# Do you unplug your toaster?



## bigeyes (Apr 5, 2007)

Holy Moly! Our kids commute to school like most adults commute to a job, so I was gone for an hour this morning, and when I walked back into my house it was full of black smoke.

I have one of those Infrawave ovens, and I made appliance covers for all of my appliances that sit out on the counters. I had left a wooden pizza peel and 2 small paperback cookbooks on top of it this morning in a hurry to leave...as I looked for the source of the smoke, I could see my appliance cover was almost disintegrated, the infrawave was _on,_ and there was smoke coming from the cookbooks and peel! My first thought was turn it off! It wouldn't turn off, so I yanked the plug and threw the smoking items into the sink and turned on the water. The fabric from the appliance cover was a cotton poly blend..ew, melty and nasty, I got a blister on my thumb. The infrawave is covered in melty ick, my peel is ruined, I don't know if my books are salvagable or not, they are all stuck together with plasticky melty goo.

I kept trying to figure out if someone could have accidentally turned the thing on, but it's kind of a 2 or 3 step action to program it, so I googled.

Turns out, there have been quite a few reports of this happening...it just turns itself on! I called the company and they are sending me a new one, and they advised me to keep it unplugged when I am not using it. I looked, and my toaster oven is the same brand, so it will be kept unplugged also, as this brand also has the same reports being made about their toaster ovens.







:

Some of the people complaining about the ovens commented that it's hard on the plugs to keep plugging and unplugging, and I have to say I don't unplug my blender and it doesn't wake me up whirring in the middle of the night. My microwave has never come on unexpectedly. My stove doesn't turn itself on. The tv doesn't either. So what's the deal with these appliances and their on/off function?









I'm considering power strips, but the whole thing bugs me. Why can't they make their products safer and more reliable?

And how many people always unplug their toaster ovens/toasters etc.?

Our whole house would have been destroyed before anyone else would have noticed out here in the middle of nowhere if I had not come home when I did. _One errand_ would have made the difference.


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## snomnky (Jul 9, 2006)

we unplug ours and put it under the counter every day. It is more of a counter space issue for us. We don't unplug the coffee pot though we should.


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## Ks Mama (Aug 22, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *bigeyes* 
And how many people always unplug their toaster ovens/toasters etc.?


I can honestly say, except for when I've gone on vacation (and even then, only the touch lamps we have that have a tendency to turn themselves on), I've never unplugged anything in our house when not using it.

YIKES!

I can't see how our toaster would turn itself on - you have to push the toast down to get it to engage... but maybe I'll start unplugging from now on.


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## bmcneal (Nov 12, 2006)

We haven't used our toaster in months and it's still plugged in.







: I know I should unplug it, but I keep forgetting/getting distracted/etc. I'd have a little more counter space if I did, but honestly I don't think it would really matter. That's really freaky about your appliance turning itself on. *shudder*


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## Mbella (Apr 5, 2007)

I ALWAYS unplug the toaster after using it. We had one catch on fire when I was a kid. This happened when it was just plugged in and not being used. It was pretty scary. We were lucky nothing else caught on fire. I believe it also had a cover. Everyone in my family always unplugs the toaster when not in use. I get mad at dh if he leaves it plugged in after he uses it.


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## bigeyes (Apr 5, 2007)

I'm telling you, between dh's driving off the cliff incident and this, we are the luckiest unlucky people I know!







:

I'm about 2 steps from agoraphobia.


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## Lemon Juice (Jun 6, 2005)

How scary for you, mama.

To answer you question, yes I always, always unplug my toaster and have since I was a kid. When my mom was a kid there was a fire b/c of the toaster turning on and she taught us this and it has stuck. I hear that most aren't made like this anymore..but why take that chance? It is habit and dp does it now as well. And apparently this can happen still and as it did for you


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## leximom (Jul 4, 2005)

wow, that is crazy! I'm so glad that it wasn't worse. I unplug ours to avoid phantom power and also to save counter space, but I would never think that leaving it plugged in could result in that!


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## alysmommy2004 (Jun 23, 2006)

How scary! Luckily nothing bad happened.

We don't have a toaster, but when we did it was rarely plugged in. I have no counter space and right now there is a small coffee maker sitting there, unplugged, and my KA stand mixer, also unplugged. The mixer is the only appliance that permanately lives on the counter.


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## bigeyes (Apr 5, 2007)

Well, after the last 2 months, I'd say it's safe to say I have a sturdy heart.


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## SAHDS (Mar 28, 2008)

I do, but only because I cannot stand clutter.

But, yikes, how scary!


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## Drummer's Wife (Jun 5, 2005)

oh no, that is scary!

I do almost always unplug ours, mainly because I'm afraid one of the kids will turn it on and try to toast a paper towel or something.

Also, to save energy.

Glad your house is okay!


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## FillingMyQuiver (Jul 20, 2004)

I unplug EVERYTHING in my kitchen if it's not in use (except our electric stove) for the very reason of the OP. I am pretty scraed of things getting turned on and causing a fire. It doesn't even have to be the actual appliance turning on. What if there's a power surge and it blows the appliance?

Not to mention, like a pp, I'm afraid my kids would try to turn the appliances on. We keep our toaster oven, coffee maker, and KA mixer on the counter and my kids have been known for climbing stools to get to things. The last thing I need is them playing with plugged in appliances







:

Glad you got home in time, OP. That's pretty scary.

When I was in high school, we had to call the fire dept b/c the room I shared w/ my sister was full of smoke while we were sleeping and we didn't know where it was from. Turns out we had a desk lamp w/ an on/off dial on the back of the lampshade part that fell into my sister's clothes hamper. The fire dept said the lamps were known for not turning off all the way even though the lightbulb was off and that's what happened. It was pretty scary. I'm pretty vigilant anout unplugging and checking anything electrical now.


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## ramama (Apr 13, 2007)

O my! What craziness! I'm glad you came right home!

We try to unplug our appliances. DH does it for safety, I do it because I'm sick of loosing appliances to our crappy wiring. In one week we lost a TV, a stereo, a blender, a computer, and a microwave. I don't unplug my coffee maker, though, because it's programmable and brews my coffee before I wake up. I guess I could just reprogram it every day. Maybe I should.

It is annoying that a company's solution is to unplug the appliance, not for them to make it safer. That makes no sense.


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## mamabohl (May 21, 2005)

wow, freaky! I unplug just about everything when not in use...it's kind of a combo of energy saving, space saving and compulsion, lol. Drives my dh nuts. The only thing I don't unplug completely is the computer because it messes up the clock.


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## La Limena (Apr 16, 2008)

We unplug almost everything (including the toaster oven) that we are not actively using to reduce passive energy waste. I feel your pain on the melty mess. In college I learned never to place anything on top of a toaster oven after I melted a camera and then had to go down to the dark basement to pry it open to salvage what I could of the film.


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## paquerette (Oct 16, 2004)

I know a bunch of toasters got recalled last year because they weren't popping up or turning themselves off properly.

Ours is on an outlet that only works if the kitchen light is turned on, so it's easy enough to do. Otherwise I'd probably unplug it when going away but not every time I used it. I have to crawl under the table to get to the plug.

I can picture my cats stepping on the lever and activating it and either toasting their tails or knocking stuff into it, so even if everything worked right I'd still be wary of the whole thing.


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## MilkbarMom (Mar 28, 2003)

I unplug my toaster. Actually, I don't leave anything plugged in that does not have to be.


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## Tilia (Nov 18, 2006)

Wow, how scary!


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## the_lissa (Oct 30, 2004)

I unplug all kitchen appliances, except for fridge, stove, microwave, and freezer. I used to keep my kettle plugged in all the time, but our new house needs a gfci outlet for the kitchen, so I always unplug it now.


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## pumpkin (Apr 8, 2003)

We keep pretty much everything in the kitchen unplugged. The exception would be the fridge and the automatic espresso machine. I also have REALLY strict rules in our house about setting flammable items near heat sources in the kitchen. DH would casually set the groceries on the stove, lay a cookbook on the toaster. That did not go over well with me when we moved in together.

I should add that I've had two toaster fires in my lifetime. Both while actively using the toaster. Once when I was a kid the toaster oven just burst into flames while we were making toast. Mom dealt with that one. Then I had a poptart catch fire at DH's house when we were still dating. *#)& guy didn't keep a fire extinguisher in his kitchen or any oven mitts. I ended up grabbing bathroom towels and carrying the flaming toaster outside just as the cabinets were about to start smoldering.


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## beebalmmama (Jul 21, 2005)

I always unplug all my small apppliances to save on energy, except my coffee maker because I use the programmable automatic turn on and don't want to reset the clock every day.


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## ann_of_loxley (Sep 21, 2007)

We dont unplug anything, but in our country we have 'on/off' switches at every socket - of which are turned off if something is not in use. We also do not have any sockets in the bathrooms and light switched are either outside the bathroom or on the bathroom ceiling in which you turn on using a cord instead of a hands on switch. I think our country must be big up on electrical safety lol.


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## UberMama (Feb 27, 2007)

We unplug everything in the kitchen except for the stove, fridge, and microwave.

DH gets irritated at my unplugging the toaster but it takes all of 2 seconds to plug in, so oh well!


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## TefferTWH (May 13, 2008)

We unplug ours and put it into a cabinet after it cools. I don't want my toddler to push the lever and start it when I'm not looking.

Toaster ovens are one of the most likely appliances to cause house fires.


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