Oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for receipt of food items for cooking. Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The heating elements can include a bake heating element positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a broil heating element positioned at a top of the cooking chamber. Oven appliances may also include a convection heating assembly, which may include a convection heating element and fan or other mechanism for creating a flow of heated air within the cooking chamber.
During operation of oven appliances, one of more heating elements may be energized to heat the cooking chamber to a selected cooking temperature. During this preheating operation, it is common for oven appliances to operate according to control algorithms that turn off the heating elements when predetermined limits on the oven temperature are reached. More specifically, the control algorithms may attempt to turn off the heating elements before a sensed temperature indicates that the center oven temperature exceeds a maximum desired temperature threshold.
The temperature of the cooking chamber is often measured by a temperature sensor placed on the top or in the back of the cooking chamber. While the oven is heating, the relationship between the center oven temperature and the sensed temperature varies, particularly when the cooking chamber is initially cold. For example, when the broil heating element located in the top of the cooking chamber is energized, the sensed temperature may be significantly higher than the actual center oven temperature. More importantly, the sensed temperature may exceed the maximum desirable temperature threshold before the actual center oven temperature. As a result, the control algorithm may turn off the broil heating element sooner than required when started from a cold condition, thereby harming cooking performance.
Accordingly, an oven appliance that provides improved broil performance during the preheating cycle would be useful. More particularly, a control method that allows the heating element to remain on longer during a cold-start preheat cycle while maintaining the center oven temperature within desired limits would be especially beneficial.