Refrigerator

A refrigerator (often shortened to fridge) or freezer is an electrical appliance that uses refrigeration to help preserve food. A domestic refrigerator is present in 99.5% of American homes. It works using phase change heat pumps operating in a refrigeration cycle. An industrial refrigerator or industrial freezer is simply a refrigerator used in an industrial setting, usually in a restaurant or supermarket.

Features

Some newer refrigerators may feature:

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• An LCD suggesting what types of food should be stored at what temperatures and the expiration date of the food stored.
• Filter Status Indicator tells you when it's time for a change.
• An in-door ice caddie, which relocates the icemaker storage to the freezer door and saves approximately 2 cubic feet (60 L) of usable freezer space. It is also removable, and helps to prevent icemaker clogging. In-door ice caddies are exclusive to side-by-side refrigerators.
• A cooling zone in the refigerator door shelves. Air from the freezer section is diverted to the refrigerator door, helping to keep milk or juice in the door shelf colder.
• A power failure warning, alerting the user to the failure, usually by flashing the temperature display. The maximum temperature reached during the power failure may be displayed, along with information on whether the frozen food has defrosted or may contain harmful bacteria.
• Frost-free operation. Over time atmospheric water vapour condenses onto the cooling coils as ice, which can eventually build up into a layer several centimetres thick. This can be removed by emptying the refrigerator and turning it off so that the ice melts. In a refrigerator equipped for frost-free operation, a heater and a thermostat are fitted around the cooling coils. Every six hours (varies between 6 to 24 hours depending on model) the cooling is switched off and the heater turned on until the temperature around the coils slightly exceeds the freezing point of water when normal cooling is restored. This melts any ice which has collected around the coils and prevents it from building up.

An increasingly important environmental concern is the disposal of old refrigerators - initially because of the freon coolant damaging the ozone layer, but as the older generation of refrigerators disappears it is the destruction of CFC-bearing insulation which causes concern. Modern refrigerators usually use a refrigerant called HFC-134a (1,2,2,2-tetrafluoroethane) instead of freon, which has no ozone layer depleting properties.

Related Topics:
Freon - Ozone layer - Insulation - Refrigerant - HFC-134a

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Disposal of discarded refrigerators is very often strictly regulated by municipalities, by mandating the removal of doors, as many children playing hide-and-seek had been asphixyated while hiding inside a discarded refrigerator.

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