Wording is going to be a bit odd so I will just lay it out.

Have a chute to return excess ice back to the storage bin in freezers that have automatic ice makers.

Why?

Because more often than not when one goes to get ice and presses the cup into the slot you get to much ice in your cup. So you get a cup full of ice and you dump the cubes into the sink until you have the amount of ice you want. This results in a large waste of ice, so much so that the ice maker usually can't keep up and you end up running out of ice.

So I propose a simple return chute that you can dump the excess ice back into the storage bin. No waste no fuss.
-- Antegrity, Jan 20 2006

Sounds easier than a dispenser with an interface to specify the desired number of cubes.
-- half, Jan 20 2006


Then, she'll find out. Just like the kid who wanted to know what happens if you put a peanut butter sandwich in the VCR.
-- half, Jan 20 2006


The way I figure it, if it's gravity fed, that return chute's going to be well above the reach of many potential offenders.

It wouldn't be on every 'fridge.
-- half, Jan 20 2006


The return shoot would be funnel shaped with a one way insulated door. Since this chute would require a re-design of the freezer, the ice maker would be re-located lower so to accomodate shorter persons.
-- Antegrity, Jan 20 2006


I have a bad habit of editing my annotations after I click ok.
-- Antegrity, Jan 20 2006


Join the club.
What happened to your spelling of "chute" all of a sudden? Had your head in the freezer too long? ;-)
-- half, Jan 20 2006


Like I said, I press ok and then edit.
-- Antegrity, Jan 20 2006


I want a big switch above the ice chute that I can set to "SUCK".
-- jutta, Jan 21 2006


//Refrigerators are not something I'd want to have to fix because a kid got curious, though. I've got enough problems with the one I have already// Quest, in case you didnt know the ice machine in the fridge has 2 completely seperate pieces. There is the part that actually produces the ice on itself, and there is the ice bucket. The dispensing aspect is actually quite simple- there is a spiral metal piece in the bucket that pushes the ice toward the chute, and mean while the button that u push also opens the ice chute door. I fail to see how a kid putting something else in the return chute would do anything worse than an unexpected suprise, not to mention having to dump the drink, if you put ice in AFTER you filled the cup (which isnt a great idea, and this return chute would give you yet another reason to put ice in first) I suppose the spiral metal thing could get jammed and possibly strip the gears, but you would probably notice the lack of ice before anything irreversible happened.
-- Dickcheney6, Apr 23 2008



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