Abstract:
A cooler chest includes an outer unit and a separate inner unit having a height smaller than the height of the outer unit and a space over the inner unit for storing ice cubes, the space being defined in part by porous side walls that allow for drainage of water, resulting from the melting of ice cubes, from the ice cube storage area.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application No. 60/318,883, filed Sep. 11, 2001. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to chests for storing products at a temperature different from the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. 
     2. Background Art 
     Typically, prior art portable coolers, also referred to as ice chests, typically comprise a single chamber where ice, in the form of the ice cubes or the like, is placed in the chamber in direct contact with items to be cooled. A disadvantage of such portable coolers is that food items that are not tightly sealed become wet as the ice melts, often spoiling the food items. Furthermore, a relatively large amount of ice is often required to cool a relatively few items since the ice tends to collect on the bottom of the ice chest, not adequately covering the items to be cooled. A further disadvantage of prior art coolers where in ice is stored in a lower area of the container is that as some melting occurs, lower layers of ice cubes in contact with the water tend to melt quicker, thereby reducing the cooling effect of ice cubes not in contact with water. 
     These problems have been recognized in the prior art and various configurations of ice chests have been used for separating food from melting ice. However, cooling units designed to solve this problem generally have been constructed in an elaborate manner and are often clumsy to transport and too expensive for casual users, for example, for family picnics and the like. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     These problems and disadvantages of the prior art are overcome in accordance with the present invention by providing a portable cooler with a separate, water tight food storage compartment that is easily accessible and an ice storage area immediately above the food storage area where ice is retained separate from food items. 
     Advantageously, in accordance with the present invention ice is retained in an area where it is more effective for cooling of the products within the food storage area. 
     In accordance with another aspect of the invention, spacial areas are provided adjacent opposing sides of the food storage container and water resulting from the melting of ice within the ice storage area is drained to an area removed from the ice cubes. 
     Advantageously, less ice is required to cool the upper portion of the food storage compartment, since the ice is retained in an optimum cooling location. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The invention will now be described with reference to the drawings wherein: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cooler incorporating aspects of the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the cooler of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a plan view of the inner side of the door of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 4 is an alternate embodiment of a cooler incorporating principles of the invention; and 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the embodiment of FIG.  4 . 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to FIG. 1 there shown a perspective view of a cooler  100  comprising a frontal wall  110  having an opening  111  and a door unit  114  for covering the opening  111 . The door  114  is hingedly attached to a lower edge of the opening  111 . The cooler  100  is further provided with a hinged cover  103 , hingedly attached to a rear wall  105  of the cooler. Opposing side walls  106 ,  107  extend between the frontal wall  110  and the rear wall  105 . The frontal wall  110 , rear wall  105  and side walls  106 ,  107  are attached to a bottom wall  108 . An inner spacial area  150  is defined by the walls  105 ,  106 ,  107  and  110 , and a food storage housing  120  extends through an opening  111  inn the frontal wall  110  and into the inner spacial area  150 . A door  114  is provided to seal the frontal opening of the housing  120 . Further shown in FIG. 1, are upstanding side walls  142 ,  143 . The side walls  142 ,  143  extend between the front and rear walls  110 ,  105  of the cooler  100  and extend upwardly from a top wall  145  of the food container  120 . The side walls  142 , 143  serve to retain ice cubes, or the like, within a spacial area defined by the side walls  142 ,  143 , the rear wall  105 , front wall  110 . 
     Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown in FIG. 2 a left side perspective, exploded view of the cooler  100 . FIG. 2 shows the structure of the food container housing  120 . The housing  120  includes an inner food storage area  139 , defined by opposing side walls  135  and  136 , a top wall  145 , a lower wall  146  and a rear wall  147 . As depicted in FIG. 2, upstanding side walls  142  and  143  are mounted along upper edges of opposite sides  135 ,  136  of the housing  120 . When the cooler  100  is in use, ice is preferably placed on the top wall  145  of the housing  120  and is retained within the spacial area defined by front and rear walls  110 ,  105 , the side walls  142 ,  143  and the top surface of the top wall  145  of the food container housing  122 . The sidewalls  142 ,  143  are provided to retain the ice within an area immediately over the inner spacial area  139  where food items to be cooled are preferably stored. The side walls  142 ,  143  are preferably of netting or screens, or the like to allow water resulting from the melting of ice disposed between the netting  142 ,  143  will drain along side walls  135 ,  136  of the food container housing  120 , thereby separating the water from the ice. The water may then be drained from the cooler  100  by means of the drain  130 . 
     The door unit  114  shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 comprises several items, as shown in the exploded view of FIG.  2 . The door unit  114  comprises a door  160 , which may be hingedly attached to the frontal side  110  of the cooler  100  in a standard fashion. A door seal  161  is preferable attached to the door  160  for form a seal with the periphery of the opening  111 . The door  160  is preferably provided with an inner cavity  170  as depicted in FIG. 3. A cutting board  163  may be readily stored in the cavity  170 , to be used when the door  160  is opened. 
     Further shown in FIG. 2 is a facia  166  preferably mounted around the circumferential edges  170  through  173  of the door  160 , primarily for decorative purposes. 
     FIG. 3 shows an alternate embodiment of a cooler chest  200  incorporating principles of the invention. The cooler chest  200 , which may be formed by plastic molding, has a main body comprising a frontal wall  201 , a left side wall  202 , a right side wall  203  and a rear wall  204 . A peripheral ledge  210  forms an upper surface for the walls  201 - 204 . A cover  215  is hingedly attached to the rear wall  204  by hinges  205  and  206 . Further shown in FIG. 4 is an inner food container unit  220  having an upper wall  221 , a lower wall  223 , side walls  225  and  226  and a rear wall (not shown in the drawing) adjacent the rear wall  204  of the cooler  200 . Alternatively, the rear wall of the inner food container  220  may be formed by a portion of the rear wall of  204  of the cooler chest  200 . 
     The cooler chest  200  has an interior width  230  and the food container  220  preferably has an overall width of  232  smaller than the interior width of  230  of the chest  200 , to allow for spatial areas between opposing side walls  225  and  226  of the food container unit  200 . Further shown in FIG. 4 are side walls  235  and  236  which, together with the upper wall  221  of the food container  220  and parts of the front and rear walls  201 ,  204 , respectively, of the cooler  200  define a spatial storage area for storage and containment of ice cubes or the like. The side walls  235 ,  236  may be made of a plastic material, or the like, and provided with openings to allow for the escape of water resulting from the melting of ice cubes from the spatial storage area. The porous side walls  236 ,  237  serve to keep the ice cubes over the interior of the container unit  200 , for optimum cooling effect, while allowing for the escape of water from melted ice cubes into the area between the exterior walls of the food container unit  220  and interior walls of the chest  200  and away from any food stored in the food container  200 . 
     FIG. 5 is a partially exploded view of the chest  200  of FIG.  4 . The chest  200  may be formed by a molding process whereby the exterior surfaces of the chest, including the frontal wall  201 , the side walls  202  and  203  and the rear wall  204  are formed from a molded exterior wall unit and a molded interior wall unit, with available space between the two wall units for insulation or the like, in a standard fashion. An upper rim  250  is preferably attached to the two wall units and provided with slotted openings  260  and  261  for receiving hinge portions  264  and  265  of the lid  215 . The container unit  220  is provided with a door  228  hingedly attached to the chest  200  in a standard fashion, for closing off the container unit  200 . 
     The upper rim  250  is preferably provided with side wall extensions  229  forming hand grips for conveniently carrying the cooler. 
     While particular embodiments of the invention ha%e been shown, it will be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited thereto since modifications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly in light of the foregoing teachings. Reasonable variation and modification are possible within the scope of the foregoing disclosure of the invention without departing from the spirit of the invention.