Background of the invention A conventional domestic frost free refrigerator comprises a freezer compartment and a fresh food compartment. The two compartments are separated by a thick wall of insulation.

The different temperatures required in these compartments are attained and maintained by controlling the cold air flow into these compartments. The freezer temperature is maintained well below the fresh food compartment by allowing more cold air flow into the freezer compartment. A thermostat maintains the required temperature by controlling the compressor run time and/or by controlling the air flow.

In general the frost free refrigerator has a bigger freezer compartment compared with the direct cooling type refrigerator due to its inherent constructional features.

If the frozen food usage is less and seasonal and the refrigerator is mainly used for keeping fresh food at temperatures above 0°C, it may be advantageous to provide a mechanism to convert the freezer compartment also to fresh food compartment to increase the fresh food storage capacity.

Disclosure of the invention The invention provides a frost free refrigerator having provision for converting freezer compartment also to fresh food compartment, said refrigerator comprising : a freezer compartment ; a fresh food compartment having a vegetable crisper ; a compressor ; an evaporate ; and a fan for providing cool air flow into the refrigerator compartments characterised by a control means for controlling the quantity of cold air flow to the freezer compartment and fresh food compartment.

Brief description of the drawings : The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings : Fig. 1 shows the sectional view of a conventional domestic frost free refrigerator Fig. 2 shows the enlarged view of the portion indicated by 'A'in Fig. 1 Fig. 3 shows the sectional view of a domestic frost free refrigerator according to the invention Fig. 4 shows the enlarged view of the portion indicated by 'B'in Fig. 3.

Best mode for carrying out the invention : The conventional frost free refrigerator comprises a freezer compartment (1), fresh food compartment (2) having a vegetable crisper (3) and a compressor unit (4). An evaporate (6) and a fan (7) provides cool air to the refrigerator compartments through an insulation freezer partition (8) and a freezer partition (9). The temperature of the respective refrigerator compartments are maintained at the desired levels by means of a thermostat. The cold air supply portion is indicated with letter'A'in Fig. 1 and an enlarged view of this portion is shown in Fig. 2.

Air flow to fresh food compartment between the insulation freezer partition (8) and the freezer partition (9) is indicated by reference numeral 5 in Fig's 1 and 3.

The frost free refrigerator according to the invention is shown in Fig. 3 which has all the abovementioned features of the conventional frost free refrigerator and they are indicated by the same reference numerals. In addition, as shown in Fig's 3 and 4, it is provided with a control means for controlling the proportion of the air flow to the freezer compartment (1) and fresh food compartment (2).

This control means comprises an inner buffle (11) supported by the freezer partition (9). The inner buffle (11) is movable with respect to an outer buffle (10) fixed to the insulation freezer partition (8). The inner buffle (11) is provided with a knob (12) to enable it to move relative to the outer buffle (10). By doing so, the ratio of the quantity of air flow into the freezer compartment (1) to that into the fresh food compartment (2) can be varied.

Thus both the freezer compartment (1) and the fresh food compartment can be maintained more or less at the same temperature by means of the knob (12). Preferably the inner buffle (11) is provided concentric with the outer buffle (10) to enable control of the quantity of air flow to each said compartments by turning the knob (12).

The frost free refrigerator according to the invention can be used in a normal mode with freezer compartment having temperature below 0°C and with freezer compartment having nearly same temperature as that of the fresh food compartment as the user desires.