Whirlpool Corporation

James R Barger

John R Bentley

Sandra S Thurlow

Mark W Baldwin

Curtis J Bailey

Gerald A Eisenbrandt

Edward C Groeschel

Thomas F Welke

Judy K Anderson

Judy K Heiden

Thomas B Bailie

Tony J Troiano

A method for displaying preheat or oven thermal conditioning times in a countdown timer for both thermal and thermal convection ovens is provided. The method has the steps of providing an oven having an oven cavity, a heating element, a control panel for inputting cooking parameters, and controls connected to the heating element for operating the oven; selecting a preheat temperature using the input control panel, providing a preheat time by using the control system; determining if the oven cavity is pre-conditioned; executing a preheat cycle when the oven is not pre-conditioned; displaying the preheat time in a decrementing manner using the display; and ending the preheat cycle when the decrementing preheat time equals zero. An oven having an improved preheat system is also provided.

Oven preheat countdown timer

A method for converting standard conventional oven cook times and temperatures to convection oven cook times and temperatures to operate a thermal convection oven is provided. The method has the steps of providing a thermal convection oven having an oven cavity, a heating element, a control panel for inputting cooking parameters, a converter for converting a standard conventional oven cook time and temperature to a convection oven cook time and temperature, the converter being connected to the input control panel, and having controls connected to the converter and also connected to the heating element for operating the thermal convection oven. Other method steps include: selecting a food type to be prepared using the input control panel, inputting a standard cook time and temperature using the input control panel, converting the standard cook time and temperature to the convection oven cook time and temperature dependent upon the food type selected using the converter; and providing the convection cook time and temperature to the controls to control the heating element. A thermal convection oven is also provided. The thermal convection oven has: a housing with an interior to receive items to be cooked, heating elements within the housing, a control panel for inputting cooking parameters, a converter for converting standard conventional oven cook times and temperatures to a convection oven cook time and temperature; controls for operating the oven connected to the control panel and being responsive to the cooking parameter inputs received from the control panel, the controls being operatively connected to the heating elements to control the temperature of the housing thereby.

Thermal convection oven conversion algorithm

An electronic control for a cooking oven includes an input selection panel for receiving user input selections and control logic responsive to the input, selection panel for establishing a time and temperature profile of the oven cavity and for controlling heating devices according to the time and temperature heating profile entered by the user. The input selection panel includes heating function selection devices for receiving user selection of a heating function from among a plurality of heating functions and timing function selection devices for receiving user selection of at least one timing function from among a plurality of timing functions. The timing functions are independent of the heating functions so that a user may select any combination of timing functions with any selected heating function. The input selection panel includes labeled selection devices and labeled parameter display devices that define a grammatical sentence. The sentence emulates standard instructions in a cooking recipe. The functions and parameters selected by selection devices are laid out with the parameter display devices in a manner that functions are logically selectable from left-to-right across the panel.

Electronic input control for a cooking oven having independent selection

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Vandalia, OH, United States of America

James R Barger