1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an electrical toaster, more particularly to an electrical toaster including a heating chamber and a warming chamber disposed above and separated from the heating chamber through a supporting wall.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to
The aforesaid conventional electrical toaster is disadvantageous in that uniform heating of the bread on the bread-supporting rack 13 cannot be achieved. Moreover, the heating unit normally includes two heating elements (not shown) which are actuated for heating the slices of bread in the heating slots 112 when the actuating lever 121 is pressed. However, in case of warming the bread on the bread-supporting rack 13, the heat generated by the two heating elements may be too much. As a consequence, scorching of the bottom side of the bread is likely to occur.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an electrical toaster that is capable of overcoming the aforesaid drawbacks associated with the prior art.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrical toaster that comprises: a case unit having a laterally extending supporting wall and defining a heating chamber that is disposed below the supporting wall, at least a lower slot that is formed in the supporting wall, that is in spatial communication with the heating chamber, and that is adapted to permit insertion of a piece of bread therethrough and into the heating chamber, and a warming chamber that is disposed above the supporting wall, that is in fluid communication with the lower slot, and that is adapted to receive bread therein; an electrical heating unit disposed in the heating chamber; and a cover that is mounted removably on the case unit for covering at least a top side of the warming chamber.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electrical toaster that comprises: a case unit having a laterally extending supporting wall and defining a heating chamber that is disposed below the supporting wall, at least a lower slot that is formed in the supporting wall, that is in spatial communication with the heating chamber, and that is adapted to permit insertion of a piece of bread therethrough and into the heating chamber, and a warming chamber that is disposed above the supporting wall, that is in fluid communication with the lower slot, and that is adapted to receive bread therein, the supporting wall being formed with a button-receiving hole; an electrical heating unit disposed in the heating chamber for generating heat when actuated; a temperature controller associated with the heating unit to control actuation of the heating unit and the amount of heat generated by the heating unit; a button-operated mechanism associated with the temperature controller and including a button that is received in the button-receiving hole and that is pressable for actuating the heating unit through the temperature controller to generate a desired amount of heat; and a bread-supporting tray mounted removably on the supporting wall within the warming chamber. The bread-supporting tray is formed with a plurality of apertures that are in fluid communication with the lower slot and the warming chamber, and has an actuation protrusion that projects downwardly therefrom into the button-receiving hole to press the button such that the heating unit is actuated through the temperature controller when the bread-supporting tray is mounted on the supporting wall.
In drawings which illustrate embodiments of the invention,
For the sake of brevity, like elements are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the disclosure.
In this embodiment, the case unit 100 includes a main casing 2 and a warming casing 4. The main casing 2 has a peripheral wall 24 that extends downwardly and transversely from the supporting wall 21 to confine the heating chamber 20. The warming casing 4 has a laterally extending base wall 41 that is mounted removably on the supporting wall 21, a peripheral wall 42 that extends upwardly and transversely from a periphery of the base wall 41 to confine the warming chamber 43, and a top flange 422 that extends outwardly and laterally from the peripheral wall 42 of the warming casing 4. The cover 5 has a laterally extending top wall 51 that is disposed above and that is vertically aligned with the base wall 41, and a peripheral wall 52 that extends downwardly and transversely from the top wall 51 of the cover 5 and that is seated on the top flange 422 of the warming casing 4.
The main casing 2 further has a top rim 22 that is formed on and that extends upwardly and transversely from the supporting wall 21 to define a receiving space 23 for surrounding a portion of the peripheral wall 42 of the warming casing 4 when the base wall 41 of the warming casing 4 is mounted on the supporting wall 21. The base wall 41 of the warming casing 4 is formed with at least an upper slot 411 (two upper slots 411 are formed in the base wall 41 in this embodiment) that is vertically aligned with and that is in fluid communication with the lower slot 25 in the supporting wall 21.
The supporting wall 21 is formed with a plurality of insertion holes 211. The base wall 41 of the warming casing 4 is formed with a plurality of spacing protrusions 413 (see
The top wall 51 of the cover 5 has a grip 512 that projects upwardly therefrom, and is formed with at least a vent hole 511 that is in fluid communication with the warming chamber 43. The top flange 422 of the warming casing 4 has a top rim 423 that is surrounded by the peripheral wall 52 of the cover 5 so as to prevent undesired lateral movement of the cover 5 when the cover 5 is seated on the top flange 422 of the warming casing 4.
The top flange 422 of the warming casing 4 has two opposite ends. The warming casing 4 further has opposite left and right handles 44, 45 that project laterally and respectively from the opposite ends of the top flange 422 of the warming casing 4.
The base wall 41 of the warming casing 4 is further formed with a retainer 46 that projects downwardly therefrom toward the supporting wall 21. The left handle 44 is formed with a retaining slot 441. The electrical toaster further includes a bent knife 6, such as a butter knife, that is mounted removably on the warming casing 4, and that has a blade portion 61 extending through the retainer 46, and a handle portion 62 that is disposed above the blade portion 61 and that extends through the retaining slot 441 when the bent knife 6 is mounted on the warming casing 4 for heating.
Referring now to
The supporting wall 21 is formed with a plurality of insertion holes 211. The bread-supporting tray 8 is formed with a plurality of spacing protrusions 813 that extend downwardly therefrom and snugly into the insertion holes 211 so as to space apart the supporting wall 21 and the bread-supporting tray 8 from each other.
The peripheral wall 24 of the main casing 2 has a bottom end, and is formed with a tray-insertion slot 28 that is disposed adjacent to the bottom end and that is in spatial communication with the heating chamber 20. A crumb-collecting tray 7 is insertable into the heating chamber 20 through the tray-insertion slot 28. The crumb-collecting tray 7 is formed with a knife-retaining slot 75 that is disposed in the heating chamber 20 when the crumb-collecting tray 7 is inserted into the heating chamber 20. A butter knife 6 is insertable into the knife-retaining slot 75 for heating when the crumb-collecting tray 7 is inserted into the heating chamber 20.
The bread-supporting tray 8 is formed with a hollow post 87 that is disposed at the center and that extends upwardly therefrom. The cover 5 is disposed above the top rim 22 of the main casing 2, and includes a cover body 51 and a rod 53 that extends from the cover body 51 into the post 87 and that is telescopically movable relative to the post 87 so as to permit adjustment of the height of the cover 5 relative to the top rim 22 and so as to accommodate different sizes of the bread 300 in the warming chamber 43. The rod 53 is formed with an elongated guiding groove 532. The post 87 is formed with an inner guiding protrusion 871 that extends into the guiding groove 532 so as to guide telescopic movement of the rod 53 relative to the post 87, and an inner positioning protrusion 872 that is disposed below the inner guiding protrusion 871 and that engages releasably the rod 53 for positioning the cover body 51 at a desired height relative to the bread-supporting tray 8.
The button-operated mechanism 38 includes a button 38′. One of the insertion holes 211 in the supporting wall 21 defines a button-receiving hole 211′. The button 38′ is received in the button-receiving hole 211′, and is pressed to a lower position by the respective spacing protrusion 813 upon mounting of the bread-supporting tray 8 on the supporting wall 21, thereby enabling actuation of one of the heating elements 32 of the heating unit 32′ (see
With the inclusion of the warming chamber 43 and the cover 5 in the electrical toaster of this invention, the aforesaid drawbacks of the prior art can be eliminated.
With the invention thus explained, it is apparent that various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
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