Gizmodo: stove

Cellphone Calls Fire Up This Guy's Maytag Oven

Sean Fallon — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:20:00 EDT

Surely you have heard rumors about cellphones wreaking havoc around electronics and flammables, but this guy claims that calls to his Sony Ericsson PDA (P910 perhaps?) light up his Maytag Magic Chef oven—and he has video to prove it.

When Andrei Melnikov's Sony Ericsson PDA is within about two feet of the stove, an incoming call will make the Maytag Magic Chef stove beep, and the digital display will light up, indicating that the broiler is on high.

Open it up and you'll see the gas flames streaming out of the broiler's burners as it begins cooking anything inside it in 500-plus degree heat.

A Maytag repairman acknowledged the problem and told Melnikov that he needed to order "a suppressor" that would take 7-10 days to arrive. He claims that that this is the first time Maytag has heard of the issue and they are currently looking into it. It's also the first time Melnikov has dealt with it in the years that his family has owned the stove and the phone. Still, a glitch like this is pretty damned unsettling. [1010 WIns via MyFoxDC via Fark]

Electrolux Mini Kitchen Includes Tablet PC and Probably Loneliness

Dan Nosowitz — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 14:00:00 EDT

Making dinner for two? Then move along. The Electrolux Personal Mini Kitchen concept is designed to hold the bare essentials for one person: A small silicon hotplate, a tiny soda-can-sized fridge, and a tablet PC.

The Mini Kitchen is designed for the growing numbers of young and single people in China, and features an all-in-one design including tiny facsimiles of a fridge, stovetop, and silverware. The "cook box" is sort of like a compartmentalized bento box that can be used for both cooking and serving, which is actually pretty clever. The tablet PC is a small netbook-type that is mostly intended for chatting (as it features a webcam) and looking up recipes. Unfortunately for all you single-and-staying-that-way types, it is just a concept for now, but it seems fairly marketable if the price could be kept down. [Yanko Design]

Retromodo: Electrochef All-In-One Kitchen Circa 1920

Sean Fallon — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 18:20:00 EDT

Designing for small spaces certainly isn't new—take this Electrochef all-in-one kitchen from 1920. It featured an adjustable height oven, four-burner stove and a small storage space hidden below. [Dornob]

Fisher & Paykel Izona Cooksurface: Gas Range Goes High-Tech

Kit Eaton — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:31:50 EDT

Fisher and Paykel have had a re-think of the humble kitchen range. Their new Izona Cooksurface looks more like a ceramic electric hob than a gas one, and dumps the four-burner pattern that nearly every other range uses. Though this gives you fewer cooking stations, it at least means you won't set your sleeves on fire reaching for the back ones anymore.

Most cleverly, it's got retracting pot supports, burners and controls, so when it's off its glass surface is easy to clean —handy for splash-it-all-around cooks like me. Add in extra-precise temperature control and LED displays, and you really do have a 21st Century gas cooking range. Sadly, it's a project and not quite ready for production yet, though it has just been shortlisted in the Australian International Design Awards. [MarkPascua]

Tripod Burner: Because Tripods Get Hungry, Too

Mark Wilson — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:30:48 EST

Here is another interesting design by Yu-ri Lee. For cooking on the go, why not build the heating element directly into the stand? And a tripod is a simple, folding solution to hold your pan/soon to be ruined camera.

With the level of resources large corporations have at their fingertips, why isn't there more interesting design in everyday products? Just look at the lower right of this diagram - not only can you cook up some hot dinner, but you can fight off hordes of vampires while doing it. –Mark Wilson

Bonfire Tripod Burner [uberreview]