(Untitled)

[petermarcus]

So, in the middle of cooking a nice roasted chicken for dinner last night, with fresh green beans and a giblet gravy, the stove stops working. And the oven stops. Weirdly, the digital displays all work (the clock, entering the temperature) and the red light even comes on the top of the stove when I turned on one of the burners, just no heat

Comments

[minouette]

THAT'S SCARY.

Glad the wire broke rather than starting a fire.

2-phases are plenty for digital displays.

[petermarcus]

Yeah, sometimes on the 220V they route 110V to the burners, and 110V for everything else. My clothes drier is like that -- 110V for the heat, 110V for the motor, on a 220V circuit.

A couple weeks ago, I thought I smelled hot insulation somewhere in the kitchen, but we were cleaning, so there was also floor polish and bleach and glass cleaner and all sorts of stuff going on, so I shrugged it off. It must have been a slow melt because the breaker never tripped and I trip those things all the time installing lights and switches around the house. And from then to now, I've been hitting the stove pretty hard.

At least I have a smoke detector right next to the kitchen!

[minouette]

I get really paranoid about the burnt-insulation smell. It's so dangerous at sea. Someone leaves a soldering iron on a counter on a moving boat... Burnt electronics also make a horrible smell. They burn toast in the mess and I walk around the lab demanding what's burning?

NZ is on 220 V - but all the outlets have individual switches. You wouldn't want your kids sticking a fork in there.

[petermarcus]

I have a small scar on my forehead from when I was a year old in Austria. My parents were in the hotel bathroom, packing the bags, and I dismantled the lamp above the bed and hit myself with 220. (A few people say that explains a lot about me...)