Breadmakers – the best thing since sliced bread?

Hello Richard, great comment – it made us smile! So you’re our Comment of the Week and will be featured on our homepage for the next seven days 🙂 Congrats!

Hi Colin,

It’s great to hear you found the Q&A useful – we’ll be sure to let Patrick know his advice has already been put to good practical use!

Kelly

There is a small risk that electrical goods could cause a fire: http://www.spottedinely.com/faulty-bread-maker-caused-kitchen-fire-fire-service-says/ In addition to the advice provided, I suggest making sure that the breadmaker is not near to flammable materials. Some people push them to the back of the worktop, under wall cupboards, which adds to the risk of fire spreading.

“A faulty bread maker is thought to be responsible for a fire” reported 5 months ago. How many fires have been directly attributable to breadmakers that were of faulty manufacture?. We don’t want a round of unnecessary scare stories, surely.

I was simply providing some simple advice that could help raise awareness of the fire risk associated with using electrical appliances unattended. There is no scare story.

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There is a small fire risk associated with most mains-powered electrical equipment and a somewhat higher risk associated with tumble dryers and washing machines. Many are used in kitchens, which often don’t have a smoke alarm because these can be set off by cooking smoke.

Heat alarms are recommended for kitchens. In addition to a heat alarm I have a smoke alarm hanging on a picture hook in the kitchen. If it goes off when I’m cooking it is consigned to the dining room and then returned as soon as possible. It’s a minor inconvenience and if there was a fire I would want as much notice as possible. I have had a smoke alarm in my kitchen since the early 80s when I had to deal with fire in a neighbour’s kitchen. The heat alarm did sound but the fire was out by then. Hopefully modern heat alarms are more sensitive.

Perhaps we should have sprinklers in kitchens, particularly those in communal blocks, in case someone or something starts a fire?

I suggest first having a look at the advice from Which? http://www.which.co.uk/reviews/smoke-alarms/article/how-to-buy-the-best-smoke-alarms

I already have decent smoke alarms, permanently fixed – and a stick to turn them off when they tell me the toast is done. I wonder how many people ever test them and replace the battery? I also have a CO alarm in the boiler cupboard.

It is suggested the current beeping is inadequate to wake children if they go off in the night; ours are pretty penetrating so would be surprised if they failed to rouse them, One was demonstrated on tv news that speaks a message – “the house is in fire”. I wonder whether this is really as effective as is said.

Can the language be changed? People who don’t understand English might think it’s the DAB radio and not get up.

The best option is to have interlinked mains-powered alarms with battery backup, so that if one is activated they all sound. I replaced mine with louder ones.

Perhaps better if it played “Smoke gets in your eyes”. Incidentally, the message says “on fire”, not “in fire” (fat fingers). Apparently it is being put on trial.

New houses I believe have this as a mandatory buiding regs requirement – is that correct?

This was introduced in the early 90s for new homes. Here is some basic information and useful advice: http://www.fireservice.co.uk/safety/smoke-alarms/

I lived in a rented flat for a short period in the early 80s and that had heat alarms in the kitchen and lounge. I added a couple of smoke alarms. In my view, every room including utility rooms should have an alarm unless only used for storage.