Abstract:
An adjustable oven having a floor and heating element that can be adjusted from a lower position to an upper position forming a smaller cooking space. An oven door has grooves to accommodate an adjustable oven floor, and a handle extending perpendicular to the face of the oven the door, and along the plane of the side wall, for opening the door in which one hand may be used.

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/550,853 entitled “ADJUSTABLE OVEN” filed on 24 Oct. 2011, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The idea of an oven with adjustable cooking chambers is known, and in particular, separate consumer cooking ovens with adjustable heating elements and heating space dividers are known. Several efforts have been made to provide a smaller cooking space for baking ovens. Such ovens are frequently used in pizzerias, bakeries, fast food restaurants, groceries, and the like, in which standardized cooking spaces are desirable for commercial production to reduce cost, maximize use of space, and more evenly heat the interior. Flexible ovens for the use in homes, which can be transformed from larger to smaller spaces, have been a challenge for designers. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,673 (&#39;673) teaches a variable volume oven that allows the volume to be adjusted according to the cooking load by providing a heating element that is vertically adjustable within the oven to a position that provides better convective and radiative heating to the cooking load. Supporting grooves are provided along the sides to support the heating elements at each level in which an exposed electric plug (to accommodate the heating element) is located. The oven floor is not adjustable in the &#39;673 patent, and a smaller cooking space is not provided for; however, the heating element is closer to the cooking foods, but still heats the area beneath the cooking element. 
     U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,442,901 and 7,183,520 each disclose electric ovens which have heating space dividers with separate convection heating systems that are separately operable. The heating space dividers fit along groves or supports analogous to rack supports. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 7,071,448 teaches a cooking chamber with a partition member for a conventional electric oven, except that two vents are provided, and electrical cooking elements are provided at the top and bottom of the larger oven chamber; the partition member simply being insertable into grooves along the sides of the chamber. These inventions lack truly adjustable oven bottoms, and merely describe solid partitions for use to separate ovens into two separate cooking areas. Furthermore, none of these references describe oven doors that accommodate the adjustable oven parts, but are instead conventional oven doors. 
     Examples of related patents include an old U.S. Pat. No. 2,218,961 from 1939 that describes a gas range construction which has an adjustable broiler and broiler pan that may be moved up and down the inside of the oven to form a smaller cooking chamber. Another arcane patent includes U.S. Pat. No. 1,586,738 which teaches a cooking apparatus with an adjustable heating chamber. U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,544 shows a cooking applicant with movable base unit having two heating elements providing heat from above or below the food cooked. U.S. Pat. No. 2,498,554 teaches a detachable bottom for ovens or broilers. The British patent GB 430,103 teaches improvements relating to cooking ovens having partitions disposed therein through grooves disposed along the sides of the heating chamber. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is an adjustable oven having a floor that is adjustable to create a smaller cooking chamber, i.e., heating space. The heating element is also adjustable to remain just above the adjustable floor. The heating element may be attached to the floor, and be adjustable therewith, or it may be separately adjustable. The oven door accommodates the floor to form a seal as in a conventional oven, and has a window along the top thereof to view the narrowest cooking chamber. Grooves are provided along the side and back walls to accommodate the adjustable floor. An oven gasket is provided about the circumference of the floor to both accommodate the walls and the door to form a seal thereabout when the door is closed. Porcelain receptacles are provided at each floor level for accommodating the heating element. 
     A special handle is provided for on the doors to ease opening and closing thereof. The handle extends perpendicularly to standard oven door handles, and also extends above the door, to ease closing the door when open. 
     The economy thirty inch standard electric range has a full size oven. Double door ranges are extremely expensive, and have fixed cooking spaces. 
     An aspect of the present invention is that it provides an adjustable cooking space that is thermally closed so that only the space necessary is heated. 
     Another aspect of the present invention is that it saves money and time by heating a smaller space. 
     Yet another aspect of the present invention is providing a door handle that is ergonomically sound. 
     Improvements include exposed bake element or hidden bake element with oven holes. The adjustable floor is coated under the bare element. The new handle system uses thumb and fingers to grab the top part of the handle and pivots as the door opens and closes. Less strain is placed on the wrists. 
     These and other aspects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following drawings and specification. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The novel features of the described embodiments are specifically set forth in the appended claims; however, embodiments relating to the structure and process of making the present invention, may best be understood with reference to the following description and accompanying drawings. 
         FIG. 1  shows an environmental side view of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 2  shows a side plan view of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 3  shows a cutaway side view of a removable floor of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 4  shows a bottom view of a removable floor of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 5  shows a bottom view of a lower element and removable floor of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 6  shows a front view of a back wall of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIGS. 7A and 7B  show front views of heating element receptacles optionally utilized by alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIGS. 8A and 8B  show top views of heating element receptacles optionally utilized by alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 9  is a front view of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 10  is a side view of an oven door handle according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 11  is a door lock optionally utilized according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 12  is an elevated view of a manual door lock for an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 13  is a top view of the edge of the oven door of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 14  is a plan view of the inside of an oven door according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 15  is a side view of a side wall of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
         FIG. 16  is a side view of an oven door of an adjustable oven according to alternative embodiments of the present design. 
     
    
    
     Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     An adjustable oven  12 , shown in  FIG. 1 , has a cooking chamber  14  with a roof  16  and a conventional upper heating element (not shown) disposed adjacent and just beneath the roof  16 . The adjustable oven  12  according to alternatives of the present design may be incorporated into a standard oven, a stove top oven, or a built in oven that does not have a stove top. Although  FIG. 1  shows a consumer stove top adjustable oven  12 , the present invention is not limited to such a design. Furthermore, the conventional details of a stove top oven or built in oven are not shown. 
     The oven  12  has a floor  18 , two side walls  20  and  22 , and a back wall  24 . The floor  18 , as shown in  FIG. 2 , is slidably engaged in at least one set of grooves  26  in the back wall  24  and disposed along the side walls  20  and  22 , as shown in  1 , and to accommodate the floor  18 . 
     A lower heating element  28  is removably engaged above and adjacent the floor  18  to heat the cooking chamber  14  above the floor  18 , as shown in  FIG. 1 . The lower heating element  28  may be removably attached to the floor  18 , as shown in  FIGS. 3, 4, and 5 . The floor  18  has a profile  40  to accommodate the lower heating element  28 . The profile  40  may be made large enough to have lower bottom  43  to accommodate cooking debris (not shown). 
     A socket  34  is disposed within each groove  26  of the back wall  24 , as shown in  FIG. 6 , to accommodate and provide power to the heating element  28  via the heating element  28  connectors  36 . The lower heating element  28  engages at least one socket  34 , to provide power to the heating element  28 , disposed in the back wall  24  just above each groove  26  accommodating the floor  18 . Details of optional sockets  34  that may be utilized in the present invention are shown in  FIGS. 7A, 7B, 8A, and 8B . 
     An oven door  30  hingedly attached to the oven  12  in the conventional manner. The front of the oven door is shown in  FIGS. 1 and 9 . Details of the door handle are shown in  FIGS. 1, 9, 10, and 16 .  FIGS. 14 and 16  show complementary sets of grooves  32  in the back of the door  39 , and complementary sets of grooves  26  in the side wall  20 , as shown in  FIG. 15 . The complementary sets of grooves  26  in the side wall  20  and the complementary sets of grooves  32  in the back of the door  39  are designed to complement each other at  127  and  133  and at  125  and  131  to facilitate restricting heat to the cooking chamber  14  as shown by overlapping when the floor  18  is inserted between the grooves  26  and the door  30  is closed. The other side wall  22  is not shown in  FIG. 15 .  FIGS. 11 and 12  shown an optional oven door lock mechanism  60 . 
     The oven door  30  has at least one set of grooves  32  disposed therein to accommodate the floor  18  slidably engaged in the complementary set of grooves  26 . The at least one window  38  disposed within the oven door  30  permits viewing into the cooking chamber  14 . The door  30  has at least one handle  42  disposed on the door  30  substantially parallel in the place of the adjacent side wall  22 , as shown in  FIGS. 1, 9, and 16 . The handles  42  extend perpendicular to the face of the door  30 . 
     Each handle  42  has an upper part  44  to accommodate a hand grip in the same manner as a cane, or a solid body can extend from the upper part  44 . A first side  48  extends downward from the upper part  44 , and facilitates attachment of the handle  44  to the face  46  of an oven door  30  so that the handle  42  extends perpendicular from the face  46  of the door  30 . A second side  50  may extend from the upper part  44  hand grip opposite the door  30  down to the first side  48  forming an essentially tear drop shape when the upper part  44  is curved. A solid body  52  may be disposed bounded by the upper part  44 , and first  48  and second sides  50 . 
     A bar  54  may be present extending between two opposing handles  42 , and may also have a looped handle  56  that extends further above the door  30 . The looped handle  56  may be a simple metal handle. The  54  bar and/or the two opposing handles  42  may extend above the top  58  of the door  30  when the oven door  30  is closed for easier use. Alternatively, the bar and/or handles may extend below the top  58  of the door  30  when the oven door  30  is closed. Access to the handle  56  and to the handle(s)  42  above the door is helpful when the door is opened so that the door may be more easily closed. 
     An optional fire resistance heat shield plug may be used in the unengaged sockets  34  when the floor  18  is disposed at a different level. A light socket  34  may be disposed in the back wall  24  to receive a light bulb (not shown) to illuminate the cooking chamber  14 . The floor  18  may have fiber glass insulation or any other conventional oven wall or floor material with associated insulation. A gasket  64  may disposed on the oven door  30  to provide a tight seal when the door is closed as is well known in the art. 
     The sockets  34  and the heater element connector  36  may be configured to securely mate by having a complimentary profile  37 . Magnets  27  may also be utilized to hold protective plug  25  in place. The connector  36  may also be held in place by springs  29  disposed in the socket  34 . The springs  29  provide tension to the socket  34  openings  31  to hold the tines  33  of the connector  36  in place. 
     Any oven lock  60  may be used; however, an embodiment shown in  FIGS. 11, 12, and 13  includes a lock handle  61  disposed opposite a body  63 , with a wedge metal mechanism  65  to engage the retainer plate  67  at  62 . The door lock  60  may have a round knob lock handle  61  and strong magnet  69  to hold the lock  60  in place at  62 . Vented openings  71  are distributed throughout as necessary. 
     It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.