Cooking appliance including a cooking chamber and a fan for circulating cooking chamber air, and method for operating the same

A cooking appliance, comprising:

• a housing;
• a cooking chamber disposed in the housing and bounded by cooking chamber walls of the housing;
• a cooking chamber door configured to close a cooking chamber opening of the cooking chamber in a closed position of the cooking chamber door;
• at least one heater configured to heat the cooking chamber;
• a fan configured to circulate cooking chamber air present in the cooking chamber, a fan wheel of the fan being disposed in the cooking chamber, and a motor of the fan being mounted on the housing outside the cooking chamber, the fan wheel being torque-transmittingly connected to the motor via a drive shaft extending through a drive shaft opening in one of the cooking chamber walls;
• and
• a controller configured to control the heater and the fan,
• wherein the fan wheel is automatically displaceable axially to the drive shaft between a first end position and a second end position of the fan wheel and positionable in the respective end positions by a displacement device of the cooking appliance connected in signal communication with the controller, the displacement and positioning being performed as a function of an operating state of the cooking appliance and/or a cooking program selected on the cooking appliance and/or a cooking process in the cooking chamber, and
• wherein the displacement device includes the motor, the motor comprising a shaded-pole motor such that the drive shaft torque-transmittingly connected to a rotor of the shaded-pole motor automatically moves the fan wheel to, and positions the fan wheel in, its first end position or in its second end position by the rotor supported in a stator of the shaded-pole motor, such movement and positioning being performed as a function of the manner in which a plurality of coils of the stator are controlled.

A method for operating a cooking appliance, the cooking appliance comprising:

• a housing;
• a cooking chamber disposed in the housing and bounded by cooking chamber walls of the housing;
• a cooking chamber door configured to close a cooking chamber opening of the cooking chamber in a closed position of the cooking chamber door;
• at least one heater configured to heat the cooking chamber;
• a fan configured to circulate cooking chamber air present in the cooking chamber, a fan wheel of the fan being disposed in the cooking chamber, and a motor of the fan being mounted on the housing outside the cooking chamber, the fan wheel being torque-transmittingly connected to the motor via a drive shaft extending through a drive shaft opening in one of the cooking chamber walls;
• and a controller configured to control the heater and the fan, the method comprising:
• automatically displacing the fan wheel to the drive shaft between the first end position and the second end position and positioned the fan wheel in the respective end positions by the displacement device, such displacement and positioning being performed as the function of the operating state of the cooking appliance and/or the cooking program selected on the cooking appliance and/or the cooking process in the cooking chamber,
• wherein the displacement device automatically positions the fan wheel in at least one intermediate position of the fan wheel between the first end position and the second end position as a function of the operating state of the cooking appliance and/or the cooking program selected on the cooking appliance and/or the cooking process in the cooking chamber.