Patent ID: 7913515

Claim:
A refrigerating appliance comprising: a lower temperature refrigerating area; an average temperature refrigerating area; a higher temperature refrigerating area; a plurality of evaporators, each of the evaporators being associated with a respective one of the lower, average, and higher temperature refrigerating areas; a compressor; a refrigerant circuit to supply compressed refrigerant from the compressor to the evaporators of the lower, average, and higher temperature refrigerating areas and to return expanded refrigerant to the compressor, the refrigerant circuit including one branch along which compressed refrigerant is supplied from the compressor to the evaporators of the lower, average, and higher temperature refrigerating areas and expanded refrigerant is returned to the compressor and another branch along which compressed refrigerant is supplied from the compressor to the evaporators of the lower, average, and higher temperature refrigerating areas and expanded refrigerant is returned to the compressor, the one branch of the refrigerant circuit being configured such that compressed refrigerant flows through one predetermined extent of an evaporator of a respective one of the lower, average, and higher temperature refrigerating areas and the other branch of the refrigerant circuit being configured such that compressed refrigerant flows through a reduced extent of the evaporator of the respective one refrigerating area that is less than the one predetermined extent of the evaporator of the respective one refrigerating area, whereupon the cooling capacity of the respective one refrigerating area is less when compressed refrigerant flows to the evaporator of the respective one refrigerating area via the other branch of the refrigerant circuit than when compressed refrigerant flows to the evaporator of the respective one refrigerating area via the one branch of the refrigerant circuit; and a switching element to switch the circulation of refrigerant between the one branch of the refrigerant circuit and the other branch of the refrigerant circuit.