Patent ID: 7748374

Claim:
A cooking appliance in flow communication with a source of gas, said cooking appliance comprising: a plurality of gas burners; and a gas valve assembly coupled to a first gas burner of said plurality of gas burners, said gas valve assembly comprising: a main solenoid coupled in flow communication with the source of gas; a plurality of latching solenoids coupled to said main solenoid and to said first gas burner, each of said plurality of latching solenoids in flow communication with said main solenoid and said gas burner for controlling a flow of gas from said main solenoid to said gas burner, each latching solenoid of said plurality of latching solenoids comprising an armature operatively coupled to a plug, said armature movable in response to an electrical pulse between a first state wherein gas is flowing to said first gas burner and a second state wherein gas is restricted from flowing to said first gas burner, said armature magnetically attractable to said plug to maintain said armature in the first state; and a controller operatively coupled to each of said plurality of latching solenoids for controlling each latching solenoid such that each latching solenoid is operated individually, said controller configured to provide the electrical pulse to each latching solenoid to move each latching solenoid between the first state and the second state.