Abstract:
A standing household appliance, particularly a stove, contains a base which is mounted on supports and is adjustable in height and a housing which encloses the base and is provided with at least two side walls. The standing household appliance, the housing of which can easily and quickly be adjusted to different heights of the supports, is characterized by the fact that the housing is extendable at least in part at the end facing the props.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION  
       [0001]     This application is a continuation, under 35 U.S.C. § 120, of copending international application No. PCT/EP03/01085, filed Feb. 4, 2003, which designated the United States; this application also claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, of German patent application No. 102 07 281.7, filed Feb. 21, 2002; the prior applications are herewith incorporated by reference in their entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The invention relates to a standing domestic appliance, in particular a stove, having a basic appliance body mounted in a height-adjustable manner on supports, and an appliance housing enclosing the basic appliance body. The appliance housing is formed of at least two sidewalls and a front side.  
         [0004]     Standing domestic appliances usually, as a standard dimension, have a height of 85 cm. In order to configure a standing domestic appliance such that it can also be operated comfortably by tall people, and/or in order to adapt the standing domestic appliance in height to adjacent surfaces, it is known from practice to configure the basic appliance body in a height-adjustable manner, with the result that the appliance height may be adjusted, for example, to 90 cm.  
         [0005]     For this purpose, Published, European Patent Application EP 0 726 043 A1 discloses the practice, for example, of disposing the standing domestic appliance on a pedestal which provides for the desired increase in height. Although this configuration allows a height adjustment which is straightforward in construction terms, while providing a simultaneously stable standing surface for the raised appliance, stepless adjustment is not possible and a pedestal always has to be provided as a separate accessory, in order to raise the height of the appliance.  
         [0006]     In addition to this possible way of varying the height of the appliance via a pedestal, it is known from practice to mount the basic appliance body on height-adjustable supports, which are usually arranged at the four corners of the standing domestic appliance. This method of height adjustment has the advantage that the height of the appliance can be adjusted in a stepless manner between two end positions. The height adjustment, however, results in a situation where, on account of the height adjustment of the supports, the appliance housing no longer extends to the floor since the extended supports produce a space between the floor and bottom edge of the appliance housing, as a result of which the overall visual appearance of the standing domestic appliance may be adversely affected.  
         [0007]     In order to eliminate this problem, it is known from European Patent EP 0 034 135 B1 to conceal the resulting gap by a separate facing, which can be secured subsequently on the extended supports. Alongside the fact that using an additional separate component increases the assembly outlay, facings of different heights in each case have to be supplied for different adjustment heights of the supports.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a standing domestic appliance which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which has an appliance housing that can be adapted in a straightforward and esthetically pleasing manner to different adjustment heights.  
         [0009]     With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a standing domestic appliance. The domestic appliance contains supports, a basic appliance body mounted in a height-adjustable manner on the supports, and an appliance housing enclosing the basic appliance body. The appliance housing has at least two sidewalls. The appliance housing is configured such that the appliance housing can be at least partially extended at an end next to the supports.  
         [0010]     The solution to this set object is characterized according to the invention in that the appliance housing is configured such that it can be at least partially extended at the support end.  
         [0011]     The configuration according to the invention with an at least partially extendable support end of the appliance housing allows, for the first time, for the production of an, as it were, growing appliance housing without any additional separate components being used.  
         [0012]     According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is proposed that the appliance housing is configured such that it can be extended only in the region of the sidewalls, whereas the front side is configured with a predetermined spacing from the floor.  
         [0013]     In the case of a practical embodiment, the appliance housing may be extended according to the invention in that the appliance housing is of double-walled construction in the region of the extendable bottom end, such that one wall part is disposed in a rigid manner and the other wall part can be displaced up and down relative to the rigid wall part. In order, in the case of this double-walled configuration of the appliance housing, on the one hand to give a more or less seamless overall visual appearance and, on the other hand, to prevent dirt and/or moisture from penetrating into the interspace between the rigid wall part and the displaceable wall part, the extendable wall part is disposed on the inside of the rigid wall part, with the result that the appliance housing is recessed in the region of the extension.  
         [0014]     According to a first embodiment, it is proposed that the extendable wall part is fixed to the height-adjustable part of at least one support, with the result that the operation of extending the supports is automatically accompanied by the appliance housing being extended correspondingly.  
         [0015]     In the case of a second embodiment of the invention, it is possible for the extendable wall part to be moved independently of the height adjustment of the supports, this making it easier, in particular, to access the supports during the height adjustment of the supports.  
         [0016]     Finally, the invention proposes that the two side walls of the appliance housing are configured to be longer in the direction of the floor than the front side of the appliance housing, and the side walls are each configured, at least in the region which is longer than the front side, as closed hollow rectangular profiles such that the height-adjustable supports are disposed within these hollow rectangular profiles. It is precisely in the configuration of the supported side walls that it is advantageous, in order to maintain the overall visual appearance of the standing domestic appliance, if the closed side walls also extend to the floor, or at least more or less to the floor, when the supports are extended.  
         [0017]     Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.  
         [0018]     Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a standing domestic appliance, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.  
         [0019]     The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0020]      FIG. 1  is a diagrammatic, perspective view of a first embodiment of a standing domestic appliance according to the invention; and  
         [0021]      FIG. 2  is an enlarged illustration of detail II shown in  FIG. 1 , this time relating to a second embodiment. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0022]     Referring now to the figures of the drawing in detail and first, particularly, to  FIG. 1  thereof, there is shown schematically, a perspective view of the construction of a standing domestic appliance which is configured as a stove and has a basic appliance body  1 , of which the top side is terminated by a cook top panel  2  in which four heating devices (burners)  3  are integrated. The basic appliance body  1  is then closed by an appliance housing  4  formed of two sidewalls  5  and a front side  6 .  
         [0023]     The stove also has an oven space  7  which is disposed in the basic appliance body  1  and can be closed via a door  8 , which is provided with a viewing window  8   a  and is disposed in the front side  6  of the appliance housing  4 . In order to activate the individual heating devices  3  and the oven space  7 , use is made of an operating and display panel  9  with individual operating elements  10  assigned to the heating devices  3  and the oven space  7 .  
         [0024]     As is indicated in  FIG. 1 , and can be seen in detail from  FIG. 2 , the basic appliance body  1  is mounted on supports  11  which each contain a rigid or rotationally fixed part  11   a  and an adjustable part  11   b , which serves for height adjusting the basic appliance body  1 , in order for the standing domestic appliance to be configured such that it can also easily be operated by tall people and/or in order for it to be possible for the standing domestic appliance to be adapted in height to adjacent surfaces. The height-adjustable supports  11  are usually configured such that the adjustable part  11   b  can be screwed out of, and into, the rigid part  11   a.    
         [0025]     In the case of that embodiment of the standing domestic appliance that is illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the sidewalls  5  of the appliance housing  4  are configured as supported sidewalls. In the case of the configuration, the two sidewalls  5  of the appliance housing  4  are configured to be longer in the direction of the floor  12  than the front side  6  of the appliance housing  4 . The sidewalls  5  are each configured, at least in a region  5   b  that is longer than the front side  6 , as closed hollow rectangular profiles such that the height-adjustable supports  11  are disposed within these hollow rectangular profiles. As a result of being formed in this way as closed rectangular profiles, the sidewalls  5  give the appliance as a whole a stable and, at the same time, not too bulky overall visual appearance.  
         [0026]     In order to prevent a gap which adversely affects the overall visual appearance from remaining between the bottom edge of the appliance housing  4  and the floor  12  following the height adjustment of the basic appliance body  1 , the appliance housing  4  is configured such that it can be at least partially extended at the support end. In the case of the embodiments that are illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , the appliance housing  4  is configured such that it can be extended only in the region of the sidewalls  5 .  
         [0027]     As can be seen in detail from  FIG. 2 , the sidewalls  5  are of double-walled construction in the bottom region, such that one wall part  5   a  is disposed in a rigid or housing-mounted manner and the other wall part  5   b  can be displaced up and down relative to the rigid wall part  5   a . In order to prevent any gap into which dirt and/or moisture can penetrate from being produced between the two wall parts  5   a ,  5   b , the extendable wall part  5   b  is mounted on the inside of the rigid part  5   a , with the result that the appliance housing  4  is recessed in the region of the extendable wall part  5   b , which can only be seen in the detail-form illustration according to  FIG. 2 .  
         [0028]     The embodiments which are illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2  differ from one another in that, in the case of the standing domestic appliance illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the extendable wall part  5   b  extends all the way, or more or less all the way, to the floor  12 , whereas, in the case of the configuration according to  FIG. 2 , a residual gap  13  is formed between the bottom edge of the extendable wall part  5   b  and the floor  12 .  
         [0029]     These different configurations can be gathered from the way in which the extendable wall part  5   b  is mounted on the appliance housing  4 . In the case of the configuration according to  FIG. 2 , the extendable wall part  5   b  is fixed to the adjustable part  11   b  of the support  11 . In order for it to be possible, for height-adjustment purposes, to adjust the support  11 , for example, by use of a tool, it is necessary, in the case of this configuration, for the residual gap  13  to be formed between the bottom edge of the extendable wall part  5   b  and the floor  12 . The advantage of this embodiment, however, is that, during each adjustment of the support  11 , the appliance housing  4  is automatically adjusted to the new appliance height.  
         [0030]     In the case of the embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the extendable wall part  5   b  can be moved independently of the height adjustment of the supports  11 . In this case, the extendable wall part  5   b  is mounted in a displaceable manner on the inside of the rigid wall part  5   a . For adjustment of the supports  11 , the extendable wall part  5   b  is pushed upwards until it exposes the supports  11  to the extent where these can be adjusted in height. Following adjustment of the supports, the extendable part  5   b  of the side wall  5  can then slide down to the floor  12  again, in order for the compact form of the supported side wall to be restored.  
         [0031]     In contrast to the embodiments which are illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 , and in which the appliance housing  4  can be extended only in the region of the side walls  5 , it is, of course, possible to configure the front side  6  such that it can be extended on an additional or exclusive basis.