A method of operating a microwave appliance includes determining that a vent fan is on, and instructing an air handler within a door of the microwave appliance to operate in response to determining that the vent fan is on.

A microwave oven includes a housing that defines a cavity therein, a heating source configured to heat an object in the cavity, an exhaust device disposed at a lower portion of the housing, a door that is connected to the housing and defines a suction hole configured to receive air from an outside of the door and a discharge hole configured to discharge the air received through the suction hole, and a display disposed at a front surface of the door.

A ventilation hood is provided. The ventilation hood includes a housing provided above a heating cooker and having an air suction port on a lower surface thereof, a blowing fan provided in the housing to induce air to the air suction port, and a panel provided below the housing to form an airflow path between the lower surface of the housing and the panel, wherein the panel faces the air suction port with a gap therebetween to cover the air suction port so that air is sucked into the airflow path from a front of an upstream opening of the airflow path as the blowing fan operates.

A combined ventilation hood and microwave oven system (10) with an overall vertical dimension (30) is provided, which is smaller than a conventional combined ventilation hood and microwave oven. One or more vent hood fans (66;74) are disposed on lateral sides of a microwave coo-king cavity (34) to draw in exhaust air (92;93) through one or more vent inlets (54;56;158;160) disposed on a bottom surface (20;156) and expel the exhaust air (92;93;162) through one or more vent outlets (46;52) defined on a surface of an outer wrapper (80) of the combined system. The low-profile combined ventilation hood and microwave oven system is coupled with a modular heating system (150;180) for heating food, which provides both functions within the space typically required by the conventional combined ventilation hood and microwave oven.

A cooking apparatus having a hood according to the disclosure may increase suction performance of a blower fan by arranging the blower fan beneath a cooking chamber to force air to be inhaled into the housing as a whirling current of air, and improve suction performance of the blower fan by arranging at least one auxiliary outlet around and outside the blower fan for some of the inhaled air to be discharged downward to form an air curtain around the inlet. Furthermore, a duct may be formed inside the housing of the cooking apparatus having the hood for an inhaled substance through the inlet to be easily moved to the outlet.

A combination lifting mechanism for a microwave oven, or other appliance, and a cooking range ventilating hood. The lifting mechanism lifts the microwave within the open bottom portion of the hood and lowers the microwave oven for user access into the microwave oven. The lifting mechanism includes a support plate for the microwave oven and a lifting belt attached to the support plate. A motor wraps or unwraps a lifting belt onto a spool to either raise or lower the support plate. An isolation chamber is located in the open lower portion of the hood and is sized and configured to receive the microwave over therein to protect the microwave oven from cooking gas and grease when the range below is used during cooking.

A microwave oven includes a housing that defines a cavity therein, a heating source configured to heat an object in the cavity, an exhaust device disposed at a lower portion of the housing, a door that is connected to the housing and defines a suction hole configured to receive air from an outside of the door and a discharge hole configured to discharge the air received through the suction hole, and a display disposed at a front surface of the door.

An imaging system for a high-heat cooking appliance, including a camera system including an optical sensor, a lens, and a set of light emitters; and a camera cooling mechanism thermally connected to the camera system.

A ventilation fan-equipped microwave oven includes a housing to be disposed above a cooking cabinet, a main body disposed in the housing, an intake port provided on a lower side of the housing, a duct disposed in the housing, the duct leading from the intake port to a discharge port, a ventilation fan disposed in the housing to cause air sucked through the intake port to circulate though the duct and be discharged outside through the discharge port, an infrared sensor disposed on the lower side of the housing to detect temperatures of an object on the cooking cabinet, and a control unit configured to control the ventilation fan based on the temperatures, detected by the infrared sensor, of the object on the cooking cabinet.

A cooking apparatus, a cooking apparatus controlling system, and a method of controlling a cooking apparatus are provided. The cooking apparatus controlling system includes a first cooking apparatus having a user interface configured to receive a user command from a user and a second cooking apparatus separated from the first cooking apparatus and configured to receive the user command input to the first cooking apparatus and operate according to the user command. The user interface receives one or more of a user command related to the first cooking apparatus and a user command related to the second cooking apparatus. The first cooking apparatus includes a first communicator. The second cooking apparatus includes a second communicator configured to communicate with the first communicator.