Protective circuit for dishwasher heating element

Claim 1

A protective circuit for a heating element in an automatic dishwasher which includes: an electrical resistance-type heating element connected in an electric power circuit and encased in a ceramic-filled metallic sheath; conductive first and second supports confining a switch means and electrically connected by a fusible link, said first support being electrically attached to said sheath and said fusible link being a current-carrying link in a grounding circuit from said sheath to ground; further, said switch means being a normally-open switch in the electric power circuit of the resistance-type heating element, the protective circuit being further defined in that said fusible link maintains said normally-open switch in the closed position until current caused by an electric arc passing from said heating element to said sheath through said link to ground, melts said link and allows said switch to move to its normally-open position, thereby simultaneously opening the ground circuit to terminate the passage of said electric arc and cutting off the power to said heating element.