The present invention relates generally to refrigerators, and, more specifically, to icemakers therein.
A typical refrigerator includes a cool compartment for keeping cool frozen food and beverage products, and a freezer compartment for storing frozen products.
A common feature located in modern refrigerators is an automatic icemaker built into the freezer compartment. The icemaker includes an ice tray having several compartments in which individual ice cubes are formed. The frozen ice cubes are mechanically dispensed from the ice tray into an ice bin from which the ice may be conveniently dispensed through a chute and outlet typically formed in the freezer door.
The empty ice tray is then refilled with water for the next batch of ice cubes. This is automatically done by the timed opening of a solenoid-actuated valve.
However, accurately controlling the volume of water delivered to the ice tray by timing water flow is dependent upon water pressure. Timed filling of the ice tray must therefore be selected to accommodate maximum expected water pressure without overfilling the ice tray, which will result in underfilling the ice tray for water pressure levels therebelow.
Furthermore, competitive pricing of icemakers requires simplicity of design, few components, and compact elements for minimizing space requirements within the cabinet of the refrigerator. And, electrically operated components, such as solenoids, should be configured for reducing heat generation therefrom which adversely affects performance of the refrigerator.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved dispenser for accurately filling icemaker trays without regard to variation in water pressure.