Tech­nology for gourmets

The idea of banishing freezers to the cellar where they could make as much noise as they liked is a thing of the past. Nowa­days, food­stuffs and the asso­ci­ated tech­nology have long since become lifestyle items – new homes with open-plan kitchens are the latest fashion. This means refrig­er­a­tors have to look the part and are often accom­pa­nied by special high-tech appli­ances to provide the best possible atmos­phere for storing wine or cigars.

The sort of loud, unpleasant noises which often used to emanate from appli­ances in the past would be completely out of place in this modern scenario. Which is why customers now listen more closely when deciding what to buy. Along­side energy consump­tion, noise is there­fore becoming an ever more impor­tant topic when it comes to purchasing refrig­er­a­tors and freezers. So for some years now, ways of reducing noise have been a focal point in the devel­op­ment of new house­hold appli­ances at Lieb­herr. The refrig­er­ator and freezer divi­sion of the Lieb­herr Group concen­trates primarily on the premium sector.

Refrig­er­a­tors and freezers have to keep food­stuffs fresh 24 hours a day whilst at the same time consuming as little power as possible. Energy effi­ciency will continue to play a crucial role in future purchasing deci­sions. Which means there will be plenty of tasks to master from an engi­neering point of view. This applies not only to fridge/freezers but also to refrig­er­ated wine cabi­nets and humi­dors. And sophis­ti­cated venti­lation is always an essen­tial element for all of these.

Guar­an­teed fresh­ness

The conve­nient “No need to defrost” feature is of great benefit to customers. (Photo | Lieb­herr Haus­geräte)

Refrig­er­a­tors and freezers have under­gone dramatic changes in recent years. Whereas in the past a single storage area with a uniform temper­a­ture was suffi­cient, different zones are now demanded – like the so-called BioFresh compart­ments for example. These provide ideal storage condi­tions guar­an­teed to keep fruit, vegeta­bles, meat, fish and dairy prod­ucts fresh for longer. Just one fan is needed to regu­late the temper­a­ture in both storage areas. Although fans with shaded-pole motors are still fitted in certain models, DC fans are being ever more widely used, partic­u­larly for higher energy effi­ciency classes. These permit speed regu­la­tion which in turn has a favourable effect on noise and power consump­tion levels.

The situ­a­tion is similar with regard to NoFrost tech­nology: The conve­nient “No need to defrost” feature is of great benefit to customers. A special blower with DC or AC motors conveys the mois­ture given off by the stored items or coming in through the open door to an evap­o­rator element, where it then condenses. So frost has no chance to form either in the storage area or on the food itself.
Both systems were devel­oped by Lieb­herr in conjunc­tion with ebm-papst. The latter has been an impor­tant direct point of contact for many years on the subject of fans.

The success of this part­ner­ship can be attrib­uted primarily to the fact that chal­lenges have always been quickly mastered so far. For the latest version of the NoFrost system, the two compa­nies took the joint deci­sion to modify the housing of the DC motor BG-15 from ebm-papst Land­shut in such a way as to minimise the trans­mis­sion of vibra­tion and the resul­tant noise. “All to the everyday benefit of customers who can enjoy having an effi­cient, quiet-running freezer,” says Rein­hard Sommer­reißer, the ebm-papst sales repre­sen­ta­tive respon­sible.

Perfectly cooled wine all year round

The perfect envi­ron­ment for all deli­ca­cies: Lieb­herr house­hold appli­ances provide ideal storage condi­tions for food and fine wines. (Photo | Lieb­herr Haus­geräte)

Although wine coolers only repre­sent a smallish market segment, the Lieb­herr devel­op­ment engi­neers are keen to cut the noise level here as well. For testing, the appli­ances are taken to the noise labo­ra­tory at
ebm-papst (St. Georgen). The measure­ment results obtained there are used to opti­mise the air flow and noise char­ac­ter­is­tics. Such tests are just one link in Liebherr’s long quality assur­ance chain. All-in-all, the trial phase for new prod­ucts takes roughly a year. All compo­nents have to survive long-term testing, as Lieb­herr appli­ances are designed to last at least 15 years.

The same is true of the humidor, despite the fact that the fans in it are exposed to a partic­u­larly high humidity level. The cigar store is fitted with a total of four fans. Two of these regu­late the temper­a­ture, which can be set between 16 and 20 degrees centi­grade – depending on what is needed for the cigars. The other two fans regu­late the humidity to between 68 and 75 per cent as required. These two fans in partic­ular are specially designed to guard against mois­ture. For this and other appli­ca­tions, it is impor­tant to Lieb­herr that the fans take up as little space as possible to maximise the storage space avail­able.

ebm-papst fans are in oper­a­tion in thou­sands of Lieb­herr appli­ances alto­gether. “The number of projects alone shows how inten­sive our asso­ci­a­tion with Lieb­herr is,” says Rein­hard Sommer­reißer. He is in no doubt that the future holds plenty more projects with Lieb­herr. Gourmets, amateur chefs and cigar lovers the world over can rest assured: They will always be able to rely on top quality house­hold appli­ances.