In general, a refrigerator is a home electric appliance for keeping food and drink at a low temperature in an inner storage compartment shielded by a door.
A method for opening a refrigerator door has been disclosed in Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2011-0040030 (Publication Date: Apr. 20, 2011).
In the publication, a door handle is provided at the refrigerator door and a manipulation unit is provided at the door handle. And, a door opening device is provided at a cabinet forming a storage space. When a user operates the manipulation unit, a push rod configuring the door opening device pushes and opens the refrigerator door.
The push rod receives a driving force generated from a driving motor by a plurality of gears and performs a linear motion.
The push rod moves forward and may move to a set position for opening the door. And, in the case in which a position detecting member detects that the push rod moves to the set position, the driving motor is rotated reversely and the push rod is returned to its initial position.
According to the prior art document, since the driving motor constantly operates until the push rod moves to the set position, in the case in which an external force is applied to the refrigerator door in the process that the driving motor is operating, there is a problem that the push rod and the gears are broken or the driving motor is damaged due to overload of the driving motor.
Also, since the driving motor is constantly operating until the push rod moves to the set position regardless of the door opening by the user when the push rod is moving, in the case in which the user closes the door after increasing an opening angle of the door in the process of the push rod moving forward to the set position, a rotational force for closing the door is transmitted to the plurality of gears through the push rod, and thus there is a problem that the push rod and/or the gear are damaged.