JP2015031438A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a refrigerator that has high energy-saving performance by preventing occurrence of evaporation sound due to defrosting water, providing a defrosting device capable of efficiently performing defrosting of a cooler.SOLUTION: A refrigerator includes a cooler 14, and a radiant heater 17 including a glass tube 17a and fusing frost adhering to the cooler 14. In the refrigerator, in order not to directly drop defrosting water of the cooler 14 to the surface of the glass tube 17a, the radiant heater 17 is configured such that the surface of the glass tube 17a is positioned on a back face side with respect to the back face of the cooler 14 or on a front face side with respect to the front face of the cooler 14.

Description

  The present invention relates to a refrigerator.

  In general, when the refrigerator is cooled, moisture that enters from the outside of the refrigerator or moisture contained in the food to be stored by opening and closing the door adheres to a cooler that is a low-temperature heat source and forms frost. When the amount of frost formation on the cooler increases, an increase in blowing resistance and a decrease in heat exchange efficiency occur, and the cooling efficiency of the refrigerator decreases. In order to prevent this phenomenon, it is necessary to remove frost attached to the cooler by periodically heating it with a heater.

  When an inexpensive radiant heater having a glass tube is used as a defrost heater, the heater is usually installed below the cooler in order to improve heat transfer efficiency by natural convection, and the frost melted by heating is heated by the glass of the heater. A heater cover is provided between the cooler and the heater in order to prevent dripping directly onto the tube surface and generating a large evaporation sound.

  However, since the heater cover also blocks the heat rays radiated from the heater, the heat transfer efficiency from the heater to the cooler is reduced. Moreover, if a cover is installed in an air path, a cover will become ventilation resistance and will reduce cooling efficiency.

  In the refrigerator described in Patent Document 1, a radiant heater having a glass tube as a defrost heater is installed below the cooler, and defrost water dripped from the cooler is directly applied to the glass tube surface between the heater and the cooler. A defroster equipped with a heater cover for preventing dripping is provided. Further, a narrow slit is provided at the upper portion of the heater cover so that the heat rays radiated from the heater are transmitted, but defrost water does not drastically drop into the heater cover.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 60-30979

  However, in the refrigerator described in Patent Document 1, only a part of the heat rays radiated from the defrost heater in the direction of the cooler passes through the slit, and the heater cover sufficiently reduces the heat transfer efficiency. It is not suppressed. In addition, the heater cover is not able to completely prevent the defrost water dripping from the cooler by providing the slit, and a large amount of defrost water at a time depending on the amount of frost adhering to the cooler and how it melts. In the case of dripping, etc., the reliability was low in terms of preventing the generation of evaporative sound due to defrost water.

  Then, this invention aims at providing a refrigerator with high energy-saving performance by providing the defrosting device which can prevent generation | occurrence | production of the evaporative sound by defrost water and can perform defrosting of a cooler efficiently. .

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention, as an example, includes a cooler and a radiant heater that includes a glass tube and melts frost attached to the cooler. The radiant heater is configured so that the surface of the glass tube is located on the back side from the back of the cooler or the front side from the front of the cooler so that frost water does not directly drop on the surface of the glass tube. Features.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, generation | occurrence | production of the evaporative sound by defrost water can be prevented, and the refrigerator with high energy saving performance can be provided by providing the defrost apparatus which can perform defrost of a cooler efficiently.

It is a front view of the refrigerator regarding embodiment of this invention. It is XX cross-section equivalent figure of FIG. 1 showing the structure in the refrigerator compartment regarding embodiment of this invention. It is a fragmentary sectional view of the cooler storage room peripheral part of the refrigerator which comprises the conventional heater cover. It is a partial side view of the cooler storage chamber periphery part of the refrigerator regarding embodiment of this invention. It is a cross-sectional explanatory drawing of the defrost heater in FIG.3 and FIG.4.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a front view of a refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view corresponding to the XX cross section of FIG. 1 showing a configuration inside the refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The refrigerator 1 according to the present embodiment includes, from above, as a storage room, a refrigerator room 2, an ice making room 3 provided on the left and right, an upper freezer room 4, a lower freezer room 5, and a vegetable room 6. The vegetable room 6 has a vegetable room upper drawer 6a inside. The refrigerator compartment 2 and the vegetable compartment 6 are storage rooms in a refrigerator temperature zone of about 3 to 5 ° C. On the other hand, the ice making room 3, the upper freezing room 4 and the lower freezing room 5 are storage rooms in a freezing temperature zone of about −18 ° C. As shown in FIG. 2, the box 7 that separates the inside and outside of the refrigerator 1 and the doors 8 to 11 of each storage room, and the partition walls 12 and 13 that partition the refrigeration temperature zone storage room and the freezing temperature zone storage room are each thermally insulated. Including the material, the inside and outside of the cabinet and each temperature zone storage room are insulated.

  In the refrigerator 1, as a means for cooling the inside of the refrigerator, a cooler 14 is provided in a cooler storage chamber 15 provided substantially at the back of the lower freezing chamber 5. An example of the cooler 14 is a finned tube heat exchanger. Above the cooler 14 in the cooler storage chamber 15, a blower 16 is provided as a blower that circulates the air cooled by the cooler 14 into the refrigerator. An example of the blower 16 is a propeller fan.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described by taking up the configuration of the refrigerator storage chamber 15 of the refrigerator 1.

  FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of a peripheral portion of a refrigerator storage chamber of a refrigerator having a conventional heater cover. On the other hand, FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of the periphery of the cooler storage chamber 15 of the refrigerator 1 according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  14 is a cooler installed vertically on the back of the refrigerator, and 17 is a radiant heater for defrosting the cooler 14.

  FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the radiant heater 17. The radiant heater 17 is configured by disposing a heater wire 17b in a glass tube 17a and covering both ends of the glass tube 17a with rubber plugs 18. Both ends of the heater wire 17b are connected to the lead wire 19, and a connection fitting 20 is disposed at the connecting portion. Reference numeral 21 denotes a positioning member. Further, around the outer periphery of the glass tube 17a, fin-shaped aluminum radiation fins 22 are wound in a coil shape as a heat radiation member.

  As shown in FIG. 3, in the conventional refrigerator, the radiant heater 17 is installed in the lower part of the cooler 14, and in order to prevent defrost water from dripping on the surface of the glass tube 17a of the radiant heater 17, an aluminum heater is used. A cover 23 is installed. Usually, the glass tube 17a of the radiant heater 17 has a high surface temperature of around 500 ° C. during defrosting. For this reason, if a water droplet directly drops on the surface of the glass tube 17a during defrosting, a steam explosion state is exhibited and a loud sound is generated. If it is in a state close to such a steam explosion state, the generated sound becomes a sound that can be heard to the outside of the refrigerator, giving anxiety to the user. It is the role of the heater cover 23 to prevent this.

  On the other hand, in the refrigerator according to the embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, the defrost water dripped from the cooler 14 during the defrosting of the cooler 14 and the radiant heater 17 is the glass tube 17 a of the radiant heater 17. The surface of the glass tube 17a of the radiant heater 17 is installed in such a positional relationship that it is located on the back side from the rear surface of the cooler 14 (or on the front side from the front surface of the cooler 14) so as not to drop directly on the surface.

  That is, even if a heater cover is not provided on the radiant heater 17, the generated defrost water does not drop on the surface of the glass tube 17 a of the radiant heater 17 but drops on the tub 24. Therefore, in the refrigerator of this embodiment, a heater cover is not installed above the radiant heater 17.

  It is possible to prevent the members from being deformed by the heat rays radiated from the radiant heater 17 on the surface of the trough 24 for collecting and draining the defrost water and on the surface of the wall surface 25 of the cooler storage chamber 15 from the upper part of the radiant heater 17 to the rear. In order to reflect heat rays to the cooler 14 and increase the efficiency of heat transfer to the frost on the cooler 14, coating with aluminum foil is performed.

  Further, the wall surface 25 has an inclined surface 25a that is inclined so that the upper part is located on the front side of the lower part from the upper part of the radiant heater 17 to the half of the height of the cooler 14, and the cooler As for the lower half of 14, heat rays are directly radiated from the radiant heater 17 to the rear surface thereof, and the heat rays radiated from the radiant heater 17 to the inclined surface 25 a and reflected by the aluminum coating on the surface of the inclined surface 25 a are radiated. In the upper half of 14, the hot air around the radiant heater 17 travels along the inclined surface 25 a by natural convection and flows to the upper half of the cooler 14.

  The reason why the inclined surface 25a of the wall surface 25 is not inclined to the height of the upper end of the cooler 14 is that the hot air rising from the radiant heater 17 by natural convection flows between the cooler 14 and the wall surface 25 having a low air path resistance. It becomes easy to flow, it flows upward from the cooler 14 without sufficiently transferring heat to the cooler 14, and the heat transfer efficiency to the cooler 14 is reduced, or the entire rear surface of the cooler 14 is lowered. A heat ray is directly radiated from the radiant heater 17 and the rear part of the cooler 14 is easily heated more than necessary, so that a large temperature spot is generated at the front part and the rear part of the cooler 14. This is to prevent the defrosting efficiency from being lowered, and the height of the inclined end of the inclined surface 25a of the wall surface 25 is half the height of the cooler 14 as long as these problems are sufficiently prevented. Limited No.

  Further, the inclined surface 25a of the above-mentioned aluminum-coated wall surface 25 does not have to be formed by the wall surface 25 of the cooler housing chamber 15, and the inclined surface causes the hot air that has risen from the vicinity of the radiant heater 17 by natural convection to What is necessary is just to be able to fulfill the role which flows to 14. Other than the wall surface, a configuration example in which an inclined surface having a role corresponding to the inclined surface 25a is formed by installing an inclined aluminum cover on the radiant heater 17 may be used. Such a cover, unlike the conventional heater cover 23 for the purpose of preventing dripping of defrost water, does not hinder the radiation of heat rays from the radiant heater 17 to the cooler 14 and has an inclination along the air path. Therefore, it does not cause a blowing resistance.

  In the refrigerator 1 including the cooler storage chamber 15 having the above-described configuration, the lower portion of the cooler storage chamber 15 in which the radiant heater 17 is accommodated is positioned on the rear side of the refrigerator by installing the radiant heater 17 on the rear side of the refrigerator. Accordingly, the depth of the upper part of the vegetable compartment 6 and the upper drawer 6a of the vegetable compartment is larger than before. That is, the food storage capacity of the refrigerator can be increased by this embodiment.

  In addition, since the distance from the radiant heater 17 to the back of the lower freezer compartment 5 is large and the low-temperature cooler 14 that is frosted is sandwiched therebetween, the lower freezer compartment by heating of the radiant heater 17 at the time of defrosting. 5 can be reduced, the reliability of keeping the temperature of the food in the lower freezer compartment 5 within a certain range is increased, and at the same time, the heat deprived by the lower freezer compartment 5 during defrosting is suppressed. Thus, the defrosting efficiency can be improved.

  As mentioned above, this embodiment is a refrigerator provided with the cooler and the radiant heater which is the structure containing a glass tube and melts the frost adhering to the cooler, The defrost water of the cooler is the glass tube The radiant heater is configured such that the surface of the glass tube is located on the back side of the cooler or on the front side of the cooler front so as not to drop directly on the surface of the cooler.

  Thereby, since the glass tube surface of a radiant heater is not in the position where the defrost water dripping, installation of a heater cover is not required and the heat transfer efficiency by a heater cover does not fall. Furthermore, since the heat rays radiated from the radiant heater directly reach a wide area on the back of the cooler without being blocked by the heater cover, efficient defrosting can be performed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Refrigerator main body 14 Cooler 17 Radiant heater 17a Glass tube 17b Heater wire 18 Rubber plug 19 Lead wire 20 Connecting metal fitting 21 Positioning member 22 Coil-shaped radiation fin 23 Heater cover 24 樋 25 Wall surface 25a Inclined surface

Claims (2)

In a refrigerator including a cooler and a radiant heater that melts frost attached to the cooler, the glass tube including a glass tube,
The radiant heater so that the surface of the glass tube is located on the back side of the cooler or the front side of the cooler so that the defrost water of the cooler does not directly drop on the surface of the glass tube. The refrigerator characterized by comprising.   In Claim 1, the hot air which raised by natural convection from the circumference of the radiant heater at the top of the radiant heater flows in the direction of the cooler, and the heat rays radiated from the radiant heater are directed in the direction of the cooler. A refrigerator having an inclined surface that reflects.