Water spillage management for in the door ice maker
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorsJerry M. Visin, Guolian Wu, Marcus R. Fischer, Michele E. Wilcox, Martin D. Lewis, Kevin M. Chase
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A refrigerator freezer having an ice maker positioned on a refrigerator compartment or freezer compartment door. The ice maker is arranged to prevent or manage spills from the ice maker in the event the door on which the ice maker is mounted is opened or closed when unfrozen water is present in the ice maker. Spill management embodiments for a number of fixed and movable tray ice makers are disclosed.
Claims10
A refrigerator freezer comprising:
- a freezer compartment maintained at a temperature below 0° C. and having an insulated freezer compartment door;
- a refrigerator compartment maintained at a temperature above 0° C. and having an insulated refrigerator compartment door;
- a refrigeration system for cooling the freezer compartment and the refrigerator compartment;
- an automatic ice maker mounted on one of the refrigerator compartment door and the freezer compartment door comprising:
- an ice maker control;
- a generally rectangular ice mold;
- a fixed extension extending upwardly from one longitudinal edge of the ice mold;
- a hinged wall extending upwardly from the opposite longitudinal edge of the ice mold pivotally mounted to the ice mold for movement from the upright position to a horizontal position;
- an ice rake rotatably mounted above the ice mold and operably connected to the ice maker control;
- and
- an operator in the ice maker control arranged to move the hinged wall to the horizontal position in conjunction with operation of the ice rake.
A method of making ice in a refrigerator freezer in which an automatic ice maker having an ice mold is mounted on one of the refrigerator or freezer compartment doors, the ice mold having a fixed extension extending upwardly from one edge of the ice mold and a hinged wall extending upwardly from the opposite edge of the ice mold comprising:
- operating the refrigerator freezer to provide cooling to the refrigerator and freezer compartments;
- filling the ice mold with water;
- preventing spills of water from the ice maker when the refrigerator or freezer compartment door on which the ice maker is mounted is opened or closed comprising positioning the hinged wall in a generally vertical position when water is present in the ice mold;
- and
- harvesting ice pieces from the ice mold after the water has frozen.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.