Device and method for cooktop fire mitigation
AssigneePrimaira, LLC
InventorsWade Luongo, Karen Benedek, Philip C. Carbone
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A device for limiting the temperature of cookware on a cooktop to a threshold level that corresponds to an oil ignition temperature. The device includes a temperature sensor that is positioned adjacent a bottom of the cookware on the cooktop. A control device in combination with each of the temperature sensor and the cooktop monitors the temperature and adjusts a heating element of the cooktop as needed to avoid cooking oil ignition. The temperature sensor can be a spring loaded temperature sensor to ensure and/or absorb contact with the cookware.
Claims18
A device for avoiding an overshoot of a temperature inside a cookware on a cooktop by limiting a bottom temperature of the cookware, the device comprising:
- a temperature sensing clement measuring a surface temperature adjacent a bottom of the cookware on the cooktop;
- and
- a control device in combination with each of the temperature sensing element and the cooktop, the control device having a control algorithm modifying a power level of the cooktop as a function of both a sensed temperature adjacent the bottom of the cookware and a rate of change of the sensed temperature by reducing the power level at a lower temperature when the rate of change of the sensed temperature is greater than or equal to a threshold value than when the rate of change of the sensed temperature is less than the threshold value, and the control algorithm controlling the power level as a function of the sensed temperature, the rate of change of the sensed temperature, and a change in a slope of a temperature/time curve and increasing the power level when the slope of the temperature/time curve is negative.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.