Compact refrigerator

Abstract

A portable compact refrigerator especially designed for infant milk bottles, pacifiers, baby food jars and the like. The refrigerator houses a bottle and food jar warmer that has an LCD indicator for both the bottle and jar warmer, a safety lock, a start button and a timer. The refrigerator has a main compartment and a door attached to the main compartment. The door houses a medicine cabinet with a roll up cover that sounds an alarm when opened. The roll up cover has a lock that can be either a key lock, cyfer lock, or combination. The shelves on the door hold pacifiers, baby food jars and baby bottles. The door creates an air-tight seal when closed. Wheels attached to the bottom of the refrigerator allow for the portability of the compact refrigerator.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to refrigerators. More specifically, the invention relates to a compact, portable refrigerator dimensioned and configured to contain baby bottles, pacifiers and other baby products. In addition, the refrigeration device has warming devices suitable for warming baby bottles and baby bowls.

2. Description of Related Art

Mothers or parents of infants or toddlers know too well the difficulties encountered at feeding time. The bottles or food has to be retrieved from the kitchen refrigerator (often located downstairs in a multiple level dwelling), warmed up on the stove or microwave oven, carried to the infant's room and then returned to the kitchen refrigerator. This is especially tedious in the middle of the night not to mention painful for mothers still experiencing the physical effects of labor or a C-section. The going back and forth also produces a time delay that is inconvenient for both the parent and the infant.

A combination refrigeration device and food warmer that is compact in size and portable would be a great benefit to parents of infants or toddlers. A compact refrigerator could be placed in the infants room, the parents room, a play room or any or these rooms with a portable compact refrigerator. Day care centers or similar facilities could also benefit from such a refrigerator.

Compact refrigerators are well known in the art, however, there is no device that combines the elements of a compact refrigerator that is portable and contains a bottle and food warmer. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a portable compact refrigerator especially designed for infant milk bottles, pacifiers, baby food jars and the like. The refrigerator houses a bottle and food jar warmer that has an LCD indicator for both the bottle and jar warmer, a safety lock, a start button and a timer. The refrigerator has a main compartment and a door attached to the main compartment. The door houses a medicine cabinet with a roll up cover that sounds an alarm when opened. The roll up cover has a lock that can be either a key lock, cyfer lock, or combination. The shelves on the door hold pacifiers, baby food jars and baby bottles. The door creates an air-tight seal when closed. Wheels attached to the bottom of the refrigerator allow for the portability of the compact refrigerator.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a compact refrigerator dimensioned and configured to contain pacifiers, baby food jars and baby bottles.

It is another object of the invention to provide a compact refrigerator that is portable.

Again, it is an object of the invention to provide a compact refrigerator that has a warming feature that warms baby bottles and baby food jars.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a compact refrigerator that has a medicine cabinet with an alarm that activates when the medicine cabinet cover is opened.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a compact refrigerator that has an air-tight seal when the door is closed.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a compact refrigerator wherein the pacifiers fit snugly into a semi-soft grip foam.

It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof in an apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.

These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the door of the preferred embodiment.

Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The invention relates to a portable compact refrigerator especially designed for infant milk bottles, pacifiers, baby food jars and the like. The refrigerator houses a bottle and food jar warmer that has an LCD indicator for both the bottle and jar warmer, a safety lock, a start button and a timer. The refrigerator has a main compartment and a door attached to the main compartment. The door houses a medicine cabinet with a roll up cover that sounds an alarm when opened. The roll up cover has a lock that can be either a key lock, cyfer lock, or combination. The shelves on the door hold pacifiers, baby food jars and baby bottles. The door creates an air-tight seal when closed. Wheels attached to the bottom of the refrigerator allow for the portability of the compact refrigerator.

Turning now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, compact refrigerator 10 has an outer casing 12 attached via hinge 16 to a door 14 with a lockable door handle 18. A food and beverage warmer 20 is shown having a cover 30, bottle warmer 22, and bowl warmer 24. Thermostat 25 is used to set the heating temperature of warmer 20. To use warmer 20, a milk bottle and baby's bowl is placed in bottle warmer 22 and bowl warmer 24, respectively. The user then adjusts thermostat 25 to the desired temperature, cover 30 is closed and start button 27 for the bottle warmer 22 and start button 29 for the bowl warmer 29 is pressed. When the set temperature is reached, the warmer automatically shuts off and LCD indicator light 26 illuminates (for bottle warmer 22) and LCD indicator light 28 illuminates (for bowl warmer 24) indicating that the warming process has completed. Alarm 23 sounds whenever the cover 30 is lifted and when the warming process is over. Instead of using the thermostat 25, the user can elect to use the timer 21 to select the amount of time the warmer 20 is in use. When the timer 21 reaches zero, the warmer automatically shuts off, alarm 23 sounds and the indicator lights 26,28 illuminate.

Handle 18 can be locked via a number of methods including a key, combination or cyfer lock.

Turning now to FIG. 2 of the drawings, the compact refrigerator 10 has a main compartment 40 divided into 3 sections by a first shelf 32 and a second shelf 34. First shelf 32 and second shelf 34 are removable spill shelves. Shell 12 has an exterior surface 31 and an interior surface 38. The cover 30 is located on the exterior surface 31 and at the top of the compact refrigerator 10. Wheels 42 allow the compact refrigerator 10 to be mobile.

In FIG. 3 of the drawings, the compact refrigerator 10 has a door 14 with a top shelf 44, middle shelf 48 and a bottom shelf 58. Each shelf has foam grip holders to hold pacifiers, baby bottles and the like. The foam grip holders are designed to snugly grip and hold the above aforementioned items such that they do not fall or become dislodged when the door is swung open. Top shelf 44 as a first set of foam grip holders 46, middle shelf 48 has a second set of foam grip holders 50 and bottom shelf 58 has a third set of foam grip holders 60. Open space 52 is useful for storing bulky items. A medicine cabinet 54 houses first aid supplies and has a rolling lockable door 56. When door 56 is opened or rolled upwards into an open position, alarm 23 sounds to indication that the door has been opened.

The top shelf 44 can be partitioned into two separate portions whereas the first portion can hold pacifiers and whereas the second portion can hold a spoon tray.

It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the sole embodiment described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

1. A refrigeration device comprising;

a shell having a door attached to said shell wherein said shell has an interior and an exterior surface,

a main compartment disposed within said shell and wherein said door allows access to said main compartment,

said door having an inner side and an outer side, and

said door being especially dimensioned and configured to hold baby items thereupon.

2. The refrigeration device according to claim 1 further comprising a warming compartment for warming baby food or beverage containers.

3. The refrigeration device according to claim 2 wherein said warming compartment is dimensioned and configured to hold a baby bottle and a baby food container and wherein said warming compartment has a lockable cover.

4. The refrigeration device according to claim 3 wherein said door contains a plurality of shelves wherein each of said plurality of shelves are dimensioned and configured to securely hold baby products.

5. The refrigeration device according to claim 4 wherein said door contains a medicine cabinet.

6. The refrigeration device according to claim 5 wherein said plurality of shelves comprise a top shelf a middle shelf and a bottom shelf.

7. The refrigeration device according to claim 6 wherein said top shelf holds pacifiers and wherein the pacifiers fit snuggly within foam grip holders located in said top shelf and wherein said middle shelf holds baby food containers that fit snuggly within foam grip holders located in said middle shelf and wherein said bottom shelf holds combination large and small foam grip holders for holding various sized baby bottles.

8. The refrigeration device according to claim 7 wherein said medicine cabinet has a locked roll back door that opens to a compartment space that holds medical supplies and wherein said door has an open space located adjacent to said medicine cabinet.

9. The refrigeration device according to claim 8 further comprising wheels for portability.

10. The refrigeration device according to claim 9 wherein said warming compartment is located on the exterior surface of the shell.

11. The refrigeration device according to claim 10 wherein said warming device has a security alarm that sounds when said cover is removed and wherein said warming device has a LCD indicator and a quick beep sound to signal the parent when the items are ready to be removed.

12. The refrigeration device according to claim 11 wherein said medicine cabinet has a security alarm that notifies the parent when the medicine cabinet has been opened.

13. The refrigeration device according to claim 12 wherein said warming device is comprised of a bottle warmer and a bowl warmer wherein said bottle warmer has an LCD indicator and wherein said bowl warmer has an LCD indicator and wherein said warming device contains a timer.

14. The refrigeration device according to claim 13 wherein said door having a handle on said outer side and where when said handle is pulled a door alarm sounds and wherein said handle has a lock.

15. The refrigeration device according to claim 14 wherein said top shelf has a first portion and a second portion wherein said first portion holds pacifiers and wherein said second portion is a spoon tray.

16. The refrigeration device according to claim 15 wherein removable spill shelves are located within said main compartment.

17. The refrigeration device according to claim 16 wherein said interior contains a deli drawer.

18. The refrigeration device according to claim 16 wherein said interior contains a sterilizing unit.