Cooking appliance with spacer unit between a heating element and a muffle, the heating element being located outside the cooking chamber

Abstract

A cooking appliance includes a housing, a muffle arranged in the housing and including walls which define a cooking chamber of the cooking appliance, and a heating element designed strand-like and repeatedly bent and arranged outside the muffle in an intermediate space between the housing and the muffle. The heating element is arranged spaced apart from a heating-element-facing one of the walls and adjacent thereto. A distancing unit positions the heating element at a defined spacing from the heating-element-facing one of the walls.

1 - 15 . (canceled) 
     
     
         16 . A cooking appliance, comprising:
 a housing;   a muffle arranged in the housing and including walls which define a cooking chamber of the cooking appliance;   a heating element designed strand-like and repeatedly bent and arranged outside the muffle in an intermediate space between the housing and the muffle, said heating element being arranged spaced apart from a heating-element-facing one of the walls and adjacent thereto; and   a distancing unit designed to position the heating element at a defined spacing from the heating-element-facing one of the walls.   
     
     
         17 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , wherein the distancing unit comprises distancing rods, which are oriented with their longitudinal axes protruding at least in one portion from a surface which is spanned by a main extension surface of the heating element, in terms of size. 
     
     
         18 . The cooking appliance of  claim 17 , further comprising a counter-coupling element, wherein at least one of the distancing rods includes a bent-back portion at one end which is remote from the heating element, which bent-back portion is formed as a positioning coupling part, by which the distancing unit is positioned on a heating-element-facing side of the counter-coupling element for distance-setting coupling. 
     
     
         19 . The cooking appliance of  claim 18 , wherein the distancing unit is directly positioned on the heating-element-facing side of the counter-coupling element. 
     
     
         20 . The cooking appliance of  claim 17 , further comprising a counter-coupling element including a heating-element-remote side, wherein at least one of the distancing rods includes a bent-back portion at one end which is remote from the heating element, which bent-back portion is formed as a rear-engaging coupling part, by which the distancing unit bears against a heating-element-remote side of the counter-coupling element and rearwardly engages the heating-element-remote side of the counter-coupling element for distance-setting coupling. 
     
     
         21 . The cooking appliance of  claim 20 , wherein the distancing unit rearwardly engages directly the heating-element-remote side of the counter-coupling element. 
     
     
         22 . The cooking appliance of  claim 20 , wherein the counter-coupling element includes a continuous recess, through which a corresponding one of the distancing rods engages with a rod part formed upstream of the bent-back portion, so that a rear-engaging coupling part adjoining the rod part is arranged on the heating-element-remote side of the counter-coupling element. 
     
     
         23 . The cooking appliance of  claim 22 , wherein the recess is open on an edge side of the counter-coupling element. 
     
     
         24 . The cooking appliance of  claim 20 , wherein at least one of the distancing rods includes a bent-back portion at one end which is remote from the heating element, which bent-back portion is formed as a positioning coupling part, by which the distancing unit is positioned on a heating-element-facing side of the counter-coupling element for distance-setting coupling, said counter-coupling element being arranged, in particular clamped, between the positioning coupling part and the rear-engaging coupling part. 
     
     
         25 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , further comprising a counter-coupling element, said distancing unit being designed to positionally fix the heating element to the counter-coupling element in at least two, in particular the three, spatial directions. 
     
     
         26 . The cooking appliance of  claim 17 , wherein the distancing unit has a height which is greater by a multiple than a thickness, in particular a diameter, of a strand of the heating element in a direction perpendicular to the surface which is spanned by the main extension surface of the heating element, in terms of size. 
     
     
         27 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , wherein the heating element is arranged by the distancing unit from an outer face of an adjacent one of the walls at a spacing in at least one of two ways, a first way in which the spacing is between 0.8 times and 1.5 times a thickness of a strand of the heating element, a second way in which the spacing is between 0.3 mm and 0.7 mm, in particular between 0.3 mm and 0.5 mm. 
     
     
         28 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , further comprising position securing elements which are connected in each case directly to a plurality of strand portions of the heating element, so that the plurality of strand portions are fixed in position relative to one another. 
     
     
         29 . The cooking appliance of  claim 28 , wherein the distancing unit comprises distancing rods, which are oriented with their longitudinal axes protruding at least in one portion from a surface which is spanned by a main extension surface of the heating element, in terms of size, said position securing elements being formed as position securing rods having opposing ends for arrangement of corresponding ones of the distancing rods of the distancing unit angled back relative to the corresponding ones of the position securing rods. 
     
     
         30 . The cooking appliance of  claim 29 , wherein one of the position securing rods and two of the distancing rods are designed in one piece. 
     
     
         31 . The cooking appliance of  claim 30 , wherein the one of the position securing rods and the two of the distancing rods together form a U-shaped carrier and positioning rod, in particular a plurality of U-shaped carrier and positioning rods. 
     
     
         32 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , further comprising a counter-coupling element coupled to the distancing unit for positional fixing, wherein the counter-coupling element is formed as a flange protruding on an outer face of the muffle and from the outer face. 
     
     
         33 . The cooking appliance of  claim 32 , wherein one of the walls of the muffle is a top wall and another one of the walls of the muffle is a bottom wall, said flange being arranged in at least one of two ways, a first way in which the flange is offset downwardly relative to a trough ceiling of the top wall of the muffle which forms a wall adjacent to the heating element, when viewed in a height direction of the cooking appliance, in particular the flange is arranged on a trough collar of the top wall, a second way in which the flange is arranged offset upwardly relative to a trough bottom of the bottom wall of the muffle which forms a wall adjacent to the heating element, when viewed in the height direction of the cooking appliance, in particular the flange is arranged on a trough collar of the bottom wall. 
     
     
         34 . The cooking appliance of  claim 16 , wherein the heating element is a member selected from the group consisting of a top-heat body, a grill heating body, a bottom-heat body, a grill heating body, and a resistance heating element.