In general, a refrigerator is a device for keeping foods or the like in predefined accommodation spaces at a low temperature. The refrigerator may have a refrigerating chamber maintained at a temperature above zero and a freezing chamber maintained at a temperature below zero by discriminating low temperature environments.
As the demand of ice increases, an automatic ice making apparatus mounted in a refrigerator was disclosed.
The automatic ice making apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as ‘ice making apparatus’) may be installed either in a freezing chamber or in a refrigerating chamber according to a type of a refrigerator. In case of the ice making apparatus being installed in the refrigerating chamber, cool air within the freezing chamber is provided to the ice making apparatus so as to make ice.
Also, in case of installing the ice making apparatus at a refrigerating chamber, the ice making apparatus may have an ice maker for actually making ice, and an ice bank for storing the ice made by the ice maker. The ice maker may be disposed in the refrigerating chamber and the ice bank may be disposed in the ice making chamber of the refrigerating chamber door, or both the ice maker and the ice bank may be disposed in the ice making chamber of the refrigerating chamber door.
If the ice making apparatus is installed at the refrigerating chamber, frost may occur on a surface of the ice making chamber due to a temperature difference between a temperature of the refrigerating chamber and a temperature of the ice making chamber. Also, in case of disposing a basket at an outer surface of the ice making chamber, frost may occur due to a temperature difference between an inner surface of the basket and an outer surface of the ice making chamber, and such frost may grow to interfere with a cool air circulation of the refrigerating chamber. For instance, the ice making chamber is disposed at the refrigerating chamber door, the refrigerating chamber is divided into plural layers (spaces, partitions) by a plurality of shelves, and a plurality of door baskets are disposed at the outer surface of the ice making chamber, for example, each door basket is disposed at interval of each partition of the refrigerating chamber, frost may occur on an inner surface of the door basket because the temperature inside of the door basket is higher than a temperature of the ice making chamber. Accordingly, frost may interfere with the circulation of cool air into each partition, causing the lowering of the performance of the refrigerator.
Further, in case that a cool air passes through a hole in the door basket, frost, which occurs on the inner surface of the door basket, gradually grows, thereby, the hole may be blocked.