Twice last week my elderly mum left one gas ring lit after she removed the pan from the hob at breakfast time. It was lunch time when I noticed that i t was still lit. The burner was on low heat and the flame was difficult to see because the hob is near the window. That, and her eyesight isnt all tha t good. Is there some sort of device that can detect the flame and which in turn could be used to switch on a warning light?
Would it be feasible to use a thermo-couple or say an infrared detector som ehow to achieve this or is there a solution available in the market place a lready for this sort of thing?
Best I can think of is thermochromic paint on metalwork so that when it is hot there is a distinct colour. CT55 and CT70 are the only common reversible ones and they are blue/white and black/red for hot/cold respectively. It would be nicer if they were the other way around.
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Only other thought is a put trace of sodium salt (eg bicarbonate or borate on the burner so the gas flame is visibly yellow). Anything else involves too much tinkering to make it work.
Another way is put very clear marks on the dials at the front of the cooker. Some of them are incredibly hard to see the pointer on these days if you do not have 20/20 vision.
My mother looks at the control knobs to see if they're all back at the zero position... but doesn't always remember to do so.
If you watch your mum when she's near the cooker do you get the impression that she's still careful of lit rings? I have the impression that my mum doesn't pay them enough attention - partly because the flame is hard to see
- and am wondering if I should encourage her to get a ceramic hob instead.
I suspect my mother would oppose this quite strongly, and am not sure if she'd take to touch controls easily (if we got one without rotary controls) or with great difficulty. Not helpful is the fact that her kitchen is mainly grey and white and I doubt she'd be happy with a black hob; the choice in white ones is much more restricted. And, although the kitchen used to have an electric cooker I suspect the supply for that was taken out when the gas supply was put in, so getting a new circuit to the hob might be tricky.
But, very worryingly, last week I saw her lean over the cooker - thank goodness when the front rings were not on - and a very light chiffon (?) scarf she was wearing dangled into the area above one of the unlit rings. I drew her attention to this and she said she'd forgotten she had the scarf on.
I think it's only compulsory on burners which are powerful enough to generate an explosive mixure in the minimum room size specified by the cooker, with the expected levels of ventilation. In most cases, this is impossible except for the oven, and giant wok or fish kettle burners.
I think it may also be compulsory for all burners in rented homes.
The rings on our induction hob just turn themselves off if you remove the pan. I would guess that most induction hobs would do this but I can't claim to know.
A bit of a back to front idea, but how about changing the cooker. Ours has a glass lid and to prevent it being lowered onto a lit ring there is a mechanical connection - as you lower the lid, you can actually see all the knobs turn to the off position.
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