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US 12,584,678 B2Granted
Refrigerator with dynamic multi-zone anti-sweat heating system
AssigneeMidea Group Co., Ltd.
InventorsEric Scalf, Brian Langness
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A dynamic multi-zone anti-sweat heating system may be used in a refrigerator to reduce moisture on various surfaces of the refrigerator. Moreover, in some instances, the determination of when moisture is present and/or absent from a surface may be made based at least in part on detection of the presence or absence of an elevated thermal load on the surface while a heater is activated.
Claims25
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors providing external access to the one or more food compartments;
- a surface heater positioned to heat a surface of the cabinet;
- a temperature sensor positioned to sense a temperature for the surface;
- and
- a controller coupled to the surface heater and the temperature sensor, the controller configured to detect moisture on the surface by performing each of:
- activating the surface heater;
- sensing temperature with the temperature sensor;
- and
- determining that moisture is present on the surface in response to detecting an elevated thermal load on the surface while the surface heater is activated.
6 more elements
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors providing external access to the one or more food compartments, the cabinet further including a fluid receptacle for receiving and containing fluid;
- a heater positioned to heat the fluid receptacle;
- a temperature sensor positioned to sense a temperature proximate the fluid receptacle;
- and
- a controller coupled to the heater and the temperature sensor, the controller configured to activate the heater to evaporate fluid disposed in the fluid receptacle, the controller further configured to automatically deactivate the heater when the fluid disposed in the fluid receptacle has been evaporated based upon the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor.
2 more elements
A refrigerator, comprising:
- a cabinet including one or more food compartments and one or more doors providing external access to the one or more food compartments;
- a plurality of surface heaters positioned to heat respective surfaces among a plurality of surfaces of the cabinet;
- a plurality of temperature sensors positioned to sense temperatures for respective surfaces among the plurality of surfaces;
- and
- a controller coupled to the plurality of surface heaters and the plurality of temperature sensors, the controller configured to detect moisture on a selected surface of the plurality of surfaces by performing each of:
- activating the respective surface heater for the selected surface;
- sensing temperature with the respective temperature sensor for the selected surface;
- and
- determining that moisture is present on the selected surface in response to detecting an elevated thermal load on the selected surface while the surface heater for the selected surface is activated.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.