A cooking appliance includes a self-closing user control for a cooking element that is capable of automatically returning to an off position whenever it is released by a user in a portion of the movable range of positions for the self-closing user control, yet also is capable of maintaining its position in another portion of the movable range of positions for the self-closing user control.

Food cooking unit composed of gas burners (1) and an ignition source (2) feed with gas through regulation electrovalves (3) and an ignition source electrovalve (13); a food monitoring sensor (5) focused towards the cooking zone and/or a weight sensor (15); at least one thermocouple (6) in thermal contact with the flames and in connection with a safety electrovalve (4) and an electronic control device (7) connected to said food monitoring sensor (5), to said at least one regulating electrovalve (3) and to the ignition source electrovalve (13) and that stores different regulation programs and that regulates the regulating electrovalve (3) and/or interrupts the thermocouple connection with the safety electrovalve in response to the signals obtained from the food monitoring sensor (5) and/or from the weight sensor (15) and/or the thermocouple (6).

A cooking appliance includes a secondary venting arrangement within an oven cavity to supplement a primary venting arrangement with localized venting of combustion products adjacent a flame detector that detects a flame emitted by a gas burner disposed under the oven cavity. Doing so may assist with stabilizing the flame generated by the gas burner prior to establishment of steady state flow pattern within the oven cavity.

A system and method are provided for performing a test operation of a gas household cooking appliance having an oven cavity and a gas burner within the oven cavity. The system and method include an infrared thermocouple configured to be portably and temporarily positioned within the oven cavity and configured to produce an output signal in response to a change in temperature within the oven cavity to confirm that the gas burner has ignited. A control unit is configured to execute the test operation only upon receipt of the output signal from the infrared thermocouple within a predetermined amount of time following an initiation of a gas flow to the gas burner.

An all-purpose gas stove structure capable of increasing its air intake includes an all-purpose opening-covering case, an extended supporting frame, and at least one gas nozzle. The all-purpose opening-covering case includes an opening-covering case body for covering the heat source-receiving opening of a roasting/grilling device completely, and a gas controller with a gas operation unit for controlling the state of communication between gas input and output ends. The extended supporting frame is a box with a protective lid, is coupled to the inner side of the opening-covering case body at one end, and has a stove burner opening at the opposite end. The lateral walls of the protective lid are formed with vent holes. The gas nozzle is provided on the inner side of the stove burner opening. The all-purpose gas stove structure allows a ceramic roasting/grilling device to have a higher air intake and therefore produce higher heat.

A temperature sensor assembly for a cooktop appliance can include a plate with a cylindrically-shaped boss, one or more seals located in one or more grooves of the plate, a grommet disk engaged with the bottom surface of the plate, and a cylindrically-shaped grommet in which a cap for a temperature sensor is positioned and is slidable therein.

A system for controlling an appliance having a plurality of gas cooktop burners operated by a plurality of digital gas valves includes a plurality of control selectors that include illuminated displays on faces thereof for indicating to which gas cooktop burner each control selector is assigned.

A modular user interface unit for an appliance is provided. The modular user interface unit includes an upper film layer comprising a conductive polymer and a plurality of electrodes. The modular user interface unit also includes a circuit board with a microcontroller thereon. The circuit board is electrically coupled to the upper film layer by a conductive polymer connector. The microcontroller is configured to receive raw capacitance data from the plurality of electrodes and to detect a touch based on the raw capacitance data.

A connected oven, including a set of in-cavity sensors and a processor configured to automatically identify foodstuff within the cooking cavity, based on the sensor measurements; and automatically operate the heating element based on the foodstuff identity.

A multi-burner gas oven control system is used in a cooking appliance to control multiple gas burners disposed in one or more cooking cavities of the cooking appliance. Each gas burner has an associated dedicated gas valve that is coupled to a gas supply through a common, shared gas valve, as well as an igniter that is used to ignite the gas supplied to the gas burner. During activation of a selected gas burner, all igniters are activated in connection with activating the shared gas valve and the dedicated gas valve for the selected gas burner. In addition, in some instances individual ignition sensors may be used to both confirm ignition of the selected gas burner and detect ignition of any unintended gas burner.