Accident usng Induction Stove
Accident usng Induction Stove
Induction stoves are becoming common nowadays. Lots of brands are being marketed all over Coimbatore. Interestingly, we don't find any big brands like LG,Samsung,Philips in the fray. Most of the local distributors are assembling these imported parts from China or Taiwan.
I had a bad experience while using an Induction Stove. I borrowed a piece from a friend of mine for checking out before purchasing. The brand of the stove was "Phoenix'. My friend was using in his office mainly for boiling water for making tea. My idea was to check out whether one can make Dosas using the stove.
I placed the usual cast iron made Dosa plate on the surface and powered the stove. While touching the plate it seemed to me that the plate is getting hot rather sooner than expected. I reduced the frequency to 300 by using the touch buttons on the stove, so that the plate gets a steady temperature.
After about half a minute I had just moved away to get some water , suddenly I heard an exploding sound! The plate has exploded into 4 fragments and got hurled about 10 feet in diameter. One of the pieces was burning hot. I was plain lucky to have moved away from the stove in the niche time to escape unhurt. My family members including my children were also not present anywhere near luckily. Otherwise we might have had to get hospitalized due to the impact.
I would like to give a few suggestions in the light of this bad experience:-
1. Stick to the specifications recommended by the vendors. They sell utensils specific for use with induction stove, mainly stainless steel utensils.
2. Marketers and sales persons should highlight the dangers of wrong usage of the stove. Since the product is still in the inception stages, I doubt whether the vendors themselves are aware of the safety measures to be taken care of. Normally sales persons just mention about using magnetic material based utensils. They need to be aware of users of the 'adventurous' kind like me.
3. The authorities need to alerted regarding the unbranded cheap models from China and Taiwan. Are these being manufactured under the specifications of safe operations? Are there specific allowed range of working frequencies of vibration of these stoves? Are the vendors following these? Is there a body to regulate and control these local vendors from unscrupulous manufacture and sale of these kind of goods?
4. Finally , in a lighter vein, I recommend men to leave this kind of decision making regarding cooking gadgets to the women of the house. Women have an intutive knowledge about what works and not works the kitchen. They somehow 'know' that new devices like Microwave ovens, induction heaters etc are faster methods, but the food never tastes 'natural'. My wife was vehemently against using induction stove for no reason I can still comprehend even though I have been impressed by the technology at the outset itself.
