Adjustable ice bin capacity in a refrigerator appliance
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorStewart Keeling
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator appliance including a cabinet defining a chilled chamber, a door assembly rotatably mounted to the cabinet to provide selective access to the chilled chamber, an icemaker operably coupled to the chilled chamber and configured for forming ice, and a drawer assembly. The drawer assembly includes a drawer frame that at least partially defines an ice reservoir for storing the ice from the icemaker, a partition mounted within the drawer frame and being slidable along the lateral direction, and a lighting assembly configured for illuminating a target position where the partition should be positioned to store a target amount of ice in the ice reservoir.
Claims20
A refrigerator appliance defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and transverse direction, comprising:
- a cabinet defining a chilled chamber;
- a door assembly rotatably mounted to the cabinet to provide selective access to the chilled chamber;
- an icemaker operably coupled to the chilled chamber and configured for forming ice;
- and
- a drawer assembly comprising:
- a drawer frame that at least partially defines an ice reservoir for storing the ice from the icemaker;
- a partition mounted within the drawer frame and being slidable along the lateral direction;
- and
- a lighting assembly configured for illuminating a target position where the partition should be positioned to store a target amount of ice in the ice reservoir.
A method of operating a refrigerator appliance, the refrigerator appliance comprising an icemaker and a drawer assembly, the drawer assembly comprising a drawer frame that defines an ice reservoir for storing ice from the icemaker, a partition mounted within the drawer frame and being slidable along a lateral direction, and a lighting assembly, the method comprising:
- obtaining a target amount of ice from a user of the refrigerator appliance;
- identifying, based at least in part on the target amount of ice, a target position where the partition should be positioned to store the target amount of ice in the ice reservoir;
- and
- operating the lighting assembly to illuminate the target position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.