Conventional refrigerators of this type have an upright refrigeration unit in a rear portion behind a freezer chamber, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 60-33224, and a blower above the refrigeration unit for sucking the cold from the refrigeration unit and blowing it in part from an outlet port to the freezer chamber. The cold air blown into the freezer chamber is collected into an air intake port provided in the front portion of the freezer chamber and returned from there back to the rear portion through a return channel. The other part of the cold air is once led by the blower to the right of the rear portion, avoiding the refrigeration unit, and then led down to the refrigeration chamber.
However, such an air intake port in the freezer chamber mentioned above appears instantly in the front portion of the chamber as the freezer door is opened, which gives not only poor looking but also low refrigeration efficiency by sucking the cold air directly from the outlet port to the inlet port, rather than circulating the cold air throughout the freezer chamber. This tends to prevent uniform freezing, particularly in the upper portion, front portion, and rear portion of the freezer chamber. On the other hand the cold air released into the refrigeration chamber loses its fluid velocity due to turbulence caused by friction through a long detour in the rear portion, failing to cool the refrigeration chamber efficiently.
Conventional refrigerators have their cold air ducts disposed in the central portion of the refrigeration chamber. Since these ducts require a large space behind the refrigeration chamber, they limit the size of the refrigeration chamber.
Conventional refrigerators have another problem that those foods placed on the shelves deep in the freezer and refrigeration chambers are difficult to reach, so that they are often left there till they are rotten.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds