I have written about this before but I have an appliance phobia. I guess for me it is that I wish there was some way to turn the appliance off if necessary and, there isn't. I mean I can unplug it but you try getting it out of the space.

I think each appliance should have a switch other than the breaker. There are always too many bells and whistles that don't even make sense and sometimes I can't control.

So this week I got a brand new dishwasher. Encouraged by the fact that I have been able to use it successfully a few times I decided to explore all those other appliances that scare me. I will note I also found out this week that my dishwasher has a dedicated circuit with an on off switch. Never knew that before.

First up... the stove.

I went slow. Turning on each burner -- and off. All went well. I found out that it takes about 30 minutes for the burner to cool down... and I found that I can put my pot cover on top of the burner to keep from any kitties getting any burns. At no point did anything unusual happen. You can set the burners by H10, H9, H8, L1 etc... up or down.

But today I turned on the duel burner.

Ok sure fine.. I turned it on for about 1 second but unlike all the other burners... it seemed to turn off the red glow when I turned down the power. Ok sure, so I turn that one off. And despite doing so... it pops up... "HS" Ok, now to me.. this does not look like HS, it looks like H5. High use level five. It appears the burner has turned itself on again and is at the level of five (of 10)
Though it is still dark, it is warm.

No matter how many times I press "off" it doesn't go off. The burner is still hot to the touch. So I go down the pull the breaker. The light goes off. Phew. I assume it will just reset.

Nope... when I come back the "HS" is still there. I am about to freak out. But I get a call from a telemarketer type thing... while I am talking with her.. the HS just goes off automatically.

Finally I figure out that it must have been something on purpose and I google it... eventually it leads me to HS instead of H5(five) and I realize this is purposeful. The oven will show that HS -- to indicate there is a "hot spot" on the oven.

OMG -- what kind of an idiot does not see that H5 and HS look almost the same. Why do I need that to tell me the burner is hot? And why didn't that show up on any of the other burners.

This is why I hate appliances. They just make NO SENSE.

Well at least I know where my breaker is.

The "Hot Surface" (HS) indicator should turn on regardless of which burner remains hot. If this is not happening there may be a wiring/fuse problem. I'd call the manufacturer and explain the problem.

Great that you did a bit of googling on that particular appliance as I think the answer to getting within your comfort zone is to learn all you can.

[marvin_pa]

Have to admit that in terms of industrial design employing both the H5 & HS codes on the same device is not a good idea...

At the risk of going into geek mode - there are wireless devices that you plug (or get wired into the circuits) that can be used to remotely turn off power to appliances, if that makes you anxious, or you're concerned about wasting electricity. Some can even monitor & report ongoing power consumption, so you can instantly know what's using how much power at any given time/period. If your oven has a clock, you might lose that if you completely remove the power, though.

Originally Posted by marvin_pa

At the risk of going into geek mode - there are wireless devices that you plug (or get wired into the circuits) that can be used to remotely turn off power to appliances, if that makes you anxious,

It would seem easier just to pull the breaker. But thanks for the suggestion.