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US 10,852,046 B2Granted
Refrigerator with door-mounted fluid dispenser
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorEric Scalf
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator combines an externally-accessible door-mounted fluid or water dispenser outlet with an externally-accessible case-mounted ice dispenser outlet and/or an externally-accessible case-mounted fluid dispenser control.
Claims26
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including a case having at least one or more food storage compartments defined therein and at least one or more doors positioned to insulate the at least one or more food storage compartments from an exterior environment, the at least one or more food storage compartments including a fresh food compartment disposed above a freezer compartment, and the at least one or more doors defining a dispenser opening on a front side of the cabinet when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- an icemaking console extending upwardly from a bottom wall of the fresh food compartment and positioned proximate the dispenser opening defined by the at least one or more doors, wherein the icemaking console extends only a portion of a height of the fresh food compartment and is spaced apart from each of a top wall, a first side wall, and a second side wall of the fresh food compartment, and wherein the icemaking console includes at least one or more walls that insulate an interior compartment of the icemaking console from the fresh food compartment;
- an icemaker disposed within the icemaking console;
- an ice dispenser disposed within the icemaking console and having an externally-accessible ice dispenser outlet positioned within the dispenser opening to dispense ice produced by the icemaker when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- a water dispenser coupled to the cabinet and having an externally-accessible door-mounted water dispenser outlet coupled to a first door among the at least one or more doors to dispense water from the water dispenser when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- and
- an externally-accessible case-mounted water dispenser control coupled to the cabinet and positioned within the dispenser opening to selectively activate the water dispenser in response to user input when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position.
4 more elements
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including a case having at least one or more food storage compartments defined therein and at least one or more doors positioned to insulate the at least one or more food storage compartments from an exterior environment, the at least one or more doors defining an ice dispenser opening on a front side of the cabinet when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- an ice dispenser coupled to the cabinet and having an externally-accessible ice dispenser outlet positioned at a predetermined position within the ice dispenser opening to dispense ice from a case-mounted icemaker when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- and
- a fluid dispenser coupled to the cabinet and having an externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet coupled to a first door among the at least one or more doors to dispense fluid from the fluid dispenser when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position, wherein the externally-accessible ice dispenser outlet and the externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet are configured such that when the first door is opened, the externally-accessible ice dispenser outlet remains in the predetermined position within the ice dispenser opening while the externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet moves with the first door and away from the ice dispenser opening.
1 more element
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including a case having at least one or more food storage compartments defined therein and at least one or more doors positioned to insulate the at least one or more food storage compartments from an exterior environment, the at least one or more doors defining an opening on a front side of the cabinet when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- a fluid dispenser coupled to the cabinet and having an externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet coupled to a first door among the at least one or more doors to dispense fluid from the fluid dispenser when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position;
- and
- an externally-accessible case-mounted fluid dispenser control coupled to the cabinet and positioned at a predetermined position within the opening to selectively activate the fluid dispenser in response to user input when the at least one or more doors are in a closed position, wherein the externally-accessible case-mounted fluid dispenser control and the externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet are configured such that when the first door is opened, the externally-accessible case-mounted fluid dispenser control remains in the predetermined position within the opening while the externally-accessible door-mounted fluid dispenser outlet moves with the first door and away from the opening.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.