Patent Application
20220154934
The subject matter of the present disclosure relates generally to an oven appliance, such as an oven appliance having a gas burner heating element.
Oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for cooking food items therein, such as by baking or broiling the food items. To heat the cooking chamber for cooking, oven appliances include one or more heating elements positioned at a top portion, a bottom portion, or both the top portion and the bottom portion of the cooking chamber. Some oven appliances also include a convection heating element and fan for convection cooking cycles. The heating element or elements may be used for various cycles of the oven appliance, such as a preheat cycle, a cooking cycle, or a self-cleaning cycle.
Oven appliances which include one or more gas burners as heating elements typically include two burners, a lower bake burner and an upper bake burner, or a bake burner and an electric broil element. The two burner approach adds cost and complexity to the appliance. The bake burner and electric broil element system has limited broil performance.
Accordingly, an oven appliance having a gas burner heating element and with features for improved broil performance with a simpler system would be desirable.
Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, may be apparent from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In one exemplary embodiment, an oven appliance is provided. The oven appliance includes a cabinet defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction. The vertical, lateral, and transverse directions are mutually perpendicular. The cabinet includes a front portion spaced apart from a back portion along the transverse direction and a left side spaced apart from a right side along the lateral direction. A chamber is defined within the cabinet for receipt of food items for cooking. The oven appliance also includes a gas burner positioned proximate to a top portion of the chamber and a low-power electric heating element. The low power electric heating element has an electrical power of about two kilowatts or less.
In another exemplary embodiment, an oven appliance is provided. The oven appliance includes a cabinet defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction. The vertical, lateral, and transverse directions are mutually perpendicular. The cabinet includes a front portion spaced apart from a back portion along the transverse direction and a left side spaced apart from a right side along the lateral direction. A chamber is defined within the cabinet for receipt of food items for cooking. The oven appliance also includes a gas burner positioned proximate to a top portion of the chamber. The gas burner is the only combustive heat source for the chamber. The oven appliance includes an electric power supply consisting of a twenty amp or less circuit.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures.
Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, not limitation of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
As used herein, terms of approximation, such as “generally,” or “about” include values within ten percent greater or less than the stated value. In the context of an angle or direction, such terms include values within ten degrees greater or less than the stated direction. For example, “generally vertical” includes directions within ten degrees of vertical in any direction, e.g., clockwise or counter-clockwise.
Still referring to
Oven appliance 100 can include a seal (not shown) between door 108 and cabinet 102 that assists with maintaining heat and cooking vapors within cooking chamber 104 when door 108 is closed as shown in
One or more heating elements may be included at the top, bottom, or both of cooking chamber 104 to provide heat to cooking chamber 104 for cooking. Such heating element(s) can be gas, electric, microwave, or a combination thereof. For example, in the embodiments shown in
As illustrated in
In various embodiments, more than one convection heater, e.g., more than one convection heating elements 136 and/or convection fans 138, may be provided. In such embodiments, the number of convection fans and convection heaters may be the same or may differ, e.g., more than one convection heating element 136 may be associated with a single convection fan 138. Similarly, more than one top heating element 126 and/or more than one bottom heating element 124 may be provided in various combinations, e.g., one top heating element 126 with two or more bottom heating elements 124, two or more top heating elements 126 with no bottom heating element 124, etc.
Oven appliance 100 includes a user interface 128 having a display 130 positioned on an interface panel 132 and having a variety of controls 134. Interface 128 allows the user to select various options for the operation of oven 100 including, e.g., various cooking and cleaning cycles. Operation of oven appliance 100 can be regulated by a controller 140 that is operatively coupled to, i.e., in communication with, user interface 128, heating elements 124, 126, and other components of oven 100 as will be further described.
For example, in response to user manipulation of the user interface 128, controller 140 can operate the heating element(s). Controller 140 can receive measurements from one or more temperature sensors (not shown) which are in or in thermal communication with the cooking chamber 104. Controller 140 may also provide information such as a status indicator, e.g., a temperature indication, to the user with display 130. Controller 140 can also be provided with other features as will be further described herein.
Controller 140 may include a memory and one or more processing devices such as microprocessors, CPUs, or the like, such as general or special purpose microprocessors operable to execute programming instructions or micro-control code associated with operation of oven appliance 100. The memory may represent random access memory such as DRAM or read only memory such as ROM or FLASH. In one embodiment, the processor executes programming instructions stored in memory. The memory may be a separate component from the processor or may be included onboard within the processor. The memory can store information accessible by the processor(s), including instructions that can be executed by processor(s). For example, the instructions can be software or any set of instructions that when executed by the processor(s), cause the processor(s) to perform operations. For the embodiment depicted, the instructions may include a software package configured to operate the system, e.g., to execute exemplary methods of operating the oven appliance 100. Controller 140 may also be or include the capabilities of either a proportional (P), proportional-integral (PI), or proportional-integral-derivative (PID) control for feedback-based control implemented with, e.g., temperature feedback from one or more sensors such as temperature sensors and/or probes, etc.
Controller 140 may be positioned in a variety of locations throughout oven appliance 100. In the illustrated embodiment, controller 140 is located next to user interface 128 within interface panel 132. In other embodiments, controller 140 may be located under or next to the user interface 128, otherwise within interface panel 132, or at any other appropriate location with respect to oven appliance 100. Generally, controller 140 will be positioned within the cabinet 102. In the embodiment illustrated in
Although shown with touch type controls 134, it should be understood that controls 134 and the configuration of oven appliance 100 shown in
While oven 100 is shown as a wall oven, the present invention could also be used with other cooking appliances such as, e.g., a stand-alone oven, an oven with a stove-top, or other configurations of such ovens. Numerous variations in the oven configuration are possible within the scope of the present subject matter. For example, variations in the type and/or layout of the controls 134, as mentioned above, are possible. As another example, the oven appliance 100 may include multiple doors 108 instead of or in addition to the single door 108 illustrated. Such examples include a dual cavity oven, a French door oven, and others. As still another example, one or more of the illustrated electrical resistance heating elements may be substituted with gas burners or microwave heating elements, or any other suitable heating elements. The examples described herein are provided by way of illustration only and without limitation.
As shown in
As shown in
As may be seen, e.g., in
As shown in
In embodiments where the convection heating element 136 is provided, e.g., as illustrated in
In each of the foregoing embodiments, the gas broil burner 126 may not be a high intensity radiant style, rather, the gas burner 126 may be one which primarily emits hot exhaust gas (so as to not provide excessive top heat during baking). In such embodiments, the gas burner 126 may thereby assist heating an electric broil element and/or heating the cooking chamber 104 generally. The electric broil element, in embodiments where it is provided, may be a resistance heating element similar to the bottom heating element 124, and may be identical to the bottom heating element 124 except for the vertical positioning within the chamber 104. Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand the structure and function of the electric broil element. Moreover, where the electric broil element (when provided) would be located proximate, such as immediately adjacent, to the gas burner 126, the electric broil element is not depicted in the FIGS. in order to show details of the gas burner 126 more clearly.
In some embodiments, the oven appliance 100 may be a low-power appliance. For example, when the gas burner 126 is provided, the oven appliance may not include a high power electric heating element or a power supply for such heating elements. Instead, the oven appliance 100 may include only a low-power electric power supply, such as a power supply circuit providing about twenty amps of electric current or less, such as about fifteen amps or less. The structure and function of such power supplies are understood by those of ordinary skill in the art and, as such, the power supply is not specifically illustrated or described in further detail herein for the sake of concision and clarity.
When the oven appliance 100 includes only low-power electric power supply, the one or more electric heating elements, e.g., the bottom heating element 124, the convection heating element 136, and/or the electric broil element, may be low-power electric heating elements. As used herein, “low-power” means having an electrical power of about two point four kilowatts (2.4 kW) or less, such as about two kilowatts (2 kW) or less, such as about one point eight kilowatts (1.8 kW) or less, such as about one point six kilowatts (1.6 kW) or less, such as about one point five kilowatts (1.5 kW) or less. For example, the low-power electric heating element(s) may have a voltage of one hundred twenty volts or less, and may be connected, such as directly connected and/or coupled, to the fifteen amp or twenty amp power supply of the oven appliance 100, e.g., where the fifteen or twenty amp power supply or twenty amp power supply of the oven appliance 100 is the only, sole source of electric power to the electric heating element(s). Thus, in some example embodiments, the low-power electric heating element(s) may have an electrical power of 2.4 kW, e.g., a voltage of one hundred twenty volts coupled to a power supply circuit providing twenty amps of current, or, in another example, the low-power electric heating element(s) may have an electrical power of 1.8 kW, e.g., a voltage of one hundred twenty volts coupled to a power supply circuit providing fifteen amps of current.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they include structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.
