Refrigerator and control method thereof

Abstract

A refrigerator and a control method thereof in which a smooth flow of a refrigerant can be provided through an effective control for a path change valve when a flow path of the refrigerant is changed between two evaporators having different pressures. The refrigerator includes low-pressure-side and high-pressure-side evaporators, a path change device, and a controller. The path change device changes a refrigerant flow path between the low-pressure-side evaporator and the high-pressure-side evaporator, and has a simultaneous opening stage to simultaneously establish refrigerant flow paths respectively communicating with the low-pressure-side evaporator and high-pressure-side evaporator during the path change. The controller controls the path change device such that the simultaneous opening stage established when the refrigerant flow path is changed from the low-pressure-side evaporator to the high-pressure-side evaporator is longer than the simultaneous opening stage established when the refrigerant flow path is changed from the high-pressure-side evaporator to the low-pressure-side evaporator.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.