JPH109746A - Refrigerator - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the deviation of frost on a cooler of a refrigerator and eliminate any possible chance which may affect preserved foods due to a frost failure which results in non-cooling or dull-cooling and prevent an increase in power consumption resultant from a shortened frost cycle or protect a vegetable compartment from excessive dryness. SOLUTION: A cold storage compartment return passage and a vegetable compartment return passage 34 are provided independently up to a cooler compartment 7 respectively so that a minimum cooling air volume required by each compartment may be defined. The structure of a flow outlet of the vegetable compartment return passage 34 is designed to sandwich the flow outlet of a freezer compartment 5 in the center so that it may be provided on the opposite side to the flow outlet of a cold storage compartment. This construction makes it possible to produce frost uniformly, thereby protecting preserved foods from a bad effect created by defrosting failure or non-cooling or dull cooling and inhibiting an increase in power consumption resultant from an unnecessarily shortened defrosting cycle and protecting the vegetable compartment from excessive dryness.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a refrigerator for household use, in which a refrigerator compartment is formed above a freezer compartment and a vegetable compartment is formed below the freezer compartment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-288466, a refrigerator is usually provided with a freezing room, a refrigerator room, and a vegetable room in order from the top. However, since the frequency of use is higher in the refrigerator compartment than in the freezer compartment, in consideration of the ease of opening and closing the door and putting food in and out, recent large refrigerators have a refrigerator compartment above the eye, which is close to eye level. Often, a freezer compartment is arranged in the middle and a vegetable compartment below.

On the other hand, in a so-called fan-cooled refrigerator, a cooler is conventionally provided at the back of a freezing room, and the cool air cooled by the cooler is sent to each room by a fan device to be cooled. It returns to the cooler via the return path dedicated to each room.

[0004] A refrigerator employing this conventional technique will be described with reference to the drawings. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional refrigerator, FIG. 7 is a transverse sectional view, and FIG. 8 is a front view. Inside the heat-insulating box 1, there is a heat-insulating partition wall 2 for dividing the heat into upper and lower three stages
And a refrigerator room 4, a freezer room 5, and a vegetable room 6 are formed in this order from the top.

A cooler room 7 is formed at the back of the freezing room 5, and a cooler 8 and a fan device 9 are provided above the cooler room 8.
As described later, cool air cooled by the cooler 8 is blown to maintain each chamber at a predetermined temperature.

[0006] That is, in FIG. 6, a makeup cover 10 is provided on the back surface of the freezer compartment 5. On the back side of the decorative cover 10, a first duct 11 is provided.
The first duct 11 connects an air outlet 12 formed in a front wall portion of the cooler room 7 and a lower end entrance of a second duct 13 provided in the heat insulating partition wall 2. Therefore, most of the cool air in the cooler room 7 is cooled by the fan device 9 from the air outlet 12 through the discharge port 14 provided in the decorative cover 10 through the first duct 11, The rest is blown to the second duct 13.

The second duct 13 extends upward, and an upper end outlet thereof is opened into a damper chamber 16 of a heat insulating cover 15 provided at a lower end portion of the back of the refrigerator compartment 4. The heat insulating cover 15 is made of, for example, foamed plastic, and covers the damper device 17 so that the damper device 17 attached to the heat insulating box 1 is housed in the damper chamber 16. The damper device 17 is configured to perform an opening operation and a closing operation, respectively, when a temperature sensor (not shown) for detecting the temperature in the refrigerator compartment 4 detects an open set temperature and a closed set temperature. Most of the cool air that has passed through the damper device 17 is then sent into the refrigerator compartment 4 through a third duct 18 in the refrigerator compartment 4 that is finely divided in order to equalize the temperature inside the refrigerator compartment. At the same time, after being partially divided by the third duct 18, the vegetable room 6 is cooled through the fourth duct 19 for the vegetable room. Fourth duct 19
Communicates with the inside of the vegetable compartment 6 through the inside of the back wall of the heat insulating box 1. Therefore, the refrigerator compartment 4 and the vegetable compartment 6 are kept at a predetermined temperature. Further, the cold air that has cooled the refrigerator compartments 4 and the vegetable compartment 6 is supplied to a dedicated return route 2 for the refrigerator compartment.
0, returned to the cooler room 7 through the return path 21 for the vegetable room.

The refrigerating compartment return path 20 is formed so as to communicate with the bottom of the refrigerating compartment 7 from the lower portion of the refrigerating compartment 4 through the rear wall of the heat insulating box 1 to the right of the refrigerating compartment 7. The cool air outlet 22 is opened from the right end of the cooler 8.

The vegetable compartment return path 21 is formed at the center of the heat-insulating partition wall 3 and opens into the vegetable compartment 6 through the front inlet 23 and the outlet 24 is connected to the cooler room 7 with respect to the cooler. An opening is provided at the bottom of the chamber 7 so as to be located at the center of the cooler 8.

After cooling the freezer compartment 5, the air flows from the outlet 27 of the freezer compartment return passage 26 in which the inlet 25 opens to the heat insulating partition wall 3 on the right and left sides of the bottom of the cooler compartment 7. Flows into.

An electric heater 28 for defrosting is provided below the cooler 8 in the cooler room 7, and the cooler 8 is periodically defrosted.

[0012]

However, with the above-described conventional configuration, the air flowing from the low-temperature and low-humidity freezing room return path 26 can be evenly distributed to the left and right sides of the cooler 8. The hot and humid vegetable compartment return path 21 can be provided, but since the air from the cold storage compartment return path 20 is from the right side, the air volume passing through the left side of the cooler 8 is large but the right side is small and frosty. Is deflected to the right from the center, resulting in poor defrosting, resulting in uncooled or dull cooling, adversely affecting stored foods, or shortening the defrosting cycle, resulting in increased power consumption. Had.

[0013] In addition, the return path 20 for the refrigerator compartment is once communicated with the vegetable compartment 6 and returned to the cooler compartment 7 via the vegetable compartment 6, but the amount of air passing through the vegetable compartment 6 becomes too large.
There was a problem that the vegetables to be stored were too dry.

According to the present invention, in a refrigerator in which a refrigerator compartment is provided above a freezer compartment and a vegetable compartment is provided below a freezer compartment, frost formation is prevented from being biased toward a cooler and the amount of cooling air in the vegetable compartment is suppressed. And to provide a refrigerator with less drying.

[0015]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a refrigerator of the present invention is provided with a return path for a refrigerator compartment and a return route for a vegetable compartment, each of which has a minimum required cooling air volume, and The outlet of the return path for the vegetable compartment is configured to be provided on the opposite side of the outlet for the refrigerator compartment with the outlet of the freezer compartment interposed therebetween.

[0016] Therefore, it is possible to make the frost of the cooler uniform and to suppress the air volume in the vegetable compartment, thereby providing a refrigerator having a vegetable compartment with little drying.

Further, by opening the return path for the vegetable compartment to the vicinity of the outlet of the return path for the freezer compartment instead of opening directly into the cooler compartment, it is possible to return the cool air and the low temperature / low humidity from the vegetable compartment having a relatively high temperature and high humidity. The cool air returned from the freezing room is mixed with the cool air, and the air volume in the vegetable room is suppressed while uniformizing the frost of the cooler.

[0018]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As set forth in claim 1, according to the present invention, a refrigerator compartment is formed above a freezer compartment by partitioning the inside of a heat insulating box up and down, and a vegetable compartment is provided below the freezer compartment. The cool air cooled by a cooler is circulated by a fan device to cool each of the chambers, and the cool air is sent to the freezer through the freezer-room outward path, and then cooled by the freezer-room return path. While returning to the center of the refrigerator compartment, the return route for the refrigerator compartment for returning the cool air sent to the refrigerator compartment through the refrigerator compartment outward route communicates with the side of the cooler and returns to the refrigerator compartment, The cool air which has cooled the vegetable compartment through the vegetable compartment forward path is provided so as to return to the cooler room from the side opposite to the refrigerator compartment return path with the vegetable compartment return path sandwiching the freezer compartment return path therebetween. be able to.

With the above-mentioned structure, the frost formation of the cooler becomes uniform, and there is no possibility of uncooled or dull cooling due to poor defrosting, and does not adversely affect the preserved food. Also, it is not necessary to increase the power consumption by shortening the defrost cycle.

Further, as described in the second aspect, the outlet on the cooler room side of the return path for the vegetable room is opened near the outlet of the return path for the freezer room, and after the return air from the freezer room is joined. If the operation is performed so as to return to the cooler room, the frost formation of the cooler becomes uniform, and there is no possibility of uncooled or dull cooling due to poor defrosting, and therefore, does not adversely affect the stored food. Also, it is not necessary to increase the power consumption by shortening the defrost cycle.

[0021]

FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 show an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

(First Embodiment) A refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

The refrigerator compartment 4, freezer compartment 5, vegetable compartment 6, cooler compartment 7, cooler 8, fan device 9, makeup cover 10,
First duct 11, blower port 12, second duct 13, discharge port 14, heat insulating cover 15, damper chamber 16, damper device 17, temperature sensor (not shown), third duct 1
8, the fourth duct 19, the return path 20 for the refrigerator compartment, the cold air outlet 22, and the electric heater 28 have the same configuration as the conventional refrigerator shown in FIGS. Detailed description is omitted.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention, from which a door is removed. FIGS. 2 and 3 are longitudinal side views of different parts, and FIG. 4 is a line AA in FIG. FIG.

In FIG. 1, the upper and lower two
Heat insulating partition walls 30 and 31 are provided at the steps, and the heat insulating partition walls 30 and 31 define a refrigerator room 4, a freezing room 5, and a vegetable room 6 in the heat insulating box 1 from above.

On the back of the freezer compartment 5, a decorative cover 10 is provided.
A cooler room 7 isolated by the above is formed. In this cooler room 7, a fan device 9 and a cooler 8 are installed in a vertical positional relationship as shown in FIG. 2, and the fan device 9 circulates the air cooled by the cooler 8 throughout the refrigerator. Then, each chamber is cooled to a predetermined temperature. Further, on the freezer compartment 5 side of the decorative cover 10, a first duct 11 formed by the decorative cover 10 is formed.

First, an air outlet 12 is provided on the front wall of the cooler room 7.
Is formed, and the cool air cooled by the cooler 8 by the fan device 9 is sent to the first duct 11 through the air outlet 12. Most of the cool air is sent from the first duct 11 to the freezer compartment 5 through the discharge port 14 provided in the decorative cover 10. The remaining cool air passes through the second duct 13, the damper device 17 of the damper chamber 16, the third duct 18, and a part of the cold air from the refrigerator compartment 4 and the third duct 18 via the fourth duct 19. Cool 6

The cold air that has cooled the refrigerator compartment 4 passes from the lower part of the refrigerator compartment 4 to the right side of the cooler room 7, which is a part of the rear wall of the heat-insulating box 1, which is a thick wall. The cool air outlet 22 at the lower end of the cooler room 7 passes through the return passage 20 for the refrigerator room which is opened from the right end of the cooler 8.
Go back to

The cold air that has cooled the vegetable compartment 6 is supplied to the inflow port 3 provided on the front left side of the heat insulating partition wall 31 on the vegetable compartment 6 side.
2 through the interior of the heat insulating partition 31, the vegetable compartment opened from the outlet 33 opened into the cooler room 7 at the bottom of the cooler room 7 so as to be located on the left side of the cooler 8. It returns to the cooler room 7 via the return path 34.

The cold air that has cooled the freezing compartment 5 is supplied to the inflow port 3 provided at the center front of the heat insulating partition wall 31 on the freezing compartment 5 side.
5 through the interior of the heat insulating partition 31 and through the outlet 36 in the cooler room 7 at the bottom of the cooler room 7
To the cooler room 7 via the freezer compartment return path 37 opened to be located at the center of the refrigerator.

Embodiment 1 of the present invention configured as described above
Now, the flow of cold air will be described.

First, when the fan device 9 is started, the cool air cooled by the cooler 8 cools the freezing room 5 from the air outlet 12 through the first duct 11 and most of the cool air from the outlet 14, and It returns to the inside of the cooler room 7 again through the freezing room return path 37 and circulates to be cooled again by the cooler 8. The remaining cool air cools the refrigerator compartment 4 through the second duct 13, the damper chamber 16, and the third duct 18,
It returns to the inside of the cooler room 7 through the return path 20 for the refrigerator room. Also,
A part of the cool air is further branched in the third duct 18, cools the vegetable compartment 6 through the fourth duct 19, and then circulates by returning to the cooler room 7 through the vegetable compartment return path 34. I do.

The routes from the first duct 11 to the refrigerator compartment 4, the freezer compartment 5, and the vegetable compartment 6 are referred to as a refrigerator compartment forward route 38, a freezer compartment forward route 39, and a vegetable compartment forward route 40, respectively.

Therefore, after the cool air cooled by the cooler 8 cools the respective chambers, the temperature and humidity of the cool air rise and return to the cooler 8, and pass through the cooler 8 having a low temperature. At this time, since the dehumidification is performed, the cooler 8 is frosted. Of these, the freezer compartment 5 is at about −18 ° C.
And cooler 8 (about -30 ° C) compared to about 5 ° C in vegetable room 6
Frost formation is small because of the small temperature difference between Conversely, the freezer compartment 5 cannot maintain a predetermined temperature unless cooled by a large amount of cold air. In other words, the return path 37 for the freezer compartment has a large air volume, and
The outlet 36 to the cold air outlet 22 on the return path 20 for the refrigerator compartment on the right side and the outlet 33 on the return path 34 for the vegetable room on the left side,
The opening area is large and formed at the center of the cooler 8.

Therefore, a large amount of air returned from the low-temperature and low-humidity freezer compartment 5 flows through the central portion of the cooler 8, and the frost of the cooler becomes uniform. For this reason, poor defrosting causes uncooled or dull cooling to adversely affect stored foods, unnecessarily shortening the defrosting cycle to increase power consumption, or the vegetable room 6
Is not excessively dried by an excessive amount of cooling air.

Example 2 Regarding Example 2 of the present invention,
This will be described with reference to FIG.

It is to be noted that the same components as those of the prior art and the first embodiment of the present invention are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

An outlet 44 for the return compartment 43 for the vegetable compartment is provided immediately before the outlet 42 on the cooler compartment 7 side of the return compartment 41 for the freezer compartment in the heat insulating partition wall 31. After the air returned from 6 is mixed, the cooler room 7
It is constituted so that it may be opened.

Therefore, the cooler room 7 only needs to be provided with the cool air outlet 22 and the outlet 42 which open the return cool air from the refrigerator compartment 4 and the freezer compartment 5.

With the above configuration, the return cold air from the vegetable compartment 6 having a relatively high temperature and high humidity is not directly circulated into the cooler compartment 7 but from the outlet 44 once opened into the return path 41 for the freezer compartment. Mix with cool air returned from 5. Since the air volume in the vegetable compartment 6 is significantly smaller than the air volume in the freezer compartment 5, it spreads widely, and returns to the cooler compartment 7 from the outlet 42 opened in the cooler compartment 7. A large amount of air that has returned from the freezing compartment 5 including the cool air that has returned from the vegetable compartment 6 flows through the center of the cooler 8, and the frost on the cooler 8 becomes uniform.

Accordingly, poor defrosting results in uncooled or dull cooling, which adversely affects the preserved food, or unnecessarily shortens the defrosting cycle to increase power consumption, or causes the vegetable compartment 6 to be cooled by an excessive cooling air volume. Do not overdry.

[0042]

As described above, in the refrigerator according to the present invention, the return path for the refrigerator compartment and the return path for the vegetable compartment are provided independently of each other so that each of the compartments has the minimum required cooling air volume, and the return flow for the vegetable compartment is provided. The outlet is configured to be provided on the left side opposite to the outlet for the refrigerator compartment with the outlet of the freezer sandwiched in the center, so that a large amount of air returned from the low-temperature and low-humidity freezer is located at the center of the cooler. , The frost of the cooler becomes uniform.

[0043] Therefore, poor defrosting results in uncooled or slow cooling, which adversely affects stored foods. Unnecessarily shortening the defrosting cycle to increase power consumption, or drying the vegetable compartment with excessive cooling air flow. An excellent refrigerator that does not pass can be obtained.

Further, an outlet for the return path for the vegetable compartment is provided immediately before the outlet on the cooler room side of the return path for the freezer compartment in the heat insulating partition wall.
Since the air returned from the vegetable room is mixed with the cold air returned from the freezing room and then opened to the cooler room, the air returned from the low-temperature and low-humidity freezing room is similarly placed at the center of the cooler. Due to the large flow, the frost of the cooler becomes uniform.

[0045] Therefore, poor defrosting results in uncooled or dull cooling, which adversely affects stored foods, unnecessarily shortens the defrosting cycle to increase power consumption, or causes excessive cooling air to dry the vegetable compartment. An excellent refrigerator that does not pass can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a refrigerator according to a first embodiment of the present invention with a door removed.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of the refrigerator.

FIG. 3 is another longitudinal sectional view of the refrigerator.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the refrigerator.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a refrigerator according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional refrigerator.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of the refrigerator.

FIG. 8 is a front view of the refrigerator.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 Refrigerator room 5 Freezer room 6 Vegetable room 7 Cooler room 8 Cooler 9 Fan device 20 Refrigerator room return path 29 Insulated box body 34 Vegetable room return path 37 Freezer room return path 38 Refrigerator return path 39 Freezer return path 40 Vegetable Outbound for room 41 Inbound for frozen room 42 Outflow 43 Outbound for vegetable room 44 Outflow

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A refrigerator compartment is formed above a freezer compartment by partitioning the inside of a heat insulating box up and down, and a vegetable compartment is formed below a freezer compartment, and each compartment is cooled by a cooler to cool the compartments. The chilled air is circulated by the fan device, the cool air is sent to the freezing room via the freezing room forward path, and after cooling the freezing room, is returned to the center of the cooler room by the freezing room returning path, and is also returned via the freezing room forward path. The return path for the refrigerator compartment for returning the cold air sent to the refrigerator compartment communicates with the side of the cooler so as to return to the refrigerator compartment, and the cool air that cools the vegetable compartment through the outward route for the vegetable compartment is: A refrigerator provided so as to return to the cooler room from the side opposite to the return path for the refrigerator compartment with the return path for the freezer compartment sandwiched between the return routes for the vegetable compartment. 2. The outlet on the cooler room side of the return path for the vegetable room,
2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the refrigerator is opened near the outlet of the freezing room return path, and after returning the cool air from the vegetable room returning path and the cool air from the freezing room return path to the cooler room.