An icemaker for making clear ice shapes using a process that removes and replenishes a freezable liquid, such as water, from and to one or more ice-mold cavities during freezing of the freezable liquid in the ice-mold cavity(ies). This process removes air bubbles from the freezable liquid during freezing that would otherwise result in cloudy ice. In some embodiments, the icemaker includes a suction system to draw freezable liquid from the cavity(ies) and a replenishment system to replenish the cavity(ies) with freezable liquid to replace the freezable liquid that the suction system draws out of the cavity(ies). In some embodiments, the replenishment includes a reservoir containing freezable liquid and the suction system includes a pump that draws the freezable liquid from the cavity(ies) and discharges it to the reservoir. Methods of making clear ice and other systems for making clear ice are also disclosed.

A refrigerator and a device for ice discharging are disclosed. The device for ice discharging includes a case having an ice introduction opening and an ice discharge opening (312); a rotation member (320) rotatable in the case to transfer ice that is held in a predetermined amount to be discharged; and a discharge adjustment part (340) spaced apart a predetermined space from the rotation member (320) to adjust the number of the ices transferred by the rotation member, such that a fixed amount of the ice is substantially discharged. The refrigerator includes the device for ice discharging therein.

Disclosed is an ice making device that is able to selectively make ices having different transparencies from each other. The ice making device includes: an ice making chamber including an ice making container to accommodate ice making water therein; a cooler configured to supply cool air to the ice making chamber to cool the ice making water; an ice making fan configured to circulate the supplied cool air; an ice making heater configured to supply heat to the ice making water when the ice making water is cooled; and a controller configured to control at least one of the cooling unit, the ice making fan and the ice making heater to adjust a rate of change of temperature of the ice making container to generate one of two types of ice having different transparency. The ice making device may adjust the rate of change of temperature of the ice making container to have the transparency desired by a user.

An ice storage includes a storage body having a storage space for storing ice and a discharge port for discharging ice to the outside, a transferring and breaking part which, by having at least a part thereof provided in the storage space, transfers the ice in the storage space to the discharge port, and if necessary, breaks the transferred ice, and a door part allowing the ice to be discharged through the discharge port as unbroken ice or broken ice unbroken or broken up by the transferring and breaking part. The transferring and breaking part includes a transferring member for transferring ice and a breaking member for breaking ice, and the transferring member and the breaking member are configured such that ice is not stuck therebetween while being transferred.

A refrigerator according to the present invention includes: an ice maker for generating ice; an ice bin for storing the ice generated by the ice maker and including a rotational blade that can be rotated in order to discharge the ice; a motor for generating power for rotating the rotational blade; a manipulation pad provided on the door of the refrigerator and manipulated to discharge the ice from the ice bin; a manipulation sensing part for detecting the manipulation of the manipulation pad; and a controller for operating the motor when the manipulation of the manipulation pad is detected by the manipulation sensing part, wherein the controller may rotate the motor in one direction to discharge the ice from the ice bin and the controller rotates the motor in the other direction, which is the opposite direction of the one direction, for a set period of time when the manipulation of the manipulation pad is not detected by the manipulation sensing part during the process of discharging the ice.

A variable ice dispenser for a refrigerator utilizes a variable control suitable for varying the rate of ice dispensing by the dispenser. In some instances, the variable control includes a variable control actuator that is movable between a range of positions including a home position, and movement of the variable control actuator in a first direction from the home position causes the variable ice dispenser to dispense cubed ice while movement of the variable control actuator in a second direction from the home position causes the variable ice dispenser to dispense crushed ice. Further, in some instances, the variable control may also selectively activate the ice dispenser such that the variable control actuator controls the ice dispensing rate while the variable ice dispenser is activated. In addition, in some instances, a variable control may also include a secondary control that switches between ice and water dispensing modes.

A refrigerator may include: a storage chamber, a first ice-maker, a second ice-maker, a cooler for supplying the cold to the storage chamber and the ice-making chamber, an ice bin for storing ice generated by the second ice-maker, a water supply unit for supplying water to the ice-making cell, a heater for supplying heat to the ice-making cell, and a controller for controlling the heater. The controller may increase the heating amount of the heater when the heat transfer amount between the cold in the storage chamber and the water in the ice-making cell is increased, and decreases the heating amount of the heater when the heat transfer amount between the cold in the storage chamber and the water in the ice-making cell is reduced.

A refrigerator includes a refrigerator door and an ice maker. The ice maker includes an ice storage container disposed on the refrigerator door, a stirrer provided in the ice storage container and an ice knife assembly provided in the ice storage container. The stirrer includes a rotary shaft and the rotary shaft of the stirrer is in a first fixed position relative to the ice storage container. The ice knife assembly includes a rotary shaft and the rotary shaft of the ice knife assembly is in a second fixed position relative to the ice storage container. The rotary shaft of the stirrer is located above the rotary shaft of the ice knife assembly, and an orthographic projection of the rotary shaft of the stirrer in a horizontal plane is perpendicular to that of the rotary shaft of the ice knife assembly in the same horizontal plane.

A system and method for managing the distribution of ice is provided. Generally, the system and method of the present disclosure are designed to easily and conveniently produce and distribute ice to users who pay a fee. The system generally comprises an ice maker, a processor operably connected to at least one of a weight measuring device and a motor, a distributor operably connected to the motor, a power supply, a nozzle, and a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the processor and having instructions stored thereon. In another preferred embodiment, a Point-of-Sale interface may be operably connected to the processor. A user may operate the system by compressing the trigger mechanism of the nozzle and pointing the nozzle at the container in which the user desires to fill with ice. The user may decompress the trigger when the desired amount of ice has been distributed.

A machine to continuously produce and hold ice is provided. The machine includes a compressor, an evaporator, and an auger that rotates across an outer surface of the evaporator to scrape ice forming thereon. Ice slices travel with auger rotation and neighboring ice slices coalesce together to form larger pieces of ice. A user input allows adjustment of the density of the ice produced. The controller alters compressor speed, such that a decrease in compressor speed results in an increase in the surface temperature of the evaporator and therefore slows down ice formation thereon, and an increase in compressor speed results in a decrease in the surface temperature of the evaporator and therefore speeds up the ice formation thereon. A change in ice formation speed results in a corresponding change in the rate of ice slice production and a corresponding change in density of ice produced by the machine.