Cooking appliance comprising a door opening mechanism for automatically moving a door into an intermediate position, and method for opening a door of a cooking appliance

A cooking appliance, comprising:

• a housing defining a cooking chamber and having a stowage compartment;
• a door for closing the cooking chamber;
• a door opening mechanism constructed to automatically move the door at least in a section of an entire movement path between a closed position and an open position of the door, in which open position the door is retractable into the stowage compartment of the housing, said door opening mechanism including an actuation unit configured to automatically tilt the door from the closed position into an intermediate position located such that any further movement of the door from the intermediate position into the open position is implemented automatically under the force of gravity of the door,
• a hinge configured to pivot and retract the door into the stowage compartment,
• a main spring having a spring hardness and configured to produce a spring force which acts as a counter to the force of gravity of the door, resulting in a cushioning and/or damping of the movement of the door from the intermediate position into the open position and
• an auxiliary spring connected to the main spring and having a spring hardness which is lower than the spring hardness of the main spring,
• wherein the main spring and the auxiliary spring are connected such that on the movement path between the closed position and the intermediate position of the door the auxiliary spring is compressed and the main spring remains alterable in terms of length.