A new thing to worry about re electric stoves

[gfweb]

There was a housefire today in our township.

Power has been out, when it came back on there was a pan of something on the electric stove which caught fire and burned out the kitchen.

Gas wouldn't do that.

[chromedome]

(shrug) We are humans, if there's a way to screw things up we'll find it. Here where I live gas stoves are a rarity, and the local utilities circulate frequent reminders that people should double-check their stoves when the power is turned on after an outage, a move-in or a new build.

 

 

[liuzhou]

Nothing new about that. I remember it happening in the 1950s

[Darienne]

Here's a way to safeguard against such a thing.  https://stoveguardintl.com/  We used to have one because Ed left the stove on quite often.  It no longer works many years later.  It was one of the best investments we had ever made.  Ed is better at the stove now, and we haven't replaced it.  I believe they now have a version for gas and propane stoves also.  

[pastrygirl]

Seattle is currently trying to discourage natural gas in favor of cleaner hydro-electric, now I'm curious about fire safety stats.  🧐

[MokaPot]

7 hours ago, gfweb said:

There was a housefire today in our township.

Power has been out, when it came back on there was a pan of something on the electric stove which caught fire and burned out the kitchen.

Gas wouldn't do that.

 

If the "pan of something" was sitting on a burner, then that was part of the problem. I'm not saying there would not have been a fire, though. I try to keep all my burners cleared off unless I'm cooking on that particular burner. I don't have the option of gas.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Any stove can be dangerous.  Even the light bulb oven I had when I was five or six.  The building next to mine burned when a grandmother from another country did not understand the concept an electric stove.  (My building burned when it was struck by lightening.)  A house next to my apartment complex blew up from a gas explosion.  That was quite something.  It shook my building like an earthquake.

 

A woman I knew was killed when her gas stove exploded.  When I had a house with gas I complained about the smell.  No one else could smell it, not even the man from the gas company.  No one believed me.  I convinced them to bring instruments.  They told us had we lived in South Jersey* we'd been dead.  Funny thing they spent days digging up the development looking for the shutoff valve.

 

Personally I feel safer with electricity.

 

 

*South Jersey has sandy soil.

 

 

[lindag]

The gas range in my current house is my first ever and I've been using it for 15 years now.    I do like it except for a couple of things:

The heat it creates in the kitchen,

The open flame is dangerous,

the range top gets dirty and is hard to keep clean.

My new house is getting a GE Cafe Induction slide-in range.  I'm excited about it.

We put a new Kitchen Aid glass top electric range in my previous home (no available gas line) and I liked it just fine, especially how easy it was to keep looking nice.

Edited August 7, 2020 by lindag (log)

[heidih]

This house has 6 year old Bosch electric oven and gas stove-top. The oven takes forever to pre-heat and then the fan runs forever after you turn it off. I can hear it at my desk. The glass front is also impossible to clean. The stove - yesterday - The main burner igniter is messed up so the woman keeps turning it on and off. No spark but I can smell the gas. Then she takes a fireplace match to light a candle for her brother.and instead of striking on box goes to stove. It was startling. No injuries. @JoNorvelleWalker friends left a pot on the stove allegedly turned off. Came home to smoke filled house and everything they owned ruined. He had inherited excellent artwork. Art appraiser and restorers made their financial goals for the year. 

Edited August 8, 2020 by heidih (log)