Oven ventilating system

Claim 1

An oven having a cooking cavity formed by a box-like oven liner and a front-opening access door, heating means for supplying heat energy to the cooking cavity, thermal insulating means surrounding the oven liner and also included within the said door for retaining the oven heat within the cooking cavity, an outer oven cabinet surrounding the insulated oven liner, cooling air channels formed within the oven cabinet around the oven liner as well as within the door for reducing the outer surface temperatures of the cabinet and door as room ambient air flows through the air channels, the door having air inlet openings along its bottom edge and air outlet openings along its top edge to create a vertical flow of natural convection air currents, the outer oven cabinet having air inlet means for introducing air into the cooling air channels of the cabinet, and an oven control panel located above the oven door and mounted on the oven cabinet; the invention comprising a suction fan located in the air channel above the oven liner and behind the control panel for drawing air up through the air channels within the oven cabinet, said top air channel also having air inlet means beneath the control panel and generally in alignment with the air outlet openings in the top edge of the door, a constriction formed in the door gap above the top edge of the door a slight amount forward of the air outlet openings in the door so as to increase the velocity of ambient air flow over the top edge of the door and thereby reduce the static pressure just above the said air outlet openings in the door so that the vertical air flow through the door is augmented by an aspirator effect created by the said constriction.