Airflow distribution arrangement for a side-by-side refrigerator

Claim 1

In a side-by-side refrigerator of the type including a freezer compartment, a fresh food compartment, a vertical partition separating the compartments, an evaporator air channel extending vertically along the rear wall of the freezer compartment and having an air outlet near the top for directing cool evaporator air generally forward, means for forcing circulation of air through the evaporator air channel and out the air outlet near the top, and a passageway in the partition for passing cool evaporator air into the fresh food compartment, an airflow distribution arrangement comprising: a cover spaced forwardly of the evaporator air channel outlet such that cool evaporator air is directed towards and tends to travel down the inner surface of said cover, said cover having a bottom opening for discharging cool evaporator air into the freezer compartment, and said cover defining a lateral duct communicating with the passageway in the partition; and a horizontally-extending inward bulge formed in said cover and located generally between the region on the inner surface of said cover against which cool evaporator airflow is directed and the cover bottom, said bulge serving to interrupt the otherwise smooth downward flow of air to produce back pressure to force a portion of the cool evaporator airflow through the partition passageway into the fresh food compartment.