My wife and I recently found ourselves shopping for a new electric range. The unit in our home was original to the home and, thus, 18 years old. It was still working well, but my wife yearned for some of the modern conveniences included in the more contemporary models.
We also have a young son who is testing boundaries, and the existing stove did not have the tip-over protection that newer models include as standard. That little bracket on the back foot is not sold separately, by the way, so adding it to the existing appliance was not an option.
We did our research and found several models we liked. One feature we really wanted was an oven door lock so we could keep our son from opening it. Many models had the lock feature and we made sure the model we settled on had it as well. However, in talking to the salesman, we found that the designers had limited the lock's use.
Several of the options include a button labeled "Oven Lock" or "Control Lock," but this only locks the electronic control panel. The only way to lock the oven is to turn it on self-clean, and, even in self-clean, many do not lock until the oven reaches 400 to 500 degrees. To the best of our knowledge, there are no models on the market with an electronic lock that can be actuated by the owner without activating the self-clean cycle.
This means that the actuation of the lock is available to the main processor and there is a button labeled lock, but the smart folks did not put the two together. I realize that few people need the door to lock as the population interested in this feature is limited to those with little people at their feet. However, I am having trouble making sense of who would want to lock the control panel. If a child can reach the control panel, he is either tall enough to unlock it himself, or he is sitting on the counter top or stove. So the lock is of no use.
If my 20-month-old son is sitting on the stove, he can't turn on the oven controls but he can turn a knob for the stove top and get one powerful seat warmer going. Maybe the microprocessor ran out of storage to make that connection happen. We enjoy our new stove, so far, but I am still at a loss for how the monkeys didn't see that the oven lock button should actually lock the oven.
This entry was submitted by Nathan Taylor and edited by Rob Spiegel
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I never mentioned the hazard of a child entering an oven, I was addressing some comment about a kid on top of the stove. The racks in most ovens would make entry difficult, while still possible.
At least some of the self cleaning ovens had a feature that kept the door locked when the cycle was initiated, and did not provide a means to cancel the self cleaning cycle. OUr family's choice has been to avoid purchasing this feature.
I have had a stove with the oven control front and center where it might be possible to accidently turn the oven on, but the ovens beginning to heat would certainly let anyone cleaning the inside become aware that something was amiss.
I will have to check the glass to see how hot it gets, but I can't imagine touching hot glass long enough to sustain a burn. Perhaps that reflex has not developed in some individuals.
The oven door and sides do not get hot enough to burn you normally, except in pryotechnic oven cleaning mode. The glass however can get very hot (>120 degrees F.) particularly with the oven closed and set for baking at 425 to 450 degrees F..
The oven door latches that I have seen are not automatic, but manually pulled across; however, they automatically lock above a set temperature of roughly 600 degrees and above.
I don't see that a child would trap themselves into an oven; unless, a second child manually latches them in there after they climb in, or the oven falls on its face. Most ovens have some venting, and seals that are not as airtight as on a refrigerator as well (not that I recommend climbing into an oven, even if it is off, but I believe it is less of an asphixiation hazard than an empty refrigerator).
The console lock is most likely for cleaning. So you don't accidently turn things on when you are scrubbing the spaghetti sauce off the console. My HVAC controller has a similar feature.
I would suspect this feature would add cost to the oven because the present door lock is probably only designed for a low number of lock/unlock operations for cleaning and to make it used for every time you want to open the door to check if the food is done, to put food in and take it out... would add thousands of lock/unlock cycles over the life of the oven so the locking mechanism would have to be engineered for the added usage.
It would also be nice to disable the "child proof " lock function so when the kiddos grow up and it is not needed.
In addition, this feature could also affect the long term reliability of the oven as well because if the lock fails to lock, the oven would lock you out from baking anything until it is repaired or it could lock your food into the oven which will probably exceed Betty Crocker's recommended baking time.
Remember the Maytag Neptune front load washer door locking debacle? That reminds me... If you have a Neptune front load with a timer knob you need to replace your wax motor if it is the original one before it damages your Q6 triac and R11 resistor on the control board.
This is amazing, coming from an engineer. If there really is some need to provide an anti-tip feature on a stove, two angle brackets, available from a large number of stores, both hardware and home improvement, can provide a far better anti-tip function than that bracket intended to grab a rear foot of the stove. Really, it is very simple: one bracket screws to the back of the stove about an inch below the top edge, then the second bracket is positioned above it and the mounting location marked on the wall. Pull the stove out and mount the second bracket on the wall, push the stove back into place and bolt the two togather, and the stove is tip proof. Of course, I have never heard of a stove tipping unless a really stupid person stood on the door, or there was an earthquake. At some point an individual should choose to be responsible for the results of their actions.
As for burning ones hand on an oven door, do they really get that hot? I agree that they get quite warm, even hot to the touch, but not hot enough to cause a burn quickly. More importantly, a door lock would not protect against touching the hot outside. Of course the inside will indeed be hot, that is how they work. A manually operated oven door lock may be a worthwhile accessory, but an automatic oven door lock would make sure that in the event of a fire in the oven there was no way to put it out. The one time I had one I quickly opened the door a bit and threw in a cup of water, and immediately closed the door. The steam that formed smothered the fire quite well.
As for the dangers available to a child on top of the stove, if the parents are that lax in training and supervision they should probably not have a stove in the residence at all. I have never heard of a kid on the stove getting burned. BUt if it did happen, I would expect it to happen in California.
I think that only allowing the lock to function during self cleaning is probably intentional to prevent a suffocation hazard for children playing with the oven. You can't dispose of a refrigerator without removing the door or blocking it open for the same reason.
I see that having that additional feature programmed into the existing door lock at virtually no cost as a desireable option. I don't want to see a government regulation requiring you buy the oven with that lock feature.
The only negative I see is that it may provide a false sence of security to parents. From Big Al's blog, his son was seriously burned by catching himself with a hand against the hot glass on the oven door. Even with a door lock, the hot glass will still be exposed. Parent's must realize that, even with the lock, the burn risk is still high; unless, they also choose an oven without a glass window.
So, jmillion, you're suggesting that children should be allowed to be horribly burned or injured for no other reason than to learn a good lesson? What doesn't kill you ... Or perhaps that should be their fate if their parents (or grandparents) aren't clued in to the dangers around the home? We evolved in a different pool of dangers than now exist so our natural instincts are not always sufficient, and providing children a safe environment to learn is our responsibility as guardians.
But, the point of the post wasn't that the cost of the oven would go up to add a safety feature; it wouldn't. Everything existed to provide the safety feature without any additional cost. The manufacturer just didn't bother to connect the dots.
Providing parents with common sense tools to protect their children in that phase between being able to do things and knowing not to do them does NOT a nanny state make.
Unbelievable. The opportunity exists to make a common kitchen appliance safer for young children at no cost other than reprogramming the microprocessor and yet someone regards doing so as symptomatic of the "nanny state."
One of my sons was seriously burned on the palm of his hand when he was a toddler. We had food baking in the oven and I was washing dishes at the adjacent sink when he came over to see what was happening. i saw him trip and extend his hand to catch his fall, placing it flat on the glass of the hot oven. I immediately realized he was being burned and picked him up, turning the sink faucet to cold, and running his hand beneath the water. However, the momentary contact with the hot glass raised a blister over his entire palm.
We spent the next several hours at the hospital emergency room waiting to be seen while he cried in pain. If I could have avoided the entire accident at little cost, I would have thought that money very well spent.
Wow, a strong opinion. I fail to see, however, how this would bump the cost of the appliance, all the features are alreayd there. I understand the importance of parenting and attending to your kids, trust me. If you did as well you would understand accidents sometimes happen.
My point was that a free (or nearly so) change could be made to prevent a child being burned. I didn't ask for governement regulation (you might look up the meaning of nanny state) just the option to buy something I think would be useful.
I also bought outlet covers and a baby gate for the top of our stairs, guess that was a mistake huh?
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