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US 6,684,659 B1Granted
Refrigerator and defrosting heater
AssigneeMatsushita Refrigeration Company
InventorsMasaaki Tanaka, Takeshi Shimizu, Koichi Nishimura
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a refrigerator using a flammable coolant, in order to decrease danger of ignition when defrosting is conducted under an environment of leakage of the flammable coolant, the refrigerator comprises a cooling cycle evaporator and a defrosting devicve for defrosting the evaporator, wherein a temperature of the defrosting device is lower than an ignition temperature of the flammable coolant.
Claims41
A refrigerator comprising:
- a refrigerator housing having therein a freezing chamber and a refrigerator chamber, said freezing chamber and said refrigerator chamber being arranged such that convection of air between said freezing chamber and said refrigerator chamber is prevented;
- a cooling system for functionally connecting
- (i) a compressor,
- (ii) a condenser,
- (iii) a refrigerator chamber cooling device which exhibits a high evaporation temperature for refrigeration,
- (iv) a first depression mechanism for a high evaporation temperature, said first depression mechanism exhibiting a small depression for a high evaporation temperature,
- (v) a freezing chamber cooling device which exhibits a low evaporation temperature for freezing, said freezing chamber cooling device being connected in parallel with said refrigerator chamber cooling device,
- (vi) a second depression mechanism for a low evaporation temperature, said second depression mechanism exhibiting a large depression for a low evaporation temperature,
- (vii) a change-over valve for preventing simultaneous flow of a flammable coolant to said refrigerator chamber cooling device and said freezing chamber cooling device, and
- (viii) a check valve for preventing a reverse flow of the flammable coolant to an outlet of said freezing chamber cooling device so as to seal the flammable coolant;
- a defrosting heater for defrosting said freezing chamber cooling device while said compressor is not operating or while said refrigerator chamber is cooled;
- a refrigerator chamber fan for being operated during operation of said compressor so as to cool said refrigerator chamber, and for being operated while said compressor is not operating so as to defrost said refrigerator chamber cooling device via ventilated air;
- and
- a freezing chamber fan for being operated, simultaneously with cooling of said refrigerator chamber by said refrigerator chamber fan, during operation of said compressor so as to cool said freezing chamber.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.