Ice dispenser for freezer-refrigerators and the like

Claim 1

In an ice dispenser for use with refrigeration apparatus, the dispenser having an ice reservoir effective to receive pieces of ice from an ice maker, the reservoir including an upstanding front wall, a rear wall and a bottom wall interconnecting the front and rear walls, a power drivable ice lift wheel mounted outside of the reservoir front wall for rotation in one direction about an axis extending forwardly from said front wall, a lift wheel housing mounted forward of the reservoir front wall and including a front wall and a peripheral wall enclosing the lift wheel, a plurality of compartments for holding ice pieces disposed peripherally about the lift wheel, the compartments being formed by the reservoir front wall, the housing front and peripheral walls and a plurality of spaced compartment partition walls extending between the lift wheel periphery and the housing peripheral wall and transversely of and between the reservoir and housing front walls, the compartments opening rearwardly toward the reservoir front wall and forwardly toward the housing front wall, means in the reservoir effecting movement of ice pieces therein toward the reservoir front wall, an ice inlet through the reservoir front wall effective so that the ice moving means also impels pieces of ice in the reservoir through the ice inlet into lower ones of the lift wheel compartments during said rotation of the wheel, and an ice outleT through the housing front wall communicating with upper ones of the lift wheel compartments during said rotation of the wheel, the lift wheel compartments being effective to transport ice pieces received therein from the ice inlet up to the ice outlet and to discharge the same therethrough during said rotation of the wheel, the improvement wherein said partition walls comprise blades formed of resiliently flexible sheet material carried by the lift wheel.