DE10235781A1 - The refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

In a refrigerator with an interior (3) enclosed by a heat-insulating housing (1) and a door (2), a device (10) for hanging clothes is fitted in the interior (3). A blower (18) can be switched between two non-disappearing power levels.

Description

The invention relates to a refrigerator with a from a heat insulating casing and a door enclosed interior.

With refrigeration appliances, it is state of the art that Cold rooms with slots, for example glass support plates, wire support grids or baskets or Equip the like to an order system for the to be stored refrigerated to accomplish. The previously known refrigeration devices are mainly used for Storage of perishable food and storage of heat sensitive Products from various areas of medicine, industry and research.

Only recently have refrigerators also become short-term storage of textiles used to vermin, in particular Dust mites, scabies and lice, to fight.

The house dust mite is the cause the so-called house dust allergy. Lately has been a significant one Noticeable increase in allergy diseases. Here is the house dust allergy one of the most common Forms of allergy. It is associated with chronic runny nose, Asthma and neurodermatitis.

Dust mites are tiny arachnids that live on skin particles, hair and feathers. Are allergy-causing their aggressive excretion products. The house dust mites have a rather large and thin skin surface compared to their volume, what leads to that they dry out relatively quickly. The mite is looking for itself select a more humid environment for your stay. ideal It finds conditions at a humidity of 65 to 80% and an ambient temperature of 20 to 30 ° C.

Dust mites prefer to live in house dust, in human beds and clothes. meanwhile special vacuum cleaners are available, which the house dust without a relevant delivery of the mite or its Remove environmental waste products from floors and furniture, upholstery, etc. Also the beds can with special mite-proof covers provided to reduce mite contamination. The fight the mites in textiles, on the other hand, are very complex. It is through washing of textiles at temperatures of at least 60 ° C possible to kill mites in them, but are not all textiles for so high washing temperatures suitable. In addition, with the required extremely common Wash accompanying strain for increased wear and shortened lifespan of textiles. Chemical mite control is also possible not desirable since they treated the environment and, last but not least, the bearers of it Textiles burdened and a disadvantage for sensitive textiles change of the fibers can.

Hence the cooling is the clothes a very beneficial method of combating dust mites. Through several hours Store the garments at temperatures below 0 ° C in a refrigerator the mites killed so that they can no longer excrete an allergen. temperature-sensitive Textiles can subsequently Washed at low temperatures and are then from mites and their excretion products are essentially free.

The well-known head lice also die at temperatures of –10 ° C in the course 24 hours, and putting textiles etc. in a refrigerator is one of the most important advice to combat lice from Robert Koch Institute.

The storage of textiles in the refrigerators with a great Associated effort. To settle ice crystals during the cooling process To prevent the textiles from being put in large freezer bags or plastic bags packed up. The packaging process takes a lot of time especially if as many as possible Textiles need to be renovated at the same time. Particularly sensitive Textiles, such as clothing made of velvet, angora, mohair or cashmere wool are after freezing wrinkled, and the wool hairs emerging from the fibers are bonded.

The object of the invention is to provide a refrigerator, which enables simple, quick and gentle cooling of textiles.

The object of the invention becomes one solved by that in the interior of the refrigerator Hanging device of clothing is appropriate.

The device is preferably to hang of clothes a clothes rail. Denmark can take the clothes to be renovated with a hanger provided and hung in the refrigerator. The latter prevents clothes from becoming wrinkled during the cooling process, Wrinkles appear or fibers stick together. In addition, the clothes better washed around by the cold air become.

It is advantageous if the Clothes rail is removably attached to the refrigerator for others Purposes, e.g. for cooling of food.

One embodiment of the invention provides that the refrigeration device is a circulating air refrigeration device. In such refrigeration devices, an evaporator is arranged in a chamber separated from a storage compartment for refrigerated goods, and heat is exchanged between the chamber and the storage compartment, through which the storage compartment is cooled, by cooling and drying air into the storage compartment using a fan on the evaporator blown and relatively warm, humid air is drawn into the chamber from the storage compartment. The storage compartment is not only cooled, but also dehumidified, which is particularly advantageous for The renovation of textiles is because the lice and mites to be destroyed die faster when the humidity is low. A lower air humidity also means that the textiles can be stored in the refrigerator even without a protective cover, since hardly any more ice crystals can form on the fibers. There is also a faster cooling of the textiles in a circulating air refrigerator than in a refrigerator without forced air circulation, so that the textiles only have to remain in the refrigerator for a short time in order to be free of mites or lice.

In a preferred embodiment of the Invention, the refrigerator has one Sensor for detecting the humidity in the interior and a heating device for heating the interior depending on that of the sensor recorded humidity. That way they can Indoor humidity values are recorded and controlled, to the humidity levels for optimize the renovation of textiles. That is special important if the refrigerator is both for cooling of food as well as for the renovation of textiles should. Food, especially vegetables and fruit, need one certain humidity so that they do not dry out and become inedible. This humidity is significantly higher than the humidity, which is desirable for the renovation of textiles.

Preferably the heater should go into operation when the humidity detected by the sensor is more than 45%. If the air humidity is below 45%, the house dust mites become scabies and lice killed faster and reduced ice crystal formation.

With conventional convection refrigeration units, this is fan power dimensioned so that the thing to be cooled Storage goods if possible little is dried out. For the renovation of textiles is particularly desirable to dry out, so that in an advantageous embodiment of the invention Fan provided is that between at least two power levels with non-vanishing Power is switchable, one of which is a low power level the storage of food and a high level of dehydration of textiles.

Another advantageous Embodiment of the invention, the refrigerator is a refrigerator with a thermostat device to regulate the temperature prevailing in the interior to an adjustable temperature Setpoint, with both a normal cooling setpoint on the thermostat control device in the range between 4 ° C and 10 ° C as well as a textile cooling setpoint well below 0 ° C is adjustable. In this way, the can kill the Insect-optimal temperature value with a predominantly for cooling and Refrigerator not used for freezing become.

Alternatively, according to the invention a freezer with a thermostat control device for regulating in the interior prevailing temperature on an adjustable setpoint be a textile cooling setpoint instead of a normal freeze setpoint in the range between –25 ° C and –10 ° C adjustable between –5 ° C and + 5 ° C is. Due to the increased compared to normal freezing, to killing the vermin but still sufficiently low storage temperature reduce the cable consumption of the refrigerator in textile cooling mode.

Other features and advantages of Invention emerge from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached Characters. Show it:

1 a perspective view of a refrigerator according to the invention with the door open; and

2 a schematic section through an inventive refrigerator.

1 shows a perspective view of a refrigerator with a heat insulating housing 1 and a hinged door 2 , The door shown open 2 gives a view of an interior 3 of the housing 1 free. The interior 3 is limited by a one-tier plastic inner container with a rear wall 4 , behind which an evaporator (not visible in the figure) is arranged, and two side walls 5 , on each of which a plurality of projections 6 . 7 are arranged, which serve as a support for refrigerated goods. A first group of these projections are elongated horizontal bars 6 which can serve as supports for plate-shaped refrigerated goods carriers such as glass or wire mesh plates, and which are conventionally used in refrigerators. Except for one plate 8th , the two at the bottom of the interior 3 arranged pull-out boxes 9 covers, such plates are missing in the refrigeration device according to the invention, as shown in the figure, but can of course be supplied as accessories and installed by a user as required.

A second type of lead 7 has an approximately U-shaped cross section, and two such projections 7 are opposite each other and in the middle in an upper area of the side walls 5 appropriate. The projections too 7 can, just like the bridges 6 , be molded in one piece with the inner container of the refrigerator. However, this necessitates the use of complicated shaping tools with mutually movable parts for deep-drawing the inner container. That is why the ledges 7 preferably designed as parts independent of the inner container and on the side walls 5 attached, for example by gluing, inserting and possibly locking in a pre-cut opening in the side wall 5 or similar. This solution has the additional advantage that the refrigeration device according to the invention, starting from conventional refrigeration devices without changing their manufacturing process, can be realized only by a few simple additional production steps, so that the device can also be economically manufactured in small series.

The two U-shaped protrusions 7 on the side walls 5 carry a clothes rail between them 10 , on which textiles to be refurbished can be hung freely on hangers, so that, in contrast to textiles stacked on a plate-shaped carrier, they are flushed with air and thus cooled quickly and thoroughly. Thanks to the free hanging on the clothes rail 10 it is also possible for the textiles to dry out more than with stacked storage.

The clothes rail 10 can from the ledges 7 lifted out and removed from the refrigerator, so that the device can be used in a conventional manner as a refrigerator for food.

The refrigerator's refrigerator is controlled by a thermostat, the set temperature of which is controlled by a control dial 11 adjustable on the right side wall 5 near interior lighting 13 is arranged. Set temperatures can be set on the rotary control in a range of approx. +10 to -5 ° C, however, it is about the rotary control 11 to be able to turn to a position corresponding to a target temperature below 0 ° C, first by pressing an adjacent button 12 to release a lock. In this way, it is avoided that a user who uses the refrigerator as a refrigerator carelessly sets a storage temperature below 0 ° C., which could lead to damage to the refrigerated goods or refrigerated goods containers.

The in 1 The refrigerator shown can be a coldwall refrigerator with a back wall 4 be in direct contact with this attached evaporator or a convection refrigerator, in which the evaporator is in one of the interior 3 separate chamber is housed. 2 shows a schematic section through such a configuration as a convection refrigerator.

A refrigerant circuit of the refrigerator includes a compressor 14 , a liquefy 15 , the gaseous refrigerant under high pressure from the compressor 14 receives, and the already mentioned evaporator, designated 16, the condensed refrigerant from the liquefaction 15 receives, expands and evaporates thereby creating a chamber extending along the rear wall of the refrigerator 17 is cooled, the evaporator 16 contains. The chamber 17 is over two passages with the interior 3 connected, with a fan on one of the passages, here the upper one 18 is appropriate for forced air exchange between the chamber 17 and the interior 3 provides.

Operation of the condenser 17 and the blower 18 is under the control of a control unit 19 , The control unit 19 is with a temperature sensor 20 and a humidity sensor 21 connected, both in the interior 3 are arranged. It is also connected to the control dial 11 and the interior lighting 13 connected.

As long as the control dial 11 to a positive target temperature outside of that by the button 12 the safe area is set, the control unit operates 19 the compressor 14 and the blower 18 in a manner known per se corresponding to that of the temperature sensor 20 recorded temperature. If the blower 18 is switched on, it runs at a power level that is in the interior 3 at most, it produces slow air currents, which dries out the food or other objects stored therein only slightly. Is the knob 11 However, if the temperature is set in a safe area, which corresponds to using the refrigerator to destroy mites, the proportion of the compressor's running time will not only decrease as a result of the lower target temperature 14 and blowers 18 on the total operating time of the device, but also the performance of the blower 18 is increased to an intense air flow in the interior 3 with increased drying effect.

The moisture that comes from inside 3 Textiles that have been hung up or stored in any other way evaporates on the evaporator 16 down, causing the interior 3 is dried out.

If the refrigerator is operated at a low outside temperature, where the percentage of compressor runtime in the operating time of the device is low and is not sufficient for the indoor air humidity 3 to reduce below a limit of, for example, 45%, the control unit switches 19 the interior lighting 13 one, even if the door 2 closed is. This way, additional heat is added to the interior 3 entered by the temperature sensor 20 is detected and so the control unit 19 caused the compressor 14 to operate longer. The extended compressor runtime leads to increased dehydration, which ultimately results in the interior 3 a humidity in the desired range is reached.

Although the invention has been described above with reference to a refrigerator, it is obvious that a freezer can also be adapted to the meaning of the present invention in order to cool textiles therein and in this way to destroy vermin. While in a refrigerator the optimal temperature range for treating textiles is below the normal target temperature range of a refrigerator used for food storage, the situation is reversed in a freezer. The temperatures in the range of –16 to –20 ° C required for the safe storage of food are not required for the destruction of house dust mites Lich. Therefore, if a freezer according to the present invention is used, energy can be saved by selecting the target temperature to be maintained in its interior higher than in normal cooling operation for food. A lock of the temperature controller can also be provided here, which prevents the set temperature from being set carelessly to a value which lies above the desirable temperature range for the freezing of food.

Many modern refrigeration devices do not use rotary controls or other mechanical controls whose position represents a target temperature, but an electronic register, the content of which can be incremented or decremented by pressing setting buttons. A protective function analogous to that described above can also be easily implemented with such a temperature control, in which it is provided that the control unit 19 the content of such a register is only incremented or decremented beyond a predetermined limit if the user simultaneously presses a key similar to the key when the setting keys are pressed 12 the 1 holds down.

Claims (9)

Refrigeration device with a heat-insulating housing ( 1 ) and a door ( 2 ) enclosed interior ( 3 ), characterized in that in the interior ( 3 ) a device ( 10 ) is appropriate for hanging clothes. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 1, characterized in that the device for hanging clothes is a clothes rail ( 10 ) is. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 2, characterized in that the clothes rail ( 10 ) is removably attached. Refrigerator after one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it is a circulating air refrigerator. Refrigerating appliance according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it has a sensor ( 21 ) to record the humidity of the interior and a heating device ( 13 ) for heating the interior ( 3 ) depending on that of the sensor ( 21 ) has detected humidity. Refrigerating appliance according to claim 5, characterized in that it is designed to the heating device ( 13 ) to operate if the sensor ( 21 ) detected humidity is more than 45%. Refrigerating appliance, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, with a heat-insulating housing ( 1 ) and a door ( 2 ) enclosed interior ( 3 ) and a blower ( 18 ) for circulating the air in the interior ( 3 ), characterized in that the blower ( 18 ) can be switched between at least two power levels with non-zero power. Refrigerating appliance, in particular according to one of the preceding claims, with a heat-insulating housing ( 1 ) and a door ( 2 ) enclosed interior ( 3 ) and a thermostat control device ( 11 . 19 . 20 ) to regulate the in the interior ( 3 ) prevailing temperature to an adjustable setpoint, characterized in that both a normal cooling setpoint in the range between 4 ° C and 10 ° C and a textile cooling setpoint below 0 ° C can be set on the thermostat control device. Refrigerating appliance, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 7, with a heat-insulating housing ( 1 ) and a door ( 2 ) enclosed interior ( 3 ) and a thermostat control device ( 11 . 19 . 20 ) for regulating the temperature prevailing in the interior to an adjustable setpoint, characterized in that both a normal freeze setpoint in the range between -25 ° C and -10 ° C and a textile cooling setpoint between -5 ° C and + 5 ° C on the thermostat control device is adjustable.