Patent ID: 6986259

Claim:
A refrigerating apparatus comprising a refrigerant circuit along which are provided a compression mechanism, a condenser, an expansion mechanism, and an evaporator all connected in sequence, and an oil reclaim mechanism for reclaiming refrigerating machine oil that has accumulated in said evaporator and returning it to said compression mechanism, wherein said expansion mechanism is a temperature sensitive type expansion valve whose valve travel is controlled based on the state of refrigerant on the side of an outlet of said evaporator and said oil reclaim mechanism includes a switching valve connected to an upstream side of said evaporator and control means for controlling said switching valve, and wherein said control means is configured so that, in an oil reclaim operation, the degree of superheat of said outlet of said evaporator is increased by operating said refrigerating apparatus with said switching valve placed in the closed position for a predetermined length of time, after which said refrigerating apparatus is operated with said switching valve placed in the opened position.