DISPENSER WITH VESSEL IDENTIFICATION

摘要

A refrigeration apparatus (10) includes a dispenser (30) for dispensing water or ice into a receiver vessel (42). The dispenser (30) includes a dispense command input for receiving a dispense command from a user and a code reader (38) for interpreting an identification code associated with the receiver vessel (42). At least one controller (54) is operatively connected to the dispense command input to receive the dispense command, and to the code reader (38) to receive a vessel (42) identification based on the interpreted identification code. The at least one controller (54) controls the dispensing. A memory (46) is configured to store the vessel (42) identification in association with a usage parameter for the vessel (42). The at least one controller (54) determines whether water/ice has been previously dispensed into the receiver vessel (42). When the at least one controller (54) has determined that water/ice has not been previously dispensed into the receiver vessel (42), the at least one controller (54) causes the usage parameter to be stored in the memory (46), in association with the vessel identification (42), based on the dispense command received from the user.