Patent ID: 7650247

Claim:
A method for electrical protection of an electrical household appliance that is used to prepare food, the appliance comprising an electric pump which is supplied with alternating current by a power supply circuit in order to convey a liquid through a conduit, and a heating element to raise temperature of said liquid, said method comprising: measuring instantaneous value of current I supplied to the pump at regular time intervals; calculating an average value α n of m measurements of current I taken over a pre-determined time period T; comparing the average value α n with a reference value α ref calculated as an average value of measurements of current I taken over an earlier period of same length as time period T; and controlled opening of the power supply circuit to automatically switch off power to the pump when a difference between the reference value α ref and the average value α n exceeds a pre-determined threshold value Δ 1 for at least two successive time periods T as a result of low average current supplied to the pump indicative of dry running.