Ship of Fools: Those Guilty Gadgets!

Thread: Those Guilty Gadgets! Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

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?

Posted by Brenda Clough (# 18061) on :

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.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

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]

[ 26. April 2015, 21:05: Message edited by: Heavenly Anarchist ]

Posted by lily pad (# 11456) on :

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]

Posted by North East Quine (# 13049) on :

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.

Posted by crunt (# 1321) on :

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).

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

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,

Posted by Nicolemr (# 28) on :

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]

Now I have childproof covers on the dials for my burners.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

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.

Posted by M. (# 3291) on :

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.

Posted by busyknitter (# 2501) on :

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).

Posted by Amorya (# 2652) on :

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.

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

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.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

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.

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

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.

Posted by Drifting Star (# 12799) on :

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.

Posted by Meike (# 3006) on :

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?

Posted by jedijudy (# 333) on :

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.

Posted by Sparrow (# 2458) on :

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.

Posted by Tree Bee (# 4033) on :

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.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

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.

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :

I'm sure it's just an overpopulation control device.

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

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]

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

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.)

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

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 [Smile]

(Several other times I got the big belt - but hey, it n-n-n-n-never did me any harm).

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

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 ... [Paranoid]

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.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

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.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

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?

Posted by Philip Charles (# 618) on :

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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