ArticlesBad design #1
Someone installed a smoke-alarm on my kitchen ceiling. It means it has false alarms when I am frying, unless it is well vented.
Bad design #2
Once smoke-alarm it is going, the only way to shut it up is to get a ladder and remove the battery or to get a fan to slowly clear the air. There is no reset button.
Bad design #3
My kitchen stove has a range-hood, to blow the smoke away from the stove. But it doesn’t have a chimney or any vent to outside, so it just blows the smoke in the only direction it can… straight into my face. Some people don’t believe me until I demonstrate it to them.
It is a terribly unpleasant way to cook, so I don’t use that. I just open a couple of windows. Normally that’s enough.
Bad design #4
Today it wasn’t enough. The shrill alarm went off, annoying both me and the neighbourhood (because my windows are all open). I rushed off to get a fan to vent the smoke out the window… leaving my spatula on the fry pan.
But my spatula is thermo-plastic, and when I got back and lifted it from the frying pan I found a puddle of black plastic with thin wispy strands of nylon covering my food.
And that’s how bad design ruined my lunch.
Comment by configurator on December 1, 2010
Have you tried changing the filter in your range-hood? I have one of those, with no vent or chimney, and the air coming out from the top is completely clear; my parent’s house also has the same set up.
I did have similar experiences with the smoke alarm because I constantly forget to turn the range-hood on (and I hate the noise it makes as well). Then a tall flatmate – tall enough to turn the alarm off without a ladder – joined me at the flat, and the alarm stopped going off. I was happy and assumed the battery was dead until one day he was gone when I cooked… It went off again.
Comment by Julian on December 2, 2010
An interesting question. I will check that out and give the filter a clean. Maybe the filter is enough to stop the smoke alarm.
But having even clean hot air blown into your eyes while cooking isn’t very pleasant, so I don’t think this will solve the problem.
Clearly the kitchen was designed for someone far shorter than me. Apparently, I am too tall for housework.
Comment by Chris on December 2, 2010
Perhaps you can attach a plastic container to the end of the mop and cover the smoke alarm with one hand while wielding a spatula in the other. This way you can cook a meal, and practice an entertaining juggling performance at the same time.
I have seen people tie a long string around the battery with the cover open so they just have to find a chair to stand on to easily yank the battery out of the alarm on such occasions. However, your battery terminals may vary. You may have to hack your alarm to dangle a battery lead loop down into reach with a switch soldered on the end.
Comment by Bork Blatt on December 3, 2010
Problem 1: Your living space is designed to frustrate cooking.
Problem 2: You persist in cooking.
According to George Bernard Shaw “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”
Since you already have some “unreasonable man” suggestions, may I offer a “reasonable man” one? Fast food menus.