Smoke control in an indoor smoker
AssigneeHaier US Appliance Solutions, Inc.
InventorsSteven Fox, Daniel Carballo, Tomas Garces
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An indoor smoker includes a smoking chamber positioned within a cabinet and a smoke generating assembly configured for selectively smoldering combustible material to create a flow of smoke. A controller is in operative communication with the smoke generating assembly and is configured to receive a command to perform a smoking process at a smoke duty cycle, wherein the smoke duty cycle corresponds to a time relationship between an ON state and an OFF state of the smoke generating assembly, where the controller operates the smoke generating assembly to perform the smoking process utilizing the smoke duty cycle.
Claims13
An indoor smoker defining a vertical direction, a lateral direction, and a transverse direction, the indoor smoker comprising:
- a cabinet;
- a smoking chamber positioned within the cabinet;
- a smoke generating assembly configured for selectively smoldering combustible material to create a flow of smoke, wherein the smoke generating assembly comprises:
- a smoke barrel defining a smoldering chamber that extends between a first end and a second end along a central axis, the smoke barrel being configured for receiving the combustible material;
- an auger positioned within the smoke barrel and being rotatable about the central axis for selectively urging the combustible material from the first end toward the second end of the smoldering chamber;
- and a smoldering heater in thermal communication with the smoke barrel for smoldering the combustible material as the auger advances the combustible material past the smoldering heater;
- and
- a controller in operative communication with the smoke generating assembly, the controller being configured to:
- receive a command to perform a smoking process at a smoke duty cycle, wherein the smoke duty cycle corresponds to a time relationship between an ON state and an OFF state of the smoke generating assembly;
- and
- operate the smoke generating assembly to perform the smoking process utilizing the smoke duty cycle,
- wherein entering the OFF state comprises:
- turning off smoldering heater;
- operating the auger to discharge the combustible material on the smoldering heater when the smoldering heater is turned off;
- pausing for a predetermined delay time after operating the auger to discharge the combustible material;
- and
- operating the auger for an additional predetermined amount of time.
A method of operating an indoor smoker, the indoor smoker comprising a smoking chamber positioned within a cabinet and a smoke generating assembly configured for selectively smoldering combustible material to create a flow of smoke, wherein the smoke generating assembly comprises:
- a smoke barrel defining a smoldering chamber that extends between a first end and a second end along a central axis, the smoke barrel being configured for receiving the combustible material;
- an auger positioned within the smoke barrel and being rotatable about the central axis for selectively urging the combustible material from the first end toward the second end of the smoldering chamber;
- and a smoldering heater in thermal communication with the smoke barrel for smoldering the combustible material as the auger advances the combustible material past the smoldering heater, the method comprising:
- receiving a command to perform a smoking process at a smoke duty cycle, wherein the smoke duty cycle corresponds to a time relationship between an ON state and an OFF state of the smoke generating assembly;
- and
- operating the smoke generating assembly to perform the smoking process utilizing the smoke duty cycle,
- wherein entering the OFF state comprises:
- turning off smoldering heater;
- operating the auger to discharge the combustible material on the smoldering heater when the smoldering heater is turned off;
- pausing for a predetermined delay time after operating the auger to discharge the combustible material;
- and
- operating the auger for an additional predetermined amount of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.