I Hate New Ovens

[jyl]

In Los Angeles. Went to a friend’s house to make dinner for him and his brother/sis-in-law and a couple other friends. My friend is paraplegic, has been bedridden for the better part of two years with various issues, not least that his caretakers feed him packaged food so he’s desperately unhealthy, but he’s just starting to get into his scooter a little, has been isolated so this dinner was kind of important.

I deboned and prepped two chickens to roast in his new Haier oven, my wife made the rest of the dinner. I get the baguette and chickens into the oven, set to 350F, after a bit decide to up temp to 375F and take out the baguette.

Wait. Why is the oven locked? What’s this symbol “P” mean? Why doesn’t the damn touchscreen respond?

Get the manual, look through it, on page 30 it says “P” means “self-clean cycle”. Of course it does, everyone knows “P” means “self-clean”. The door is locked, the oven is headed toward 500F, and the touchscreen controls remain non-responsive. ****. The baguette is starting to blacken. Frantically read the manual. There is no way to turn off self-clean or unlock the door. People are about to arrive. The baguette is smoking.

Find the panel, switch the oven circuit off then on. Do this a couple times. The “P” disappears but the door is still locked. Wait twenty minutes. People are here. The door finally unlocks. Having no idea how much roasting the chicken has done by now, I throw out the blackened baguette and slap the chicken into a pan, brown it, find some corn starch, make a quick gravy to cover up whatever the chicken tastes like.

It turned out pretty dang good actually.

I hate modern appliances. I hate the people who design the UI for them. I hate the people who write the manuals for them. They are all sadistic retards.

[masraum]

Wow! At least you were able to serve some food, and didn't have to resort to pizza/chinese/takeout.

That's a great story with a happy ending.

[Zeke]

No human error? I use gas so no worries.

[cstreit]

CAn't shut off self cleaning mode? THat seems like a house fire waiting to happen.

[brp914]

Similar with my Bosch. I rarely use it and have to get the manual out every time. So, I put a pizza in and punch in 400 on the keypad and Enter. Not good enough, it wants to know Mode. What mode!? Cook the damn pizza - that mode.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Zeke

No human error? I use gas so no worries.

Here’s what I think happened.

There are up and down arrow symbols on the touchscreen, to cycle through the cooking modes - broil, roast, convection roast, bake, etc. As you cycle through, the “box” symbol that represents the oven displays additional symbols that show what mode you’re in. A line inside the upper part of the box means broil, a fan in the box means convection, two lines means something else, etc. There are NO WORDS showing the cooking modes, it is all abstract symbology.

One of those symbols is a “P” that appears outside the box. That means “self-cleaning”. But there’s no way to know it means self-cleaning, unless you read page 30 of the manual. The earlier pages that show the cooking mode symbols don’t mention “P”, the diagram of the controls and display doesn’t mention “P”, the troubleshooting takes at the back of the manual don’t mention “P”, the only place where you’ll learn that “P” means self-cleaning is on page 30.

Suppose you are cycling through the cooking modes, and are puzzled about what a symbol means, or get distracted trying to set the temperature, or your attention is pulled away by something else going on in the kitchen. And suppose the mode display happens to be displaying “P” when you get distracted. And suppose your distraction lasts for six seconds.

Well you’re now TOTALLY effed, because self-cleaning starts automatically if the “P” symbol has been displayed for FIVE seconds.

At six seconds, the oven door locks, temperature starts climbing to 500F, which it’ll hold for two hours. There is no step where you confirm you want self-cleaning to start, assuming you even know “P” means self-cleaning. And no way to stop or cancel self-cleaning or open the door to retrieve whatever is inside.

Short of finding the electrical panel and switching off the circuit the oven is on, then waiting for the oven to decide it’s cool enough to unlock the door, your ignorance of the “P” symbol and your six seconds of waylaid attention have totally effed your meal. Maybe worse - running self-clean with two whole chickens in the oven has got to be a bad thing, to fill your house with smoke at minimum.

There’s other weird stuff. After you switch the circuit back on, you can’t use the oven. The controls will be unresponsive until you set the clock - the time touch control is responsive, you have to touch that then hold “-“ until the time display increments from 12:00 down to 5:34. No, you can’t increment up with the “+” button. That’s in page 12 or something like that of the manual. But that’s just irritating and mildly stupid.

[GH85Carrera]

Yea, all modern appliance have a touch screen, and a motherboard that is not serviceable, it has to be replaced for crazy money.

But they all want to talk to the internet! WTF.

And there certainly needs to be a shut down self cleaning mode. Humans will at some point put in food to be cooked, not burned to a crisp, or decide to self clean when you want to cook a meal now not in 90 minutes after the cleaning cycle is over.

I always loved the Phyllis Diller line: My oven is so dirty, I have to cook just one cupcake at a time!

[Jolly Amaranto]

Same thing happened here with our electric oven about 30 years ago. My mom was visiting and helping out in the kitchen. Shoved a meat loaf in the oven after pre-heat. There was a lever on the front above the oven door below the range for self cleaning mode. Mom pulled the lever all the way over and it locked everything up. I pulled the breaker and it was still all locked up. I raised the range top and was able to jimmy the lever lock. Self cleaning never worked after that but so what.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by brp914

Similar with my Bosch. I rarely use it and have to get the manual out every time. So, I put a pizza in and punch in 400 on the keypad and Enter. Not good enough, it wants to know Mode. What mode!? Cook the damn pizza - that mode.

it's not a microwave. Ovens have always had at least 2 modes, "bake" and "broil".

[masraum]

Originally Posted by jyl

Here’s what I think happened.

There are up and down arrow symbols on the touchscreen, to cycle through the cooking modes - broil, roast, convection roast, bake, etc. As you cycle through, the “box” symbol that represents the oven displays additional symbols that show what mode you’re in. A line inside the upper part of the box means broil, a fan in the box means convection, two lines means something else, etc. There are NO WORDS showing the cooking modes, it is all abstract symbology.

One of those symbols is a “P” that appears outside the box. That means “self-cleaning”. But there’s no way to know it means self-cleaning, unless you read page 30 of the manual. The earlier pages that show the cooking mode symbols don’t mention “P”, the diagram of the controls and display doesn’t mention “P”, the troubleshooting takes at the back of the manual don’t mention “P”, the only place where you’ll learn that “P” means self-cleaning is on page 30.

Suppose you are cycling through the cooking modes, and are puzzled about what a symbol means, or get distracted trying to set the temperature, or your attention is pulled away by something else going on in the kitchen. And suppose the mode display happens to be displaying “P” when you get distracted. And suppose your distraction lasts for six seconds.

Well you’re now TOTALLY effed, because self-cleaning starts automatically if the “P” symbol has been displayed for FIVE seconds.

At six seconds, the oven door locks, temperature starts climbing to 500F, which it’ll hold for two hours. There is no step where you confirm you want self-cleaning to start, assuming you even know “P” means self-cleaning. And no way to stop or cancel self-cleaning or open the door to retrieve whatever is inside.

Short of finding the electrical panel and switching off the circuit the oven is on, then waiting for the oven to decide it’s cool enough to unlock the door, your ignorance of the “P” symbol and your six seconds of waylaid attention have totally effed your meal. Maybe worse - running self-clean with two whole chickens in the oven has got to be a bad thing, to fill your house with smoke at minimum.

There’s other weird stuff. After you switch the circuit back on, you can’t use the oven. The controls will be unresponsive until you set the clock - the time touch control is responsive, you have to touch that then hold “-“ until the time display increments from 12:00 down to 5:34. No, you can’t increment up with the “+” button. That’s in page 12 or something like that of the manual. But that’s just irritating and mildly stupid.

That's a seriously fubar stove. I'm sure it's a fine stove, but as soon as you said "Haier" my brain thought "there's the problem."
I think they are a huge brand out of China and have bought some previously high end brands. I know that not everything out of China is bad, but the whole "cheap copy/rip-off" think is so pervasive, that it is automatically where my mind goes. Then you've got the various other issues, corruption, lack of standards for safety (or they exist but aren't followed), IP theft, civil rights violations, etc...

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by brp914

Similar with my Bosch. I rarely use it and have to get the manual out every time. So, I put a pizza in and punch in 400 on the keypad and Enter. Not good enough, it wants to know Mode. What mode!? Cook the damn pizza - that mode.

Ah ha. I was right to get rid of my new Bosch oven. It was complicated and for a rental house. I didn't want tenants phoning me and asking how to turn on the ferkin oven.

Some friends have got a Smeg. The guy is very smart, sells electronic equipment for a job. He hasn't quite got it figured out.

[jyl]

https://products-salsify.geappliances.com/image/upload/s--z6eZPVo5--/d00a2f7aae9db5b4f8fd56a8d8ee88e7b115510c.pdf?_ga=2 .202815825.1158818385.1680223296-826845105.1680223296


Here’s the manual for the oven.

No mention of “P” or self cleaning mode until page 31. No warning that if “P” appears and you don’t get it off the screen in five seconds, self cleaning will start and cannot be stopped and the door will be locked.

I feel like I should contact a consumer product safety agency or something. Give Haier a reason to improve its UI.

[stevej37]

I have a problem with skimming titles or headlines.
I keep reading it as "I Hate New Orleans"

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Ah ha. I was right to get rid of my new Bosch oven. It was complicated and for a rental house. I didn't want tenants phoning me and asking how to turn on the ferkin oven.

Some friends have got a Smeg. The guy is very smart, sells electronic equipment for a job. He hasn't quite got it figured out.

The missus had considered a SMEG retro styled fridge, and probably oven too, but we ended up going with something else.

[TimT]

My stove, 1941 Chambers Model B

I found a source for refurbished and NOS parts.... I'm going to be swapping some parts soon...

[masraum]

Originally Posted by TimT

My stove, 1941 Chambers Model B

I found a source for refurbished and NOS parts.... I'm going to be swapping some parts soon...

Hah! We bought (not yet in use) a 1948 model BZ.

What's your source for parts?
Photo from the for sale ad of the stove that we purchased.

[TimT]

What's your source for parts?

The Stove Lady

The website used to be better..

If you need a part she probably has it

[JackDidley]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I have a problem with skimming titles or headlines.
I keep reading it as "I Hate New Orleans"

That is funny. I have a similar problem. Sometimes I think I read what I want to see, not what is there.

[stevej37]

^^^
Great minds think alike.

For me...the capitalized 'New' made me think it has to be New Orleans.


Those who didn't think that are clearly slackers.

[porsche930dude]

These big companies have too many enginerds to keep busy. Lately it seems like its better to buy the cheap stuff because its less complicated.