Not Applicable
Not Applicable
Not Applicable
1. Field of Invention
The invention is related to an adjustable stove burner guard, which prevents small children from reaching the burners, control knobs and cookware on the stovetop. The guard also prevents small children from coming in contact with heated liquid or other foods that may bubble or splash from cookware on the stovetop. The guard is adjustable to fit stoves of different widths and designs and can be installed or removed in seconds.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A patent application was filed by the present inventor for a quick install/remove stove guard. The guard panel in the previous design consists of a one-piece sheet of material, and the width of the lower portion of the panel is reduced to fit the door handle of the oven door. The width of the lower portion of the guard panel can not be changed once the panel is made. This creates the possibility that the panel will not fit within some oven door handles, limiting the application of that stove guard design to certain types of the stoves. The new design solves this problem by using two adjustable guard panel supports to support the guard panel. The distance between the two guard panel supports can be adjusted to fit nearly all ovens with an elongated C-shape oven door handle.
Other stove guards were invented in the prior art to prevent small children from reaching the stove burners, control knobs and cookware while cooking as listed on the following list:
Those devices described in the prior art often require complicated installation procedures. Once installed, the devices are difficult to remove for cleaning. In some cases, the guard panels are attached to the top of the stove surface, making the guard panel vulnerable to heat damage.
The complicated installing and removing devices make those guards less likely to be used on a regular basis when small children are present, and this departs from the purpose of the inventions. Therefore, new and improved stove guards are needed to overcome the disadvantages of the existing inventions. The current invention addresses this need.
The objective of this invention is to provide a reliable, and simple way to install a stove guard on most ovens to prevent small children from reaching the stove burners, control knobs and cookware while cooking. The present invention provides an adjustable stove guard that requires no permanent mounting device, and can be installed or removed in seconds, which increases the likelihood that parents and other caregivers of small children will use it more frequently. The two adjustable guard panel supports are inserted between the oven door handle and the oven door, and secured by two identical holding devices attached to the surface of the oven door. The guard panel is connected to the guard panel supports, and extends outward and upward from the stove.
The guard panel is not attached to the top surface of the stove where the burners are located, thus minimizing the chance that heat damage to the guard panel will occur during use. When installed, the lower portion of the stove guard panel extends about 25 degrees outward from the surface of the oven door to provide more room for cookware handles and utensils. The upper portion of the guard panel is bent upward about 25 degrees to be approximately parallel with the surface of the oven door to increase the rigidity of the guard panel.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments to the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. It is to be understood that in some instances various aspects of the invention may be shown exaggerated or enlarged to facilitate an understanding of the invention.
The invention provides a new and improved design of an adjustable quick install/remove stove guard. For the purposes of promoting an understanding of the principles of the invention, reference will now be made to the embodiments illustrated in the drawings referred to as
The guard panel 30, adjustable guard panel supports 39 and holding devices 45 can be made of plastic, aluminum, other metals or other durable materials.