Electric grill

Claim 1

An electric grill comprising a lower and an upper grill chassis, each said grill chassis having a bottom wall, sidewalls about said bottom wall and a grill plate made of heat-conductive metal and defining an upper wall; means to removably secure each said grill plate to their respective chassis, an electricallyinsulated resistive heating element in each grill chassis intermediate said bottom wall and said grill plate and supported in close proximity to said grill plate, means electrically interconnecting the heating elements of both chassis, electrical terminals in said lower chassis connected to said electrically interconnecting means and adapted to be connected to an electric power source, a sheet of heat-insulating material secured in a substantially horizontal plane and elevated from said bottom wall, a reflector plate secured above said sheet of insulating material, said sheet and reflector plate disposed between said heating element and said bottom wall, sAid heating element being secured onto said reflector plate, whereby heat will be reflected on said grill plate positioned in close proximity thereof, support means to support each said chassis bottom wall above a common horizontal plane, a hinge connecting said lower and upper chassis along one of their sidewalls to permit said upper chassis to be displaced through a 180* arc from a position where both said grill plates lie side by side in a common horizontal plane to a further position where both said grill plates face each other in substantially juxtaposition, each said grill chassis being of substantially rectangular shape and defining two elongated sidewalls and two end walls, said hinge having a channel member secured to each end wall of said bottom chassis adjacent the end edge of a sidewall and extending above said lower chassis grill plate, an elongated connector member secured to a sidewall of said upper chassis near each end edge thereof and extending above said upper chassis grill plate to define a connecting end, an elongated channel in said channel member extending vertically to the plane of said lower chassis grill plate, and a pin of circular transverse cross-section in said connecting end of said connector member and extending perpendicular thereto and outwardly towards a respective end wall of said upper chassis, each said pin being received within a respective channel to thereby interconnect said upper chassis of said lower chassis and permitting said upper chassis displacement and said upper chassis to be spaced a predetermined distance above said bottom chassis when juxtaposed, and further including a handle member secured to each said lower and upper chassis and located centrally of the side wall remote from the hinge.