Cooktop timer?

[gfretwell]

Does anyone make a slick top range with a timer on the burners?

I did this with my old spiral element cook top when my daughter was learning about cooking, just so she would not forget a pan on the stove and go do something else. It was a simple 30 minute spring wound timer on each front side burner. If you wanted to cook something all day you had to use a back burner.

That worked fine.

Now my wife is thinking her dad should have something like this (old guy, living alone) but he wants a slick top range so drilling a hole for a timer is not going to happen. I am thinking that not everything is solid state with a computer running it, this would be a simple thing, maybe even having a password override for the timers.

[Pete C.]

This is relatively simple, get one of the $20 Leviton push button timers normally used for bathroom fans/heaters that gives 10-20-30-60 min and off buttons, install it in a normal single gang wall box next to the cooktop, and get a suitably sized 120V coil contactor to control cooktop power and install that under the counter in a suitable box. This way the entire cooktop will turn off after at most 60 minutes without attention and if it is attended you just hit the button periodically to keep it going.

[Robert]

I have considered this for a long time. I would like to see a timer for each range element with a default of , say, ten minutes.

As we age, we sometimes forget we have something on the stove. Being able to set the timer would help solve the problem of going to the phone, answering the door bell, taking a poop, getting involved in a tv program, cleaning up after the dog... etc etc...

I would prefer a simple rotary timer for each element , rather that a complicated digital one, with a max of, say, 60 minutes...

Just my opinion.... I don't want to turn the entire stove on and off, just the burner I am using, with an unambiguous, obvious, control....

Oven manufacturers, this may add another 25 bucks or so to the cost, but older buyers could really use this...

[The Daring Dufas]

I haven't seen any old folks walk off and leave the stove but I've seen many a drunk do it. o_O

TDD

[harry]

No-one does this. It would be a really dangerous bit of equipment. If it failed, you cold easily start a fire.

[gfretwell]

How is that? The timer is in series with the regular burner controls.

[Robert]

I think Harry means that, if people start depending on this, and it fails to turn off, there could be a problem.. That is always a problem with anything "automatic" that we employ to take the place of our personal attention. However, the present stoves, without the timer, could also fail and start a fire, as could our clothes dryer with a timer, or a toaster , or the oven, etc etc...... Just because something has a possibility of failing isn't necessarily a reason not to use it. Perhaps a thermal overload could be employed as a "failsafe"......

[harry]

Yes, just that. Especially dangerous if someone was heating oil/fat.

A large proportion of house fires start in the kitchen due to unattended food cooking.