GB2123544A - Oven - Google Patents

Abstract

Gas oven 1 has a door 5 with two inlet apertures 7 each leading to a duct 8 communicating with an outlet, thereby providing an exit for fumes from the oven. In order to cool the fumes before being released to the atmosphere, duct 8 has a separate inlet 12 for air in order to dilute the fumes; also another compartment 13 provides further air for diluting the fumes. An accessory (20, Fig. 4) can be inserted into oven 1 in order to reduce the effective volume of air to be heated. The accessory has two plates (21, 22) hinged together, one plate (22) having fume apertures (26) to lie over door inlets 7 when accessory (20) is used in its lowest operative position. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Oven The present invention relates to an oven, particularly but not exclusively to one which either is within a cooker or is installed in a kitchen unit e.g. under a worktop.

In a known type of oven unit, the heater (e.g. a gas burner or electric heating coil) is located adjacent the lower rear edge of the oven interior and a fume outlet is provided adjacent the upper front edge which defines part of the aperture for the door. Having passed out of the oven interior through this outlet, the fumes are extracted horizontally to the back of the oven unit and then out to atmosphere. Whether the oven is within a cooker or installed under a worktop, during this horizontal extraction some heat from the fumes will be transferred to the oven walls and other adjacent surfaces, thereby risking overheating.

However unless there is some heat loss from the fumes prior to leaving the flue, they may damage adjacent equipment or walls.

The present invention provides and oven including a door having at least one surface defining part of the oven interior and at least one surface open to the atmosphere, a passageway communicating between the two surfaces to provide a path extending within the door for the exit from the oven of fumes, the door incorporating means to effect cooling of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere. Due to the fumes not passing horizontally along the top of the oven once they have left the oven interior the risks of overheating of the oven and damage to adjacent articles and significantly reduced, particularly if the path extends along the major plane of the door.

Preferably the cooling effect is achieved by dilution of the fumes before release to the atmosphere. Thus, for example, the cooling means may include an inlet in the passageway for the ingress of atmospheric air to the passageway, thereby, in use, producing dilution of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere.

Additionally or alternatively the cooling means may include a second passageway in the door, at least part of the second passageway forming a separate path solely for atmospheric air, said path being adjacent and following that of at least part of the first passageway; also the first passageway and the second passageway may be in communication to produce, in use, dilution of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere.

The oven may include a conduit having means to direct gases, for effecting cooling, over at least one outlet and thereafter to atmosphere. Thus excessive temperature at or adjacent the output can be avoided, and the spread and range of fumes and air emitted from the oven is increased.

Moreover the fumes can be further diluted prior to release into the atmosphere.

The oven may have the inlets to the passageway(s) at or adjacent the lower edge of the door and the outlets at or adjacent the top edge of the door. This ensures good circulation within the interior of the oven.

In order that the invention may more readily be understood a description is now given, by way of example only, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a door of an oven embodying the present invention; Figure 2 is a view along the line Il-Il in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a diagrammatic side sectional view of another oven embodying the present invention; and Figure 4 shows the oven of Figure 2 with an accessory.

In the Figures the full-line arrows indicate the flow of oven fumes, whereas the broken-line arrows indicate air flow. Oven 1 illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 has an interior 2, defined by walls 3 and one major surface 4 of a door 5 hinged along its lower horizontal edge, and is fuelled by a gas burner 6. Near the lower horizontal edge of door surface 4 are two spaced apertures 7 each of which forms an inlet for oven fumes to a respective duct 8 within door 5 and communicating with an outlet formed by a number of baffle plates 9 inclined with respect to and extending over an aperture in, front surface 10 of door 5. Handle 11 of the door is located between the two outlets, the baffle plates being positioned so as to deflect hte warm fume/air flow above and away from handle 11.Each duct also has a separate inlet 12 for the entry of air from the atmosphere, so that as they pass up duct 8 the fumes mix with air causing the resultant flow to be a diluted form of the fumes with a decreased temperature. Additionally, cooling of the fumes is enhanced by compartment 1 3 which not only forms a jacket around duct 8 enabling heat transfer from the fumes to the air in the compartment 1 3 (part of this heat then being radiated out via front surface 10) but also directs air to the fume mixture from ducts 8 thereby further diluting it. Compartment 13 and its air entry 14 extend the width (as seen in Figure 1) of the door 5.

Figure 3 illustrates a modified form of oven which differs in that a stream of air, which is blown by fan 1 5 along a conduit 1 6 to cool the adjacent upper wall 3, is thereafter also mixed with the streams from ducts 8 and compartment 13 to further dilute and cool the fumes and to increase the distance to which the fume/air stream is thrown after exit from the door.

Figure 4 shows an accessory 20 which can be inserted into an oven in order to minimise the consumption of gas when small articles are to be cooked. Accessory 20 comprises two plates 21, 22 connected together along a side by hinges 23 so that plate 21 can lie horizontally within the oven (either by resting on a shelf or by engaging in some of the shelving grooves) while the other plate 22 can hang down vertically to be substantially flush with the inner face of the door when closed. Thus this accessory effectively divides up the oven into two separate compartments 24, 25 so that when the lower compartment 24 is used for cooking, there is a decreased volume of air to be heated. An additional advantage is that the upper compartment 25 can be used for another purpose (e.g. plate-warming or grilling) while the lower compartment 24 is used as a small oven.

Alternatively, when the upper compartment 25 is used for grilling, the lower compartment 24 can be used for plate-warming.

Plate has two apertures 26 to act as fume outlets positioned to overlie the fume inlets 7 of the door when the accessory is in its lowest operative position. When the accessory is in any other operative position, the lowermost edge of plate 22 is above the top of inlets 7 so that apertures 26 are not used.

The accessory 20 has an electronic temperature sensor 27 which can be used in the thermostatic control of the oven burner.

When the top of the oven enclosure has a grill 28 (especially fuelled by gas), the oven includes a safety valve to switch off the grill when the door is closed, in order to avoid reaction between the grill and fumes (whether from the grill or the oven burner) unable to escape. Alternatively, or additionally, the oven may also have a safety valve to reduce the oven burner gas flow when the door is open.

The accessory 20 can be used with electrically powered ovens as well as gas ovens; also it can be used in an oven with duct inlets higher up the door than as shown in the Figures or in an oven with no ducts at all in the door.

Claims (9)

1. An oven including a door having at least one surface defining part of the oven interior and at least one surface open to the atmosphere, a passageway communicating between the two surfaces to provide a path extending within the door for the exit from the oven of fumes, the door incorporating means to effect cooling of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere.

2. An oven according to claim 1 wherein the path extends along the major plane of the door.

3. An oven according to Claim 1 or Claim 2, wherein the cooling means includes an inlet in the passageway for the ingress of atmospheric air to the passageway, thereby, in use, producing dilution of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere.

4. An oven according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the cooling means includes a second passageway in the door, at least part of the second passageway forming a separate path solely for atmospheric air, said path being adjacent and following that of at least part of the first passageway.

5. An oven according to Claim 4, wherein the first passageway and the second passageway are in communcation to produce, in use, dilution of the fumes prior to their release into the atmosphere.

6. An oven according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the oven includes a conduit having means to direct gases, for effecting cooling, over at least one outlet of the passageways and thereafter to atmosphere.

7. An oven according to anyone of the preceding claims, wherein at least one inlet to the passageway(s) is provided at or adjacent the lower edge of the door.

8. An oven according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein at least one outlet is provided at or adjacent the top edge of the door.

9. An oven substantialiy as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 or Figure 3 of the accompanying drawing.