7 refrigerators

A week ago, Panasonic (its Malaysia branch) introduced a new line of refrigerators controlled by an inverter compressor.

Again the tech stuff, Vilo! What the heck is the difference between a standard compressor and an inverter controlled one?

Standard compressors turn on if the fridge interior thermometer reaches the highest acceptable temperature (just to remind you, with fridges, high means bad, low means good) and off as soon as the optimum temperature has been reached.

The main problem is that each time when switching on, the fridge consumes an enormous amount of power. And it does it numerous times a day…;

Inverter compressors, on the other hand, run continuosly and either speed up slightly if the inner temperature is higher than needed or slow down little bit if the temperature is too low.

No peaks, no off-peaks, the RPM (rotations per minute) of the compressor is almost stable. Unlike conventional compressor units that start or stop repetitively, inverter units provide finely tuned operation with far less temperature variations so the power consumption of an inventer refrigerator can be as much as 30% lower compared to the standard fridge.

Standard compressors only have one speed.

Imagine that you´ve just come back from vacations. Your refrigerator was off (unplugged) for almost two weeks. You plug it in, switch it on and… the compressor starts to rave, running at the same RPM for hours till the moment it reaches the optimum temperature.

After reaching it, it will turn off. Then on again and in next 20 minutes off. Wait, now it is on… no, no, it´s off again, but wait…

The inverter compressor will help the system reach it’s ideal temperature quicker by running at a higher RPM for a shorter length of time and then ramping down to maintain temperature.
The technology allows the system to detect subtle fluctuations in the temperature and adjust automatically.

And what about the operating noise?

The (most irritating) night noise has been reduced down to 24 dB. Just to compare, the vacuum cleaner makes the noise of some 80 dB, average snoring man makes approximately 50 dB and whispering child just about 30 dB. Now what would you prefer. A husband or a full fridge?

Together with minimizing the frequency of irritating on/off switching noise the perceived noise is no longer a problem, even at night.

For more details, please visit the Panasonic Intelligent Inverter Refrigerator site.

Dear Andrew, the story is as follows.

In 1934, Mr George Foerstner from Amana, Iowa, an old German (Amish) community town, built his first beverage cooler.

2 years later, in 1936, his young company Amana Refrigeration (named after the town, where it all started) introduced its second (but not last) break-through product, the walk-in beverage cooler, also known as a cold storage locker.

During the World War II, the Amana brand was rewarded the Army-Navy “E” Award for Excellence for supplying the military with its walk-in coolers.

After the WWII, the AMANA company branched out from the refrigeration field, starting to produce another appliances as well - e.g. the Amana Radarange, the first portable microwave oven in 1967 (in 1965, Amana was acquired by Raytheon).

Goodman Global Holding Company, Inc. (one of US main players in HVAC) purchased Amana in 1997.

Maytag Corporation bought AMANA from Goodman in June 2001. Maytag paid approximately $325 million (95 % in cash and 5% in Maytag stock).

Now Maytag (and AMANA) belongs under Whirlpool who acquired Maytag in August 2005 for $2,7 billion (including $977 million of Maytag´s debts). Whirlpool´s portfolio includes (05/2007) brands like:

- Whirlpool;
- Maytag;
- KitchenAid;
- Jenn-Air;
- Amana;
- Inglis;
- Estate;
- Roper;
- Magic Chef or
- Gladiator.

And, well, Amana still produces its fridges in Iowa.