CA1159662A - Apparatus and method for thawing frozen food - Google Patents
Apparatus and method for thawing frozen foodInfo
- Publication number
- CA1159662A CA1159662A CA000388615A CA388615A CA1159662A CA 1159662 A CA1159662 A CA 1159662A CA 000388615 A CA000388615 A CA 000388615A CA 388615 A CA388615 A CA 388615A CA 1159662 A CA1159662 A CA 1159662A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- container
- frozen food
- food
- thawed
- thawing
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
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- Freezing, Cooling And Drying Of Foods (AREA)
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
Appartaus and method for thawing frozen food for use in a refrigerator appliance with a storage compart-ment maintained at a temperature between 33° - 55°F.
There is provided a container for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed within the compartment. An electric fan is in air flow communication with the interior of the container and timer means are provided for energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time whereby the frozen food load may be thawed and allowed to remain in the container subsequent to thawing, the temperature within said container being substantially at the tempera-ture of the storage compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
Appartaus and method for thawing frozen food for use in a refrigerator appliance with a storage compart-ment maintained at a temperature between 33° - 55°F.
There is provided a container for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed within the compartment. An electric fan is in air flow communication with the interior of the container and timer means are provided for energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time whereby the frozen food load may be thawed and allowed to remain in the container subsequent to thawing, the temperature within said container being substantially at the tempera-ture of the storage compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
Description
BACKGROUrlD OF THE INVENTION
- This invention relates to food thawing aPparatus and method and, more particularly, to apparatus and method adapted for incorpora-tion in a household refrigerator which operates to thaw frozen food and maintain the thawed food at refrigerated temperatures.
The advantages of freezing food for preservation purposes are offset to some extend by the need to t.haw the frozen food before it can be made ready for food preparation. In general, the need to thaw certain foods hefore cooking or making use of it in food preparation procedures is well known. Typically, thawing of frozen food can be acco~plished by allowing the food to stand at room temperature until it is fully thawed.
Such thawing, however, results in a substantial amount of liquid heing drained from the food. In addition, when the food is allowed to stand at room temperature, the timing must be such that the food is used promptly upon thawing or else placed back into the refrigerator to avoid the possibility of food spoilage. In some cases, it is recommended that the frozen food be placed in the fresh food compartment of a refriq-erator until thawed. This procedure, however, takes a very long time to achieve thawing.
Microwave ovens are currently available ~hat have provision for a low-power setting intended to permit thawing of frozen food by means of electromagnetic radiation of enersy into the food load.
Although somewhat beneficial for this purpose, the microwave oven has certain drawbacks when used for defrosting frozen food. One of the drawbacks is that the frozen food is heated initially near the surface of the food load with internal heating (thawing) being a function of the degree of heat conduction through the food from the surface. Moreover, energy load-in at localized portions of the food, e.g., in the vicinity of a bone, can actually cause the food to become fully cooked at these locations while other portions of the food load are still frozen. In addition, once the food load is thawed, it either ~ust be used immedi-6;2 ately or placed back in a refrigerator to again avoid the possibility of food spoilage.
In the past, refrigerators have been provided with a frozen food thawing compartment that is located adjacent to the machine com-partment so that air heated by the machine compartment, such as the condensing unit, flows into the receptacle to warm the frozen food articles and thaw them. See, for example, U. S. Patent Nos. 2,465,107;
29467,464; and 2,758,452. This type of refrigerator thawing does not avoid the possibility of food spoilage once the food is thawed and, in fact, may promote spoilage because of the elevated temperature unless it is used immediately or placed in the refrigerator compartment ~or preserva~ion.
Refrigerators have also been provided with compartments for thawing frozen food which compartments are insulated and heated by a hot gas circuit in the the refrigerating system. See, h r example, Pa~ent No. 3,134,242. This ~ype of food thawing system in refrigerators re-quires that a substantial amount of heat be applied in one form or another to ~he food items being thawed. In a refrigerating atmosphere, this is not desirable from an energy saving standpoint as the refrig- -erator must work harder in order to maintain the proper refrigerated ~ -temperature within the refrigerator and the thawing chamber must be heavily insulated. Moreover, when the food is thawed, it is maintained at an elevated temperature that again could cause spoilage unless removed from the thawing cham~er and placed in the refrigerated compart-ment.
There is, therefore, a need for a reliable, low CQst, food thawing apparatus and method suitable for household use. There is a need for such an apparatus and method that does not require constant attendance to avoid food spoilage and for an apparatus and method that uniformly thaws the food load without heating of the food load before complete thawing is achieved. i3y my invention, there is provided an ~ .
~915~;6~
apparatus and method for thawing frozen food which will accomplish the above-desired results and which is easy to utilize for its intended purpose.
SUMrlARY OF THE INVE~TION
According to one aspect of my invention, there is provided apparatus and method for thawing frozen food for use in a refrigerator appliance wi~h a storage co~partment maintained at a temperature of between 33 and 55F. There is a container for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed within the compartment. An electric fan produces a flow of air in communication with the interior of the container and timer means are used for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time. By this arrange~ent and method, the frozen food load may be allowed to remain in the con-tainer subsequent to thawing, the temperature within the container being substantially at the temperature of the storage compartment, thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
~8L~
Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a refrigeratcr par-tially broken away to show an exemp7ary embodiment of the present inven-tion.
Figure 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the refrig-erator of Figure 1 showing an embodi~ent of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a view taken along lines 3-3 of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is an alternate embodiment of the present invention shown in Figure 2 Figure 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a portion of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED E~lBODIMENT
With reference to Figure 1 of the drawings, there is illus-trated a refrigerator cabinet, including an outer case 1, an upper inner ~ '.
fi6~
liner 2 defining a freezer storage compartment 3 and a lower inner liner 4 definin~ a fresh food storage comDartment 5. The compartments are separated by a partition 6 and the spaces between the liners and the outside case 1 are filled with suitable insulating material 7. The access openings to the freezer and fresh food compartments are respec-tively closed by doors 8 and 9.
Re-Frigeration for the two compartments is provided by an evaporator 10 positioned behind a wall 11 to separate i~ from food items stored in the freezer compartment. A fan 14 provides means for circu-lating air frcm the t~o compartmentS ov~r the evaporator 10 and back into the compartments. It will be understood that the refrigeration system would also include a compressor, a condenser and controls (not shown) to mzintain the fresh food storage compartment 5 at a temperature between 33 - 55F, as is well known in the refrigeration ~rade. Below 33F, items in the food storage compartment could freeze and thawing of the frozen food load would be detrimentally affec~ed. ~Ihen the frozen food load is thawed, it is desirable to retain it at 55F and below to prevent spoilage.
Typically, the fresh food compartment 5 con~ains shelves and vegetable and meat pans for storin~ food items. One such storage pan 16 is shown at the bottom of the fresh ~ood compartment 5. In many refrig-erators, including the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, the shelves are vertically movable on tracks 18 which are secured to the rear wall 20 of the lower inner liner 4. The shelves are movable verti-cally so that the user of the refrigerator may arrange them according to the specific needs of the items to be stored in the fresh food compart-ment.
Located within the fresh food compartment 5 is a container assembly 24 which is used for thawing frozen food items, and parti-cularly, frozen meat, fowl or fish. The container assembly 24 includes ~59~
a planar shelf 26 which is supported at each side thereof by brackets 2g and 29. The brackets 28 and 29 are cantilevered and include a shelf supporting hook-shaped end 22 which is removab ~ inserted into slots 23 of each of the tracks 18 such that the brackets are movable vertically along the tracks 18.
The brackets 28 and 29 are attached to both sides of the shelf 26 which has a horizontal panel 30 and downwardly depending side walls 32 and 34 to which the brackets 28 and 29 are attached. The shelf 26 has an inwardly open channel on both side walls 32 and 34 dimensioned to slidably receive a container 36. Both channels are of the same config-uration. For instance as shown in Figure 5, the channel on side wall 32 uses the inner surface 38 of the side wall as the bottom wall 38 and two legs 40 and 42 are formed on the inner surface of side wall 32 which are parallel to and spaced from each other to receive an outwardly turned lip 44 on each side of the container 36. With this arrangement then, the container 36 may be gripped, as by handle 48 at the front ~hereof, and moved along the channels so that the container 36 may ~e partially or comple~ely removed from benea~h the shelf ?6.
The rear wall 50 of the container 36 has spaced openings in areas 71 and 73. Behind the rear wall 50 of the container 36 is a housing 52 having side walls 54 and 56, a bottom wall 57, a rear wall 58, a top wall 59 and a front wall 60. Front wall 60 has spaced openings in areas 62 and 64, which areas are surrounded by gaskets 66 and 68, respectively. Areas 71 and 73 with their spaced openings in rear wall 50 of the container 35 and areas 62 and 64 and their spaoed openings in front wall 60 of the housing 52 are in communicating alignment, respec-tively, to allow air flow therethrough. Gaskets 66 and 68 form a seal between the front wall 60 of houstng 52 and the rear wall 50 of con-tainer 360 On one side within the housing 52, there is located an electric timer 70 and on the other side within the housing 52 is a s~all ~L~59662 electric fan 72. With reference to Figure 3, the housing 52 is secured to the shelf 26 with a bracket 74 by any suitable fastening means, such as screws 76. The fan 72 is mounted to bottom wall 57 of housing 52 by a U-shaped support member 78. It will be noted that the fan 72 is mounted or loc~ted with respect to area 62 in the front wall 60 so that air being moved by the fan blade 75 during operation of the fan will flow through the openings in area 62 and the aligned openings in area 71 of the rear wall 50 of the container 36. With referenee to Figure 2, there is an electrieal conduit 77 wlth a terminal plug 79 that may be connected and disconnected wlth a receptacle 81 tha~ supplies electrical power to the timer 70 and fan 72. With this arrangement, if the user wishes ~o remove the entire container assembly 24 from the compartment 5, the plug 79 is disconnected from receptacle 81 and the brackets 28 released from the slots 23 in tracks 18 by raising the shelf 26 and the container assembly 24 lift~d ou~ of the compartment 5.
Time~ 70 may be controlled by the user of the refrlgerator by a control assembly 80 which includes at ~he front of the shelf 26 a manually rotatable knob 82. Secured to the knob 82 is a rod member 84 which extends from the front of the shelf 26 ~hrough guide member 86 to the rear of shelf 26 and i5. ~otatably secured to an upst~nding support 90 secured to top wall 59 of hous~ng 52. Located forward of upstanding support 90 is a bevel gear 9Z which is secured to rod member 84 and rotatable therewith in response to rotation of knob 82. Bevel gear 92 meshes with a bevel gear 94 a~ a right angle thereto which rotates with shaft 96 of the timer 70. With this arrangement then, by rotating knob 82, be.vel gear 92 rotates through rod member 84 and causes bevel gear 94 ~o also rotate which will operate to se~ the timer to run for some amount of time. Contrawise, when the timer 70 i5 running, bevel gear 94 through timer sha~t 96 rotates and that rotational movement is transmitted to bevel gear 92 through rod member 84 to knob 82. Timer 70 is utilized for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan 72 after a predetermined period of operating time set by the user.
The operation of the frozen food thawing apparatus is as follows: The container 36 is moved along the channels of the downwardly depending side walls 32 and 34 as previously explained to remove it from underneath the shelf 26. The preferred embodiment has a container cover 46 that is removed and the frozen food load to be thawed is placed inside. The cover 46 is replaced and the entire container 36 is moved rear~ardly along the channels until the rear wall 50 abuts in sealing engagement with the gaskets 66 and 68. The user then rotates kn~ob 82 to set the timer for a desired length of thawing time. Rotational movement of the knob 82 is transmitted through rod member 84 to bevel gear 92, to bevel gear 94 and through timer shaft 96 to the timer 70. When the timer shaft 96 is rotated, electrical connections are made so that fan 72 is energized. Air is caused to flow by fan blade 75 through area 62 in the front wall 60 of housing 52 and area 71 in the rear wall 50 of container 36 into the interior of container 36 and around the frozen food load to be thawed. The air will be returned to the housing 52 through area 73 of rear wall 50 and area 64 in the fron~ wall 6~ and reeirculated by the fan 7Z as previously described. The bottom wall 98 of the container 36 has corrugations or ribs 37 to enhance air flow around the frozen food load. As the timer 70 is running, the rotational movement of the timer mechanism through shaft 96 and bevel gear 94 causes bevel gear 92 to rotate which rotational movement is transmitted through rod member 84 to knob 82. As a result, the knob 82 will rotate back ~o a zero se~ting when the timer run time has expired. When the time has expired, the fan 72 is deenergized by the timer and the frozen food load which has now been thawed will be retained at nearly the same temperature as the interior of the fresh ~ood compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
~59G~2 Figure 4 shows an alternate embod.iment to the frozen food thawing apparatus shown in the other figures, particularly Fiaure 2, however, the only difference in the apparatus is that the container 36 has a plurality of openings 100 that allows ambient air from the com-partment S into the interior of the container 36. In this manner,venting of tlle container takes place during delivery of the forced air flow to the interior of the container resulting in the temperature of the air in the container 36 and the air in the compar~ment 5 heing more readily equalized.
By this food thawing apparatus and method, mos~ ~rozen foods, particularly mPat, fowl and fish~ may be thawed much faster than simply placing the frozen food in the refrigerator and allow it to thaw. The frozen food is thawed with less liquid drainage than if the frozen food is allowed ~o thaw a~ room temperature and the user may thaw the frozen lS food and have it retained at proper storage temperatures to avoid spoilage.
The foregoing is a description of the preferred embodimen~ of the invention and it should be understood that variations may be made thereto without departing from the true spirit of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.
- This invention relates to food thawing aPparatus and method and, more particularly, to apparatus and method adapted for incorpora-tion in a household refrigerator which operates to thaw frozen food and maintain the thawed food at refrigerated temperatures.
The advantages of freezing food for preservation purposes are offset to some extend by the need to t.haw the frozen food before it can be made ready for food preparation. In general, the need to thaw certain foods hefore cooking or making use of it in food preparation procedures is well known. Typically, thawing of frozen food can be acco~plished by allowing the food to stand at room temperature until it is fully thawed.
Such thawing, however, results in a substantial amount of liquid heing drained from the food. In addition, when the food is allowed to stand at room temperature, the timing must be such that the food is used promptly upon thawing or else placed back into the refrigerator to avoid the possibility of food spoilage. In some cases, it is recommended that the frozen food be placed in the fresh food compartment of a refriq-erator until thawed. This procedure, however, takes a very long time to achieve thawing.
Microwave ovens are currently available ~hat have provision for a low-power setting intended to permit thawing of frozen food by means of electromagnetic radiation of enersy into the food load.
Although somewhat beneficial for this purpose, the microwave oven has certain drawbacks when used for defrosting frozen food. One of the drawbacks is that the frozen food is heated initially near the surface of the food load with internal heating (thawing) being a function of the degree of heat conduction through the food from the surface. Moreover, energy load-in at localized portions of the food, e.g., in the vicinity of a bone, can actually cause the food to become fully cooked at these locations while other portions of the food load are still frozen. In addition, once the food load is thawed, it either ~ust be used immedi-6;2 ately or placed back in a refrigerator to again avoid the possibility of food spoilage.
In the past, refrigerators have been provided with a frozen food thawing compartment that is located adjacent to the machine com-partment so that air heated by the machine compartment, such as the condensing unit, flows into the receptacle to warm the frozen food articles and thaw them. See, for example, U. S. Patent Nos. 2,465,107;
29467,464; and 2,758,452. This type of refrigerator thawing does not avoid the possibility of food spoilage once the food is thawed and, in fact, may promote spoilage because of the elevated temperature unless it is used immediately or placed in the refrigerator compartment ~or preserva~ion.
Refrigerators have also been provided with compartments for thawing frozen food which compartments are insulated and heated by a hot gas circuit in the the refrigerating system. See, h r example, Pa~ent No. 3,134,242. This ~ype of food thawing system in refrigerators re-quires that a substantial amount of heat be applied in one form or another to ~he food items being thawed. In a refrigerating atmosphere, this is not desirable from an energy saving standpoint as the refrig- -erator must work harder in order to maintain the proper refrigerated ~ -temperature within the refrigerator and the thawing chamber must be heavily insulated. Moreover, when the food is thawed, it is maintained at an elevated temperature that again could cause spoilage unless removed from the thawing cham~er and placed in the refrigerated compart-ment.
There is, therefore, a need for a reliable, low CQst, food thawing apparatus and method suitable for household use. There is a need for such an apparatus and method that does not require constant attendance to avoid food spoilage and for an apparatus and method that uniformly thaws the food load without heating of the food load before complete thawing is achieved. i3y my invention, there is provided an ~ .
~915~;6~
apparatus and method for thawing frozen food which will accomplish the above-desired results and which is easy to utilize for its intended purpose.
SUMrlARY OF THE INVE~TION
According to one aspect of my invention, there is provided apparatus and method for thawing frozen food for use in a refrigerator appliance wi~h a storage co~partment maintained at a temperature of between 33 and 55F. There is a container for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed within the compartment. An electric fan produces a flow of air in communication with the interior of the container and timer means are used for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time. By this arrange~ent and method, the frozen food load may be allowed to remain in the con-tainer subsequent to thawing, the temperature within the container being substantially at the temperature of the storage compartment, thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
~8L~
Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a refrigeratcr par-tially broken away to show an exemp7ary embodiment of the present inven-tion.
Figure 2 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the refrig-erator of Figure 1 showing an embodi~ent of the present invention.
Figure 3 is a view taken along lines 3-3 of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is an alternate embodiment of the present invention shown in Figure 2 Figure 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of a portion of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED E~lBODIMENT
With reference to Figure 1 of the drawings, there is illus-trated a refrigerator cabinet, including an outer case 1, an upper inner ~ '.
fi6~
liner 2 defining a freezer storage compartment 3 and a lower inner liner 4 definin~ a fresh food storage comDartment 5. The compartments are separated by a partition 6 and the spaces between the liners and the outside case 1 are filled with suitable insulating material 7. The access openings to the freezer and fresh food compartments are respec-tively closed by doors 8 and 9.
Re-Frigeration for the two compartments is provided by an evaporator 10 positioned behind a wall 11 to separate i~ from food items stored in the freezer compartment. A fan 14 provides means for circu-lating air frcm the t~o compartmentS ov~r the evaporator 10 and back into the compartments. It will be understood that the refrigeration system would also include a compressor, a condenser and controls (not shown) to mzintain the fresh food storage compartment 5 at a temperature between 33 - 55F, as is well known in the refrigeration ~rade. Below 33F, items in the food storage compartment could freeze and thawing of the frozen food load would be detrimentally affec~ed. ~Ihen the frozen food load is thawed, it is desirable to retain it at 55F and below to prevent spoilage.
Typically, the fresh food compartment 5 con~ains shelves and vegetable and meat pans for storin~ food items. One such storage pan 16 is shown at the bottom of the fresh ~ood compartment 5. In many refrig-erators, including the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings, the shelves are vertically movable on tracks 18 which are secured to the rear wall 20 of the lower inner liner 4. The shelves are movable verti-cally so that the user of the refrigerator may arrange them according to the specific needs of the items to be stored in the fresh food compart-ment.
Located within the fresh food compartment 5 is a container assembly 24 which is used for thawing frozen food items, and parti-cularly, frozen meat, fowl or fish. The container assembly 24 includes ~59~
a planar shelf 26 which is supported at each side thereof by brackets 2g and 29. The brackets 28 and 29 are cantilevered and include a shelf supporting hook-shaped end 22 which is removab ~ inserted into slots 23 of each of the tracks 18 such that the brackets are movable vertically along the tracks 18.
The brackets 28 and 29 are attached to both sides of the shelf 26 which has a horizontal panel 30 and downwardly depending side walls 32 and 34 to which the brackets 28 and 29 are attached. The shelf 26 has an inwardly open channel on both side walls 32 and 34 dimensioned to slidably receive a container 36. Both channels are of the same config-uration. For instance as shown in Figure 5, the channel on side wall 32 uses the inner surface 38 of the side wall as the bottom wall 38 and two legs 40 and 42 are formed on the inner surface of side wall 32 which are parallel to and spaced from each other to receive an outwardly turned lip 44 on each side of the container 36. With this arrangement then, the container 36 may be gripped, as by handle 48 at the front ~hereof, and moved along the channels so that the container 36 may ~e partially or comple~ely removed from benea~h the shelf ?6.
The rear wall 50 of the container 36 has spaced openings in areas 71 and 73. Behind the rear wall 50 of the container 36 is a housing 52 having side walls 54 and 56, a bottom wall 57, a rear wall 58, a top wall 59 and a front wall 60. Front wall 60 has spaced openings in areas 62 and 64, which areas are surrounded by gaskets 66 and 68, respectively. Areas 71 and 73 with their spaced openings in rear wall 50 of the container 35 and areas 62 and 64 and their spaoed openings in front wall 60 of the housing 52 are in communicating alignment, respec-tively, to allow air flow therethrough. Gaskets 66 and 68 form a seal between the front wall 60 of houstng 52 and the rear wall 50 of con-tainer 360 On one side within the housing 52, there is located an electric timer 70 and on the other side within the housing 52 is a s~all ~L~59662 electric fan 72. With reference to Figure 3, the housing 52 is secured to the shelf 26 with a bracket 74 by any suitable fastening means, such as screws 76. The fan 72 is mounted to bottom wall 57 of housing 52 by a U-shaped support member 78. It will be noted that the fan 72 is mounted or loc~ted with respect to area 62 in the front wall 60 so that air being moved by the fan blade 75 during operation of the fan will flow through the openings in area 62 and the aligned openings in area 71 of the rear wall 50 of the container 36. With referenee to Figure 2, there is an electrieal conduit 77 wlth a terminal plug 79 that may be connected and disconnected wlth a receptacle 81 tha~ supplies electrical power to the timer 70 and fan 72. With this arrangement, if the user wishes ~o remove the entire container assembly 24 from the compartment 5, the plug 79 is disconnected from receptacle 81 and the brackets 28 released from the slots 23 in tracks 18 by raising the shelf 26 and the container assembly 24 lift~d ou~ of the compartment 5.
Time~ 70 may be controlled by the user of the refrlgerator by a control assembly 80 which includes at ~he front of the shelf 26 a manually rotatable knob 82. Secured to the knob 82 is a rod member 84 which extends from the front of the shelf 26 ~hrough guide member 86 to the rear of shelf 26 and i5. ~otatably secured to an upst~nding support 90 secured to top wall 59 of hous~ng 52. Located forward of upstanding support 90 is a bevel gear 9Z which is secured to rod member 84 and rotatable therewith in response to rotation of knob 82. Bevel gear 92 meshes with a bevel gear 94 a~ a right angle thereto which rotates with shaft 96 of the timer 70. With this arrangement then, by rotating knob 82, be.vel gear 92 rotates through rod member 84 and causes bevel gear 94 ~o also rotate which will operate to se~ the timer to run for some amount of time. Contrawise, when the timer 70 i5 running, bevel gear 94 through timer sha~t 96 rotates and that rotational movement is transmitted to bevel gear 92 through rod member 84 to knob 82. Timer 70 is utilized for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan 72 after a predetermined period of operating time set by the user.
The operation of the frozen food thawing apparatus is as follows: The container 36 is moved along the channels of the downwardly depending side walls 32 and 34 as previously explained to remove it from underneath the shelf 26. The preferred embodiment has a container cover 46 that is removed and the frozen food load to be thawed is placed inside. The cover 46 is replaced and the entire container 36 is moved rear~ardly along the channels until the rear wall 50 abuts in sealing engagement with the gaskets 66 and 68. The user then rotates kn~ob 82 to set the timer for a desired length of thawing time. Rotational movement of the knob 82 is transmitted through rod member 84 to bevel gear 92, to bevel gear 94 and through timer shaft 96 to the timer 70. When the timer shaft 96 is rotated, electrical connections are made so that fan 72 is energized. Air is caused to flow by fan blade 75 through area 62 in the front wall 60 of housing 52 and area 71 in the rear wall 50 of container 36 into the interior of container 36 and around the frozen food load to be thawed. The air will be returned to the housing 52 through area 73 of rear wall 50 and area 64 in the fron~ wall 6~ and reeirculated by the fan 7Z as previously described. The bottom wall 98 of the container 36 has corrugations or ribs 37 to enhance air flow around the frozen food load. As the timer 70 is running, the rotational movement of the timer mechanism through shaft 96 and bevel gear 94 causes bevel gear 92 to rotate which rotational movement is transmitted through rod member 84 to knob 82. As a result, the knob 82 will rotate back ~o a zero se~ting when the timer run time has expired. When the time has expired, the fan 72 is deenergized by the timer and the frozen food load which has now been thawed will be retained at nearly the same temperature as the interior of the fresh ~ood compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
~59G~2 Figure 4 shows an alternate embod.iment to the frozen food thawing apparatus shown in the other figures, particularly Fiaure 2, however, the only difference in the apparatus is that the container 36 has a plurality of openings 100 that allows ambient air from the com-partment S into the interior of the container 36. In this manner,venting of tlle container takes place during delivery of the forced air flow to the interior of the container resulting in the temperature of the air in the container 36 and the air in the compar~ment 5 heing more readily equalized.
By this food thawing apparatus and method, mos~ ~rozen foods, particularly mPat, fowl and fish~ may be thawed much faster than simply placing the frozen food in the refrigerator and allow it to thaw. The frozen food is thawed with less liquid drainage than if the frozen food is allowed ~o thaw a~ room temperature and the user may thaw the frozen lS food and have it retained at proper storage temperatures to avoid spoilage.
The foregoing is a description of the preferred embodimen~ of the invention and it should be understood that variations may be made thereto without departing from the true spirit of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.
Claims (8)
1. For use in a refrigerator appliance having a storage compartment maintained at a temperature between 33°-55° F., apparatus for thawing a frozen food load comprising:
a separate container located within the storage compartment for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed, said container and storage compartment having cooperating means to removably secure the container within the storage compartment;
an electric fan in air flow communication with the interior of the container; and manually settable timer means for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time;
whereby the frozen food load may be thawed and allowed to remain in said container subsequent to thawing, the temperature within said container being substantially at the temperature of the storage compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
a separate container located within the storage compartment for receiving a frozen food load to be thawed, said container and storage compartment having cooperating means to removably secure the container within the storage compartment;
an electric fan in air flow communication with the interior of the container; and manually settable timer means for initially energizing and then deenergizing the fan after a predetermined period of operating time;
whereby the frozen food load may be thawed and allowed to remain in said container subsequent to thawing, the temperature within said container being substantially at the temperature of the storage compartment thus preventing spoilage of the thawed food.
2. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the interior bottom of the container is corrugated.
3. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 1 wherein the container is vented to permit compartment ambient air to flow through the container when the fan is operating.
4. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 1 wherein electric fan and timer means are in a housing attached to a vertically movable shelf.
5. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 4 wherein the shelf may be removed from the compartment.
6. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 4 wherein the container is removable, supported on the vertically movable shelf.
7. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 4 wherein the housing and the container have communicating openings for air flow therethrough.
8. The frozen food thawing apparatus of claim 7 wherein a sealing gasket surrounds the communicating openings.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000388615A CA1159662A (en) | 1981-10-23 | 1981-10-23 | Apparatus and method for thawing frozen food |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000388615A CA1159662A (en) | 1981-10-23 | 1981-10-23 | Apparatus and method for thawing frozen food |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1159662A true CA1159662A (en) | 1984-01-03 |
Family
ID=4121248
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000388615A Expired CA1159662A (en) | 1981-10-23 | 1981-10-23 | Apparatus and method for thawing frozen food |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CA (1) | CA1159662A (en) |
-
1981
- 1981-10-23 CA CA000388615A patent/CA1159662A/en not_active Expired
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