US 8,800,542 B1Granted

Automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker

OwnerJohn Matthew Kenningtoninventor

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Abstract

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker fueled by wood, charcoal, or other solid fuels which is capable of operation with any type of cooker without utilization of different sized blowers and conserves solid fuel usage. The present invention serves to regulate cooking temperature by controlling or optimizing the amount of combustion air reaching the fuel. The present invention also allows an outdoor barbecue grill or smoker of any reasonable size to be retrofitted with the invention in order to allow a chef to cook foods at stable and precise temperatures. The core components of the invention are an air blower to provide combustion air to the burning fuel, an electronic controller to control the amount of air delivered by the air blower via a unique algorithm embedded within the electronic controller, a temperature sensor to sense the temperature inside of the cooker in the vicinity of the cooking food and provide feedback to the electronic controller, and an air tube and air manifold to get or direct the combustion air from the air blower inside the blower box to the burning fuel inside the cooker. Alternative embodiments utilize an automatic damper connected with said electronic controller whereby convection air currents may be precisely controlled.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker, comprising:

a blower box having an inside and an outside and a single variable speed air blower within said inside as an integrated unit;
and
said blower box having a discharge port connected with a first end of a substantially flexible air tube;
and
a second end of said air tube connected to an air manifold;
and
said air manifold attachable to and detachable from a cooker having a solid fuel at any point on the cooker designed for an ingestion of a combustion air;
and
said air blower capable of ingesting an atmospheric air from said outside of said blower box and directing the atmospheric air to said discharge port and through said air tube and air manifold and into the cooker;
and
an electronic controller within said inside of said blower box and connected with said air blower;
and
a cooking temperature sensor placable within the cooker and having a first end of a sensor cable attached therewith and a second end of said sensor cable attached with said electronic controller;
and
one or more blower speed control or blower time proportioning algorithms embedded within said electronic controller which is capable of varying an airflow of said air blower and substantially adaptively sensing and learning the thermal parameters of the cooker and adjusting the airflow of a combustion to match a thermal reaction time of the cooker and meet a temperature setpoint and thereby varying the atmospheric air directed into the cooker and at the solid fuel in response to a temperature signal from said cooking temperature sensor within the cooker and meet said temperature setpoint within the cooker whereby said electronic controller in conjunction with said single air blower is capable of automatically adapting and controlling a temperature within substantially any size cooker;
and
an adjustable damper over said air blower where said air blower is capable of ingesting an atmospheric air;
and
said damper capable of allowing or restricting airflow caused by convection currents whether said air blower is operating or not;
and
a hanger connected with said blower box whereby said blower box may be hung with an extending element of the cooker;
and
said cooking temperature sensor having a retaining clip capable of attaching with an internal portion of the cooker and said retaining clip capable of retaining said cooking temperature sensor in the vicinity of a food to be cooked;
and
said substantially flexible air tube having one or more corrugations.

22 more elements

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker comprising:

a blower box having an inside and an outside and a single variable speed air blower within said inside as an integrated unit;
and
said blower box having a discharge port connected with a first end of a substantially flexible air tube;
and
a second end of said air tube connected to an air manifold;
and
said air manifold attachable to and detachable from a cooker having a solid fuel at any point on the cooker designed for an ingestion of a combustion air;
and
said air blower capable of ingesting an atmospheric air from said outside of said blower box and directing the atmospheric air to said discharge port and through said air tube and air manifold and into the cooker;
and
an electronic controller within said inside of said blower box and connected with said air blower;
and
a cooking temperature sensor placable within the cooker and having a first end of a sensor cable attached therewith and a second end of said sensor cable attached with said electronic controller;
and
one or more blower speed control or blower time proportioning algorithms embedded within said electronic controller which is capable of varying an airflow of said air blower and substantially adaptively sensing and learning the thermal parameters of the cooker and adjusting the airflow of a combustion to match a thermal reaction time of the cooker and meet a temperature setpoint and thereby varying the atmospheric air directed into the cooker and at the solid fuel in response to a temperature signal from said cooking temperature sensor within the cooker and meet said temperature setpoint within the cooker whereby said electronic controller in conjunction with said single air blower is capable of automatically adapting and controlling a temperature within substantially any size cooker;
and
said air manifold comprises a folding toggle nut capable of placement through an existing air intake hole on the cooker and unfolding within the cooker;
and
a wing bolt through at least a portion of said air manifold and threaded with said toggle nut and capable of holding said air manifold against the cooker;
and
a hose barb mounted with said air manifold and capable of retaining said second end of said air tube;
and
said manifold having manifold edges that are held tightly and securely against the cooker via said wing bolt and toggle nut.

20 more elements

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker comprising:

a blower box having an inside and an outside and a single variable speed air blower within said inside as an integrated unit;
and
said blower box having a discharge port connected with a first end of a substantially flexible air tube;
and
a second end of said air tube connected to an air manifold;
and
said air manifold attachable to and detachable from a cooker having a solid fuel at any point on the cooker designed for an ingestion of a combustion air;
and
said air blower capable of ingesting an atmospheric air from said outside of said blower box and directing the atmospheric air to said discharge port and through said air tube and air manifold and into the cooker;
and
an electronic controller within said inside of said blower box and connected with said air blower;
and
a cooking temperature sensor placable within the cooker and having a first end of a sensor cable attached therewith and a second end of said sensor cable attached with said electronic controller;
and
one or more blower speed control or blower time proportioning algorithms embedded within said electronic controller which is capable of varying an airflow of said air blower and substantially adaptively sensing and learning the thermal parameters of the cooker and adjusting the airflow of a combustion to match a thermal reaction time of the cooker and meet a temperature setpoint and thereby varying the atmospheric air directed into the cooker and at the solid fuel in response to a temperature signal from said cooking temperature sensor within the cooker and meet said temperature setpoint within the cooker whereby said electronic controller in conjunction with said single air blower is capable of automatically adapting and controlling a temperature within substantially any size cooker;
and
a modified proportional integral derivative algorithm which monitors a cookers response time, adaptively adjusts one or more gains of said proportional integral derivative algorithm to match a reaction time of said cooker thereby when said response time of said cooker is above a threshold said gains are increased in order to speed up said proportional integral derivative algorithm response time whereby an undershoot and an overshoot are minimized and the solid fuel is conserved.

14 more elements

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker, comprising:

a blower box having an inside and an outside and a single air blower within said inside as an integrated unit;
and
said blower box having a discharge port connected with a first end of a substantially flexible air tube;
and
a second end of said air tube connected to an air manifold;
and
said air manifold attachable to a cooker having a solid fuel at any point on the cooker designed for an ingestion of a combustion air;
and
said air blower capable of ingesting an atmospheric air from said outside of said blower box and directing the atmospheric air to said discharge port and through said air tube and air manifold and into the cooker;
and
an electronic controller within said inside of said blower box and connected with said air blower;
and
a cooking temperature sensor placable within the cooker having a first end of a sensor cable attached therewith and a second end of said sensor cable attached with said electronic controller;
and
one or more blower speed control or blower time proportioning algorithms embedded within said electronic controller which is capable of varying an airflow of said air blower and thereby varying the atmospheric air directed into the cooker and at the solid fuel in response to a temperature signal from said cooking temperature sensor within the cooker and meet a temperature setpoint within the cooker whereby said electronic controller in conjunction with said single air blower is capable of automatically adapting and controlling a temperature within substantially any size cooker;
and
a modified take back half proportional integral derivative algorithm which senses said temperature signal and creates a cooking temperature variable and when said cooking temperature variable crosses through a desired cooking temperature according to said temperature setpoint, an integrator memory variable is reset to the mathematical average of a present value and a previous value during a last time said cooking temperature variable passed through said desired cooking temperature whereby a control loop convergence on said desired cooking temperature occurs;
and
a lookup table representing one or more values of said blower speed control or said blower time proportioning versus an airflow command of said modified take back half proportional integral derivative algorithm;
and
said lookup table capable of indexing said airflow command of said modified take back half proportional integral derivative algorithm;
and
said electronic controller capable of converting said airflow command to said one or more values of said blower speed control or said blower time proportioning thereby an average airflow of said air blower is adjusted by an average potential presented to said air blower.

20 more elements

An automatic temperature control device for solid fuel fired food cooker, comprising:

a blower box having an inside and an outside and a single air blower within said inside as an integrated unit;
and
said blower box having a discharge port connected with a first end of a substantially flexible air tube;
and
a second end of said air tube connected to an air manifold;
and
said air manifold attachable to a cooker having a solid fuel at any point on the cooker designed for an ingestion of a combustion air;
and
said air blower capable of ingesting an atmospheric air from said outside of said blower box and directing the atmospheric air to said discharge port and through said air tube and air manifold and into the cooker;
and
an electronic controller within said inside of said blower box and connected with said air blower;
and
a cooking temperature sensor placable within the cooker having a first end of a sensor cable attached therewith and a second end of said sensor cable attached with said electronic controller;
and
one or more blower speed control or blower time proportioning algorithms embedded within said electronic controller which is capable of varying an airflow of said air blower and thereby varying the atmospheric air directed into the cooker and at the solid fuel in response to a temperature signal from said cooking temperature sensor within the cooker and meet a temperature setpoint within the cooker whereby said electronic controller in conjunction with said single air blower is capable of automatically adapting and controlling a temperature within substantially any size cooker;
and
a modified proportional integral derivative algorithm which adaptively adjusts one or more gains of said proportional integral derivative algorithm to match a reaction time of said cooker thereby when a response time of said cooker is above a threshold said gains are increased in order to speed up said proportional integral derivative algorithm response time whereby a undershoot and an overshoot are minimized and the solid fuel is conserved;
and
a lookup table representing one or more values of said blower speed control or said blower time proportioning versus an airflow command of said modified proportional integral derivative algorithm;
and
said lookup table capable of indexing said airflow command of said modified proportional integral derivative algorithm;
and
said electronic controller capable of converting said airflow command to said one or more values of said blower speed control or said blower time proportioning thereby an average airflow of said air blower is adjusted by an average potential presented to said air blower.

20 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 13/184,536Filed 16 Jul 2011 · us provisional application
Priority: 20 Jul 2010
Granted: 12 Aug 2014
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification7 codes

F24B 15/005
Implements for use in connection with stoves or ranges: igniting devices; Fire-igniting fans
A47J 36/321
Time-controlled igniting mechanisms or alarm devices: the electronic control being performed over a network, e.g. by means of a handheld device
A47J 37/0754
Roasting devices for outdoor use; Barbecues: with blowers providing forced air circulation
A47J 37/0786
Roasting devices for outdoor use; Barbecues: accessories