Patent ID: 6698210
Filing Date: 2004-03-02
Classification: F25B,F25D

Abstract:
A cooler box including a heat insulating box member having an interior thereof divided into a machine chamber and a cooling chamber, the cooler box cooling food or drink placed inside the cooling chamber by introducing cold, produced by driving a Stirling-cycle refrigerator disposed inside the machine chamber, into the cooling chamber through a cooling element,wherein the Stirling-cycle refrigerator is of a free-piston type that has a displacer reciprocating inside a cylinder filled with a working gas, and the cooler box further comprises: means for removing frost covering the cooling element, the means for removing frost being waste heat conducting means for conducting heat radiated from a heat rejecting portion of the Stirling-cycle refrigerator to the cooling element, the waste heat conducting means comprising: a first conduit for circulating a fluid between the heat rejecting portion of the Stirling-cycle refrigerator and a heat exchanger disposed away from the heat rejecting portion; a second conduit for circulating the fluid between a heat absorbing portion of the Stirling-cycle refrigerator and the cooling element disposed away from the heat absorbing portion; and flow path switching means located at where the first and second conduits cross each other to permit the first and second conduits to communicate with each other so as to form a single closed circuit.