Spin off - Hot plates

amother

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:24 am

I used to have a hotplate that got roobhit and got me scared I gave it away and never used again.I use a blech over a tiny flame. And a crock pot and my oven for overnight kugel. (I have a shul in my house and need to make a kugel and cholent each week for kiddush)
I keep my blech on as my soup doesn't stay hot otherwise. I used to wrap it in a towel but hasn't stayed hot enough last few times.

grace413

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:30 am

myself wrote:

Does anyone use the gas stove with a blech? I know it's an actual fire but somehow it always seemed safer as it's a contained fire under the blech whilst the hotplate is electrical and can malfunction.

I've been doing this for almost 40 years and never had a problem. Usually one small flame, sometimes 2 if I have a lot of company. On Chag I always put the blech back on when I'm finished using the open flame.

Sanguine

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:41 am

amother wrote:

I used to wrap it in a towel but hasn't stayed hot enough last few times.

The towel was the problem... I used to put an old towel over my food on the plata (I liked the old towel till my daughter insisted on buying me one of those heavy food covers for the plata)

Well the towel was fine on the plata but when I put it on food on the blech it burned a few times

librarygirl

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:47 am

Someone gave me one of those covers as a gift. I don't use a plata. I have a ge oven with shabbos mode which I set to turn off when my husband gets home from shul, with a crock pot for day. I was holding on to the cover to regift, but now I'm thinking I should just throw it out?

Sanguine

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:51 am

librarygirl wrote:

I don't know if those covers are a problem on a blech. My problem was a towel on the blech.

gp2.0

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:56 am

amother wrote:

My hot water urn is always on. 24/7. We make sure it always has water but it's constantly on.
Is that wrong?

Mine too...now I'm rethinking it. I should unplug it overnight. Just in case.

gp2.0

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 8:59 am

FWIW, DH explained to me that outlets in the kitchen and bathroom should always have circuit breakers. You know that little reset button? The circuit automatically breaks if an appliance pulls too much electricity.

gp2.0

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:06 am

Years ago when we lived in an old apartment we ran an extension cord to an old outlet with no circuit breaker and it powered the a/c. One Shabbos morning I woke up and smelled electric. I searched all over the bedroom until I moved away a chair that was partially covering the outlet. The a/c was on. The plastic around the outlet was melted and the exposed wires were sparking. Dh yanked out the plug and bh everything was ok. We got lucky.

Another time I left a night light on in my kids room while visiting cousins. After I went to bed a cousin accidentally pushed a thick blanket right up to the night light. Overnight the plastic cover over the night light melted. Again we just got lucky.

Sad

Right now we have two working smoke detectors, upstairs and downstairs. I think I'll add one or two more.

etky

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:10 am

Sanguine wrote:

I don't know if those covers are a problem on a blech. My problem was a towel on the blech.

The more expensive plata covers are made from fire retardent material. I have such a cover. Still I'm very careful not to let any of the material touch the actual plata. I postion the food so that the corners of the cover are raised above the heating surface. If necessary I fold back part of the cover. The hazard of material igniting from touching the plata is much greater IMO than the risk of the plata malfunctioning.

ra_mom

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:14 am

amother wrote:

Why give something away that you think is dangerous?

ra_mom

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:17 am

seeker wrote:

Because there is a pilot light, I think. Not sure. You're not dousing the flame' just cutting off the gas supply. Something like that.

I understand that for the oven. My mom has a pilot light. She doesn't do this for the stovetop though.

Simple1

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:40 am

So sad

.

Regarding heating up food: I know people who heat the oven up very hot, and put the Friday night food to warm up. They turn the oven off before shabbos and the food stays warm. The cholent goes in the crock pot which you can put on a timer.

I use the gas burners and blech, but I thought I heard it might be a carbon monoxide risk. I'd like to try the above method if I can get hold of the right instuctions, so the food doesn't end up cold.

shabbatiscoming

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 9:58 am

gp2.0 wrote:

I've never seen those circuit breakers in Israel.

pause

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:15 am

myself wrote:

Obviously we're talking about relatively low flames, and yes, it can't reach the countertop...
Do stove flames generally get bigger on their own? Confused

We once had a guest, after he washed for netilas yadayim, dumped his towel onto the blech unaware that there was a fire there. Within seconds it began to burn. B"H one person was still in the kitchen washing while the rest of us were already seated around the table. She called for help and B"H the towel was the only casualty. But it could have been way worse.

Sanguine

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:25 am

pause wrote:

But that doesn't mean that people shouldn't use Blechs. I don't usually use one but once when I did my young daughter had no idea that it was hot and put her hand on it and got pretty burned. Doesn't mean the blech was dangerous. It meant that the mother was stupid that she didn't realize that it wasn't obvious to a 10 year old who had never seen one Sad

mfb

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:28 am

To those in israel are there smoke detectors for sale there? I just spoke to someone there and she didn't even know what that was!
Please let me know in what type of store she can find one
Thanks

ra_mom

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:29 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

I've never seen those circuit breakers in Israel.

It looks like this
https://www.google.com/search?.....3B280

amother

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:33 am

amother wrote:

My hot water urn is always on. 24/7. We make sure it always has water but it's constantly on.
Is that wrong?

Don't most percolaters/hot water urns have a safety feature that it automatically turns off if theres too little water?

Sanguine

Sun, Mar 22 2015, 10:33 am

shabbatiscoming wrote:

I've never seen those circuit breakers in Israel.

What we do have is: An electrocution button that makes the entire house blow if I plug in something dangerous - A wet appliance, a faulty appliance... or if something heats up or gets wet. Also all my outlets in the kitchen and bathroom have plastic covers on them so water doesn't go in (some I removed but I think it's the law in a new house).

Another safety (though ugly) thing in Israel is that our outlets are in the middle of the wall and not down by the floor where a baby will crawl right up to it