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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Those Guilty Gadgets!
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
In the Hell thread on Difficult Relatives, a tangent has developed re appliances misbehaving -- washing machines catching fire, rice cookers smouldering, etc.
When I was still working, a crisis would invariably arise that caused me to work overtime -- but only on the days when I had started the crock pot going that morning.
I actually lived through a washing machine fire -- it ignited the wall in back of it and I had to call the fire department (first and so far only time). No major damage, thank goodness, except of course to the washer.
What frightening moments have "those guilty gadgets" caused you?
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Brenda Clough
Shipmate
# 18061
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Posted
There were a number of news stories some years ago, about dryer lint fires. The lint generated by drying is supposedly carried outside through the vent. But if there is a long tube to the outside world, or it is partially obstructed or bends around a corner, lint can build up. Either it catches fire itself, or it obstructs the vent enough so that the machine catches fire, apparently spontaneously.
My mother-in-law lived in a house where the vent ran to the outdoors under the slab, in such a way that it could not be inspected. So she never trusted it an inch. When she became older it became a monomania; finally they resorted to antidepressants.
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Science fiction and fantasy writer with a Patreon page
Posts: 6378 | From: Washington DC | Registered: Mar 2014
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
Another one here who had a washing machine catch light, the engine burnt out and it was glowing away and smoke filling the drum. Luckily it also blew the main fuse for the kitchen so I noticed it.
But only after it had twice blown the fuse ![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
[ 26. April 2015, 21:05: Message edited by: Heavenly Anarchist ]
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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lily pad
Shipmate
# 11456
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Posted
My mom was once over for coffee at the neighbour's when they both witnessed the iron catch fire. It had been turned off long before and was resting upright on the ironing board. From that day on, mom was adamant that we unplug everything that could be unplugged. It has been a good habit to get into.
I'm amazed by how many people leave the washing machine and dryer going while they are not at home or while sleeping. Just something I would never do.
And yes, I can see leaving a crock pot on, in theory, because they are designed to work well like that. But I have never bought one simply because I think it would make me nervous to leave the house with it on. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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Sloppiness is not caring. Fussiness is caring about the wrong things. With thanks to Adeodatus!
Posts: 2468 | From: Truly Canadian | Registered: May 2006
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
This one wasn't the gadget's fault.
One of my flatmates at Uni unplugged the fridge so that she could use the socket to do her ironing, and forgot to replace the fridge plug afterwards.
Some hours later, another flatmate was frying sausages and went to take something from the fridge. As soon as she opened the fridge door, there was a gush of water, from the defrosted ice box. So she got towels to mop up the water, forgetting about her sausages.
The frying pan caught fire. But - hallelujah! -we had a pile of wet towels to hand! So she lifted the flaming pan onto the floor, and we draped the wet towels over and left it till it had cooled down.
All was well till we tried to pick the pan up, only to discover that it had melted the linoleum and was now welded to the middle of the kitchen floor.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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crunt
Shipmate
# 1321
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lily pad:
And yes, I can see leaving a crock pot on, in theory, because they are designed to work well like that. But I have never bought one simply because I think it would make me nervous to leave the house with it on.
I bought a crock pot (wouldn't it be lovely to come home from a hard day's work to a steaming hot pot of broth), but the instruction booklet warned: "Do not leave this appliance unattended while in use"
WTF?
Anyway, it made me nervous, so I never came home to a steaming crock of broth (or a house fire).
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QUIZ: Bible
QUIZ: world religions
LTL Discussion
languagespider.com
Posts: 269 | From: Up country in the middle of Malaysia | Registered: Sep 2001
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
Another case of human something or other.
Many years ago, I was babysitting at a friend's house in Germany, home of the Advent wreath (Adventskranz.) This is a wreath of straw, decorated with seasonal greenery and topped with four candles. it was lit for the evening meal, after which the parents were going out. My friend had placed the wreath on a paper plate on the wooden table. She said,in answer to my enquiry, that it was perfectly safe, provided the candles were blown out when we left the room.
Memory tactfully has obliterated the knowledge of who left the room last, but I only reentered it when the seven-year-old yelled that the Adventskranz was burning. It had of course burned through the wreath and paper plate to the (new) table beneath.
Big drama as I turfed it out onto the patio and doused it with wet tea towels. Never a word of reproach from my friends, but I suspect that paper plates were a thing of the past thereafter,
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
One night I came home from work to find that my cats had some how turned on the burners on the stove, under a stickproof pot. The fume from the overheated teflon had killed both of my poor beautiful lovebirds. ![[Waterworks]](graemlins/bawling.gif) Now I have childproof covers on the dials for my burners.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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Heavenly Anarchist
Shipmate
# 13313
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lily pad:
My mom was once over for coffee at the neighbour's when they both witnessed the iron catch fire. It had been turned off long before and was resting upright on the ironing board. From that day on, mom was adamant that we unplug everything that could be unplugged. It has been a good habit to get into.
My husband had an iron explode on him whilst he was using it, giving him a mild electric shock and a nasty burn on the wrist. As he was currently designing a new iron for a rival company he took it into work to dissect and show to his clients.
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'I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.' Douglas Adams
Dog Activity Monitor
My shop
Posts: 2831 | From: Trumpington | Registered: Jan 2008
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M.
Ship's Spare Part
# 3291
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Posted
We were going out for the day to visit friends but Macarius had been ill in the morning and so we were running late. Before we finally left home, we made one more attempt to locate the source of a funny smell that we'd noticed that morning - and discovered the back of the 'fridge was smouldering.
And once we had friends over for the weekend (same friends actually. Hmm....). Macarius was making coffee in an electric coffee machine. He said he saw the glass jug sort of judder and just moved out of the way before it - the jug - exploded. Luckily the glass missed both him and friends' dog, which was in the kitchen with him.
M.
Posts: 2303 | From: Lurking in Surrey | Registered: Sep 2002
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busyknitter
Shipmate
# 2501
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Posted
I can't leave this thread without telling you all about the time ken blew up the kitchen with a chip pan.
This happened when ken was 16 or 17, so I would have been 9-ish.
It was his turn to do the washing up and, as was usual for him, left the job till much later in the evening when the rest of us had all gone to bed. The story he told us was that he'd been reading, lost track of time and when he finally wandered into the kitchen, the chip fat was cold and solid. He decided to heat the pan a bit to melt the fat and while that was going on, he wandered off and took up his book again. And then he dozed off in a chair.
Some time later, he was woken by a burning smell, ran into the kitchen and, yes, there was the pan with flames shooting up.
Now we all know that ken was pretty brainy. But trust me, you wouldn't have wanted him around you if you had to tackle a fire. He panicked and threw the flaming pan of fat into the washing up water. It exploded and turned the entire kitchen into a black cauldron of smoke and soot.
By some miracle, ken was unharmed and there was no further fire. The smoke meanwhile started to travel throughout the house. I slept in an attic room at the time and the first I knew of all the excitement was when my other brother woke me to drag me out of bed and into the street, where we spent most of the rest of the night.
And that dear readers is how my Mum came to have a classic, full on, Laura Ashley decorated kitchen as early as 1972 (we had to travel to central London to get the wallpaper).
Posts: 903 | From: The Wool Basket | Registered: Mar 2002
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
Electric rice cookers have caused similar problems around here. (Maybe in the early '90s?) Asian families affected were making a lot of rice, and the particular cooker models didn't have off switches--you had to actually unplug them. So they were on all the time...
In university, I was once awoken by the fire alarm. It was a rice cooker, in the kitchen of my flat… and the only way out of the flat was through the kitchen. (We were on the ground floor and all the windows were locked shut, supposedly for security.) I had to hold my breath, open the door, and run through the smoke filled room.
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Boogie
Boogie on down!
# 13538
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Posted
In the days when computers had huge, TV like monitors ours went 'pop' and set on fire, flames coming out of the on switch.
It was the middle of the night and I happened to be passing it to pay a night time loo visit. Thank goodness I didn't go an hour later!
We have always switched everything off at bed time after that.
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Garden. Room. Walk
Posts: 13030 | From: Boogie Wonderland | Registered: Mar 2008
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
During a thunderstorm, lightning struck our neighbour's television aerial and his television set (which was switched off at the time) blew up.
Ironically perhaps he was an electrician so should have been aware of this sort of thing. But after that he always unplugged the television before going to bed. I usually close down computers etc during thunderstorms myself.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
Once during a thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning hit very close to my apartment -- one of those things where you see the spark and then instantaneously hear an enormous clap of thunder that would wake the dead. It completely fried my WiFi hub although the cable modem and computer were unharmed. Still can't figure out how it selected only the hub.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Drifting Star
Drifting against the wind
# 12799
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Posted
Last year a BT engineer came out to find out why our broadband signal was even dodgier than usual, and decided that the router was faulty. He opened it up to find its inside was blackened and smelled of smoke.
He told us that this was caused by lightning striking our telephone exchange a couple of weeks earlier. We knew nothing of it at the time, although our phone and broadband did stop working for a while. We live 3 or 4 miles away from the exchange.
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The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Heraclitus
Posts: 3126 | From: A thin place. | Registered: Jul 2007
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Meike
Shipmate
# 3006
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Posted
In summary, fire alarms should not be missing in any good household.
I recently carbonized a baguette in my combi microwave in less than 5 minutes and thankfully noticed before the whole thing caught fire. Took me over a week to get that terrible smell out of my home and why did it happen just after I had washed all my curtains?
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“A god who let us prove his existence would be an idol” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Posts: 250 | From: I like this place | Registered: Jul 2002
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jedijudy
Organist of the Jedi Temple
# 333
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Posted
Thanksgiving morning, two and a half years ago, Daughter-Unit and I were just getting ready to slide the turkey into the oven when we heard a Whoomph, and the element caught fire. We closed the door, put the turkey back on the kitchen counter and waited for the fire to go out.
Oh, that was a fun day.
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Jasmine, little cat with a big heart.
Posts: 18017 | From: 'Twixt the 'Glades and the Gulf | Registered: Aug 2001
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Sparrow
Shipmate
# 2458
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lily pad:
And yes, I can see leaving a crock pot on, in theory, because they are designed to work well like that. But I have never bought one simply because I think it would make me nervous to leave the house with it on.
I do leave my crockpot going when I go out, but I always have it on a timer switch set to switch off when the stuff is cooked.
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For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Posts: 3149 | From: Bottom right hand corner of the UK | Registered: Mar 2002
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Tree Bee
Ship's tiller girl
# 4033
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Posted
My sister was visiting her daughter and her newborn grandson at the end of last year.
The baby had just been fed in the kitchen and as they all left the room the glass cooker hood exploded and glass rained down filling the baby's cot.
The cooker hood has been replaced by one not made of glass.
The cooker wasn't in use at the time and nor was the hood.
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"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
— Woody Guthrie
http://saysaysay54.wordpress.com
Posts: 5257 | From: me to you. | Registered: Feb 2003
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
The trouble is that these days, you're supposed to leave routers and TV boxtop sets on standby instead of turning them off every evening when you go to bed.
I don't like leaving them on 24/7, but it does seem to upset them if you continually unplug them.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Porridge
Shipmate
# 15405
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Posted
I'm sure it's just an overpopulation control device.
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Spiggott: Everything I've ever told you is a lie, including that.
Moon: Including what?
Spiggott: That everything I've ever told you is a lie.
Moon: That's not true!
Posts: 3925 | From: Upper right corner | Registered: Jan 2010
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Huia
Shipmate
# 3473
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Posted
I often have my slow cooker on overnight (to make the Christmas pudding) or while I am out.
I never really worried about it until coming home this evening when I thought of this thread ![[Paranoid]](graemlins/paranoid.gif)
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Charity gives food from the table, Justice gives a place at the table.
Posts: 10382 | From: Te Wai Pounamu | Registered: Oct 2002
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jacobsen
seeker
# 14998
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Posted
The really guilty gadget is my brain. If I have anything in the oven before going to work, I have to write myself a note reminding me to switch the oven off before leaving the house. (It's one of those neanderthal models with no timer.)
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But God, holding a candle, looks for all who wander, all who search. - Shifra Alon
Beauty fades, dumb is forever-Judge Judy
The man who made time, made plenty.
Posts: 8040 | From: Æbleskiver country | Registered: Aug 2009
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mark_in_manchester
not waving, but...
# 15978
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Posted
Aye, my brain is guilty too. I was doing some mains wiring with a torch between my teeth, which started to irritate me towards the end of the job. So, I took it out of my mouth and laid it down - to then puzzle why the job didn't get any less illuminated. It then transpired that the light in the cupboard under the stairs was still on...because though I had found a torch to see whilst the power was switched off, I had forgotten to, in fact, switch the power off.
I guess I never got my fingers across L and either N or E, and I had DM shoes on with rubber soles. So I just floated up to 240v and safely back down again
(Several other times I got the big belt - but hey, it n-n-n-n-never did me any harm).
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"We are punished by our sins, not for them" - Elbert Hubbard
(so good, I wanted to see it after my posts and not only after those of shipmate JBohn from whom I stole it)
Posts: 1596 | Registered: Oct 2010
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Piglet
Islander
# 11803
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by crunt:
... I bought a crock pot ... but the instruction booklet warned: "Do not leave this appliance unattended while in use" WTF?
WTF? indeed. I thought the whole point of a slow-cooker was that you set it going and then leave it. We regularly leave ours either overnight or when we're out, and (touch wood) so far nothing's gone wrong ...
I don't really have any evil-minded gadget stories of my own, although my mum once suffered an exploding pressure-cooker. This goes a long way to explaining why the pressure-cooker that some kindly relative gave us as a wedding present was still untouched in its box twenty-something years later and went into the Cathedral silent auction.
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I may not be on an island any more, but I'm still an islander.
alto n a soprano who can read music
Posts: 20272 | From: Fredericton, NB, on a rather larger piece of rock | Registered: Sep 2006
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Piglet:
quote:
Originally posted by crunt:
... I bought a crock pot ... but the instruction booklet warned: "Do not leave this appliance unattended while in use" WTF?
WTF? indeed. I thought the whole point of a slow-cooker was that you set it going and then leave it.
Lawyers.
I once bought a children's trampoline. About 2 feet square, rickety folding metal legs, sits 8" off the ground. It came with a warning printed on the trampoline itself: "Warning: do not tow behind vehicle".
The only possible explanation is lawyers.
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
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Posted
When we bought new mattresses for cots they not only came with the usual warnings about suffocation and plastic bags (said bags being perforated with numerous holes) but also bore the legend Do not leave children unattended.
Just how does a 6'2" parent sequeeze into a 4'x2' cot, never mind leave space for the baby?
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Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
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Philip Charles
Ship's cutler
# 618
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Posted
Needed to light fire, no matches. Turn on element and light a twist of paper - good theory. Returned to find foul smelling smoke filling the kitchen, the wrong element was turned on and the telephone was bubbling away - a mess of melted and burnt plastic with odd bits of electronics sticking out. Took hours to clean up.
Went to get a replacement and the person behind the counter did not blink an eye as he passed over the replacement. "I see you have been on a hot line" was his only comment.
Phones should be made more robust.
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There are 10 kinds of people. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
Posts: 89 | From: Dunedin, NZ | Registered: Jun 2001
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