Door assembly for a cooking appliance

A cooking appliance comprising:

• an oven cavity having an frontal opening;
• a control panel for selecting a desired cooking operation;
• at least one heating element for heating the oven cavity based on the desired cooking operation;
• a door assembly for selectively closing the frontal opening for the desired cooking operation, said door assembly including a door panel having an outermost surface provided with a central opening, an outer transparent pane arranged in the central opening and an inner window pack having first and second, substantially parallel window panes spaced one from the other to establish an inner dead air space, said inner window pack being spaced from the outer transparent pane so as to establish a passage for receiving a flow of ambient air that passes from outside the cooking appliance through the door assembly;
• a cooling duct extending about a portion of the oven cavity;
• at least one inlet opening arranged above the oven cavity and leading to the cooling duct, said inlet portion of the passage being adapted to register with the at least one inlet opening when the door assembly is closed such that a flow of air through the passage leads into the cooling duct;
• and
• at least one outlet opening arranged below the door for exhausting the flow of air from the cooling duct.

A method of providing a flow of convection air to an oven cavity while controlling a surface temperature of an outer panel of an oven door comprising:

• initiating a cooking operation in the oven cavity by activating a heat source used to raise a temperature in the oven cavity;
• guiding an ambient air flow from outside the oven cavity into an air flow passage established between an outer transparent pane arranged in a central opening of the outer panel and an inner window pack having first and second transparent panes positioned on an inner panel of the oven door;
• passing the air flow through the air flow passage;
• directing the air flow from the air flow passage to a duct that extends about at least a portion of the oven cavity;
• and
• insulating the outer panel of the oven door from heat generated during the cooking operation with the air flow passing through the air flow passage, as well as the upper, lower and inner dead air spaces provided about the outer transparent pane.