Is your stove a killer?

Killer Stoves: A Preventable Hazard in Millions of American Homes

Is this a serious article? I can't even touch the inside of the oven door when I open the oven, let alone lean on it. It's the same temparture as the oven. I would think the fear of getting badly burned would keep sane people from leaning on the door. And even if it's cold, it would break off if the stove was built to not tilt. That's why stoves generally come with a warning notice of some sort telling people not to lean on the door.

This reminds me of the lawsuit that ended in microwave ovens having to have a notice that you can't dry your pets in the microwave, because someone did it.

I was able to tip my current oven ... about an inch - and it took quite a bit of effort.

Most of the incidents cited on the website occurred in the 1980s.

Personally, I would be a lot more concerned with gas leaks on older gas models and deteriorating elements on some of the electric models.

Didn't this thing come about because kids (or maybe adults) were opening the oven door to stand on it to be able to reach into the cabinet above the stove (which really shouldn't be located above the stove anyway)?

I remember seeing a segment on one of those 60 Minutes type shows about 5 or 10 years ago regarding this issue. Apparently at the time there had been a rash of cases with kids standing on the open oven door and then getting crushed when the oven tipped over on top of them. I've actually started to worry about it a little myself since I caught my two year old sitting on the open oven door about a month ago (no, the oven was not on and I swear I had literally turned my back on him for one minute at the time it happened.) Anyway, it sounds perfectly plausible to me that an older child might be heavy enough and capable of exerting enough force to get the whole works to tip over even if they weren't trying all that hard.

I've always installed anti tip brackets on the stoves I have installed, common sense really. Most of the time I had to make them on site from angle stock but it was an easy way to add value in the eyes of the customer:)

I mainly posted this because anyone getting a new stove might want to make sure the bracket gets installed. I would guess that cheaper range models are more likely to be tippy, but you never know.

The worst hazards seem to be kids standing on the door, people accidentally pushing down on the door (for example, when cleaning inside the oven), and cooks setting a heavy pan (like one holding a large turkey) on the open door.

The most common accident is one of serious burns caused by tilting the stove slightly and toppling something cooking on the stovetop rather than the whole stove tipping over.

The "killer stove" language may be hyperbole, but I think the risk is a real one.

LAZ wrote:I mainly posted this because anyone getting a new stove might want to make sure the bracket gets installed. I would guess that cheaper range models are more likely to be tippy, but you never know.

The "killer stove" language may be hyperbole, but I think the risk is a real one.

Two points.

1) If you want true entertainment, read the OWNERS MANUAL for kitchen appliances. You will see a minimum of fifty warnings that would cover ANYTHING any person wqould do.

2) Personally, I am absolutely tired of hyperbole used by consumer advocates to sell a problem. I was expecting to see on that website a significant problem where many people were hurt. Instead, most of the cases are 15-25 years old.

After a while, people start to tone out ALL the warnings (even the REAL serious ones).

jlawrence01 wrote:After a while, people start to tone out ALL the warnings (even the REAL serious ones).

That's a legitimate problem that manufacturers have. Most realize that if they warn too much, all of the warnings will be ignored. However, if they don't warn, and somebody does something stupid, you bet your last dollar that a plaintiff's attorney will sue alleging that the product was defective because it did not contain XYZ warning. So they have to include them.

(I can relay a case that I had years ago and which has long been resolved involving a product which contained a gazillion warnings that a child not be allowed to play with it or serious injury or death can occur. The plaintiff's attorney alleged that the warnings were insufficient because it didn't state exactly WHAT injury could occur. Seriously. This is what it's like.)

As for stoves, I believe that most stove manufacturers have changed the design and/or included anti-tip brackets with the stove, so if you have a newer stove, it shouldn't tip (at least not easily).