eggs, condiments, lunchmeat, cheese, etc. Various shelves, drawers, and/or sub-compartments may be provided within fresh food compartment 14 for organizing foods, and it will be appreciated that some refrigerator designs may incorporate multiple fresh food compartments and/or zones that are maintained at different temperatures and/or at different humidity levels to optimize environmental conditions for different types of foods. Freezer compartment 16 is generally maintained at a temperature below freezing for longer-term storage of frozen foods, and may also include various shelves, drawers, and/or sub-compartments for organizing foods therein.
Refrigerator 10 as illustrated in
Refrigerator 10 also includes a door-mounted dispenser 24 for dispensing ice and/or water. In the illustrated embodiments, dispenser 24 is an ice and water dispenser capable of dispensing both ice and chilled water, while in other embodiments, dispenser 24 may be an ice only dispenser for dispensing only cubed and/or crushed ice. In still other embodiments, dispenser 24 may additionally dispense hot water, coffee, beverages, or other liquids, and may have variable, measured, and/or fast dispense capabilities. In some instances, ice and water may be dispensed from the same location, while in other instances separate locations may be provided in the dispenser for dispensing ice and water.
Refrigerator 10 also includes a control panel 26, which in the illustrated embodiment is integrated with dispenser 24 on door 18, and which includes various input/output controls such as buttons, indicator lights, alphanumeric displays, dot matrix displays, touch-sensitive displays, etc. for interacting with a user. In other embodiments, control panel 26 may be separate from dispenser 24 (e.g., on a different door), and in other embodiments, multiple control panels may be provided. Further, in some embodiments audio feedback may be provided to a user via one or more speakers, and in some embodiments, user input may be received via a spoken or gesture-based interface. Additional user controls may also be provided elsewhere on refrigerator 10, e.g., within fresh food and/or freezer compartments 14, 16. In addition, refrigerator 10 may be controllable remotely, e.g., via a smartphone, tablet, personal digital assistant or other networked computing device, e.g., using a web interface or a dedicated app.
A refrigerator consistent with the invention also generally includes one or more controllers configured to control a refrigeration system as well as manage interaction with a user.
As shown in
Controller 40 may also be interfaced with various sensors 56 located to sense environmental conditions inside of and/or external to refrigerator 10, e.g., one or more temperature sensors, humidity sensors, etc. Such sensors may be internal or external to refrigerator 10, and may be coupled wirelessly to controller 40 in some embodiments.
In some embodiments, controller 40 may also be coupled to one or more network interfaces 58, e.g., for interfacing with external devices via wired and/or wireless networks such as Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, cellular and other suitable networks, collectively represented in
In some embodiments, refrigerator 10 may be interfaced with one or more user devices 62 over network 60, e.g., computers, tablets, smart phones, wearable devices, etc., and through which refrigerator 10 may be controlled and/or refrigerator 10 may provide user feedback.
In some embodiments, controller 40 may operate under the control of an operating system and may execute or otherwise rely upon various computer software applications, components, programs, objects, modules, data structures, etc. In addition, controller 40 may also incorporate hardware logic to implement some or all of the functionality disclosed herein. Further, in some embodiments, the sequences of operations performed by controller 40 to implement the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented using program code including one or more instructions that are resident at various times in various memory and storage devices, and that, when read and executed by one or more hardware-based processors, perform the operations embodying desired functionality. Moreover, in some embodiments, such program code may be distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, and that the invention applies equally regardless of the particular type of computer readable media used to actually carry out the distribution, including, for example, non-transitory computer readable storage media. In addition, it will be appreciated that the various operations described herein may be combined, split, reordered, reversed, varied, omitted, parallelized and/or supplemented with other techniques known in the art, and therefore, the invention is not limited to the particular sequences of operations described herein.
Numerous variations and modifications to the refrigerator illustrated in
Now turning to
In particular, a tandem arrangement of upstream and downstream evaporators may be provided in some embodiments, with the first, upstream evaporator in fluid communication with the freezer compartment to cool air received thereby and supply a first portion of the cooled air to the freezer compartment, and with the second, downstream evaporator in fluid communication with the first, upstream evaporator to receive a second portion of the cooled air and further cool the second portion of the cooled air and supply at least a portion of the further cooled second portion of the cooled air to the ice making system. In other embodiments, the first, upstream evaporator may be in fluid communication with the fresh food compartment, such that the upstream evaporator cools air received from the fresh food compartment and supplies a portion of the cooled air to the fresh food compartment. In still other embodiments, the upstream evaporator may cool air received from both of the fresh food and freezer compartments. It will be appreciated that the fluid communication between evaporators, compartments and/or sub-compartments referred to herein generally refers to air flow rather than refrigerant flow, although it will be appreciated that some embodiments may couple the upstream and downstream evaporators together to provide refrigerant flow therebetween as well.
A fan 76 may be disposed downstream of upstream evaporator 72 to draw air from freezer compartment 16 (represented by arrow A) into sub-compartment 74 (e.g., through a lower inlet 74a) and over upstream evaporator 72 to be cooled. A portion of this cooled air then exits sub-compartment 74 (e.g., through an upper outlet 74b) and back into freezer compartment 16 (represented by arrow B) to providing cooling within freezer compartment 16.
Another portion of the cool air drawn over upstream evaporator 72 passes through a damper 78 into a sub-compartment 80 of fresh food compartment 14. Damper 78 may be a variable damper in some embodiments in order to proportion air flow to sub-compartment 80, or may be a simple on-off damper in some embodiments. In other embodiments, damper 78 may be omitted. Other manners of proportioning air flow between sub-compartment 80 and freezer compartment 16 may be used in other embodiments.
The air passed to sub-compartment 80 is next pulled across a second, downstream evaporator 82 by a second fan 84. The air is thus further cooled by downstream evaporator 82. The air subsequently passes into an ice maker sub-compartment 86 of fresh food compartment 14, and across an ice maker mold 88 and past a storage receptacle 90 (e.g., an ice bucket) to provide cooling both for ice production by ice maker mold 88 and for cooling stored ice in storage receptacle 90, along the path represented by arrow C. The air is then returned to freezer compartment 16 in this embodiment using a duct 92.
Thus, from the perspective of cooling freezer compartment 16, air flow generally takes the path of arrows A and B, while from the perspective of cooling the ice making system, air flow generally takes the path of arrows A, C and D. In addition in this embodiment, fresh food compartment 14 is cooled by a separate evaporator (not shown in
In the embodiment of
Now turning to
With the herein-described configuration, a number of benefits may be achieved. For example, the use of tandem evaporators as disclosed herein may limit the impact of defrost cycles on ice production. It will be appreciated that upstream evaporator 72 will generally see a majority of frost build up due to its high volume of air, and will thus be defrosted more often. However, even while upstream evaporator 72 is being defrosted, downstream evaporator 82 may continue to cool the air to maintain ice production and storage. Further, because of the comparatively light loading on downstream evaporator 82, this evaporator may be controlled to defrost at more opportune times, such as non-ice usage times in the early morning or early afternoon when users are more likely to be asleep or away at work or school.
Additionally, the use of tandem evaporators may have additional advantages to single evaporator designs where cooling for a particular compartment or for an ice making system is performed by a single evaporator (even though multiple evaporators may be used for different cooling tasks such as cooling other compartments). With the introduction of a second evaporator in tandem, a controller may be configured to operate in a number of manners to improve ice making performance. For quick ice demands, for example, downstream evaporator 82 may be run at increased or full capacity to additionally chill the air beyond the demands of the freezer compartment. It will be appreciated that a colder evaporator is generally less efficient at removing moisture, so in this circumstance upstream evaporator 72 may be optimized for moisture removal, while downstream evaporator 82 may then further condition that very dry air into a colder temperature to improve ice production rate. Moreover, if the freezer compartment temperature has been met, and thus the upstream evaporator 72 is not running at high capacity, but ice production is still needed, downstream evaporator 82 may be turned to high capacity, while maintaining upstream evaporator 72 at low capacity, thereby satisfying ice production needs without substantially impacting freezer performance. This may lead to energy improvements and improvements in maintaining compartment temperatures.
Additionally, the use of two evaporators in tandem to cool ice production air may also have an advantage in some embodiments in terms of being able to utilize fresh food compartment air, rather than freezer compartment air, as the source air for cooling. In some conventional dual evaporator refrigerator designs, for example, the dual evaporators are separately employed in for cooling the freezer and fresh food compartments. It may be more convenient in some embodiments to use fresh food compartment air based upon proximity to the ice making system; however, it has generally been found that with conventional dual evaporator refrigerator designs, the fresh food compartment air is too warm and too humid to achieve ice production. In contrast, by using tandem evaporators, fresh food compartment air may be used in some embodiments due to the additional cooling capacity of the downstream evaporator, and doing so generally without interference with the freezer compartment, its air or structure. Accordingly, as noted above, in some embodiments the upstream evaporator in the tandem arrangement may be primarily used to cool a compartment other than the freezer compartment, e.g., fresh food compartment, flexible cooling compartment, a quick cooling compartment.
Thus, in some embodiments, controller 40 of
A number of modifications may be made to the embodiment illustrated in
With respect to downstream evaporator 82, this component is illustrated as being located in a sub-compartment along a back wall of the fresh food compartment of a bottom mount refrigerator. In other embodiments, evaporator 82 may be disposed in other sub-compartments of the fresh food compartment, e.g., disposed on different walls thereof, or may be disposed in the freezer compartment or a sub-compartment thereof. In some embodiments, for example, a downstream evaporator may be disposed within an ice making system sub-compartment and/or may be integrated into an ice maker mold. Refrigerator 120 of
With respect to the ice making system, it will be appreciated that various components thereof may be located in alternate locations in other embodiments. For example, while refrigerator 10 of
Further, it will be appreciated that additional ice making system components may be used, but are not specifically illustrated herein. For example, augers or other mechanisms for transporting ice from, an ice maker mold to a storage receptacle and/or to an exit chute of a dispenser may be used, as may a mechanism for crushing ice cubes to output crushed ice. Additionally, water lines and valves therefor to supply an ice maker mold and/or a water output suitable for water dispensing, water filters, a heater for releasing ice from a mold, and other ice making system and/or dispenser components utilized in conventional ice and/or water dispensing systems may be used in other embodiments.
With respect to damper 78, it will be appreciated that a damper is often used to restrict or allow the flow of air, and may be controlled as desired with software or mechanics of a refrigerator. Damper 78 of
With respect to fans 76 and 84, it will be appreciated that different locations and/or numbers of fans may be used in other embodiments. It is generally desirable in many embodiments to position a fan in a dry section of the cooling system, e.g., downstream of an evaporator, although the invention is not so limited. A single fan may be used in some embodiments, although in other embodiments multiple fans may be used. Fans may be located, for example, at one or more of downstream of evaporator 72 (as with fan 76), downstream of evaporator 82 (as with fan 84), downstream of an ice maker mold (e.g., as with fan 124 of
Also, while refrigerator 10 of
As another alternative, rather than coupling tandem evaporators 72, 82 in parallel as is the case in the embodiment of
Another portion of the cool air drawn over evaporator 132 passes through a duct or port 138 (which may include a damper in some embodiments) and into sub-compartment 80, where the air is cooled by evaporator 82 before flowing to ice maker mold 88 in sub-compartment 86. A fan 140 draws the air through sub-compartments 80 and 86, and the air may then be returned to fresh food compartment 142 through a duct or port 142. Therefore, the tandem arrangement in refrigerator 130 disposed within the fresh food compartment and is separate from the freezer compartment.
It will be appreciated that various additional modifications may be made to the embodiments discussed herein, and that a number of the concepts disclosed herein may be used in combination with one another or may be used separately. Therefore, the invention lies in the claims hereinafter appended.
