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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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I know it's off topic but the stove design looks really weird to me. Why would you design a stove with all the knobs at the very back where they are hard to reach?
Only reason I can think is to prevent kids from touching them
100%. Electric ranges tend to have a lot of safety features built in and/or come with them. They also come with a clamp for the leg of the stove to be slid into so if a child were to climb on the door it wouldn't tip over.
And pets. I've got two fur monsters that like to jump on things when we're not around to correct, no matter how many times we've taught them not to. They won't do it when we're home, but as soon as we're away, counter surfing is the rule of the day, and with front-of-oven knobs on a gas stove we have come home multiple times to a small gas leak. We've taken to removing the knobs when it's not in use, which is fine but annoying. I'd much prefer back-of-oven knobs though.
Or butts at a crowded party.
They're not hard to reach for a normal sized adult.
But you're reaching over the hot parts. It's way more normal to have them at the front edge in front of the hot bits
You might disagree but walk into home depot, this style is plenty popular. I would say more popular when I was renting.
I'd rather have them at eye level easier to see from across the room and have them away from kids.
It's amazing how many people project their wants and needs based on their limited experience.
It's propably a local thing. The same stove design is not popular in every country. At some places every stove might look like this and at others people might have never seen such a thing.
You should probably mention that to the guy projecting.
Is home depot a generic name or do you mean the chain called Home Depot?
In the US and Canada (not sure about elsewhere), you only really see the buttons on the front if they're ADA accessible.
I'm assuming you're from Europe, and as such probably are using a gas stove. The front makes sense for gas because it's wasting a ton of gas to heat up air that goes around your food instead of into it. This means the air above the stove is really hot and will likely burn you, so the dials need to be in the front. For electric stoves, there's a lot less energy wasted. Almost all of the emerge goes directly into your pots/pans so the air above is relatively cool, unless you're boiling water or something. Having the dials in the back is easier to see while cooking and more childproof.
This explains why I, as an American who has really only known electric stoves both in my homes and friends homes, am more familiar with back controls, but the fancy cooks I watch on YouTube with gas ranges have them in front (though the cooks are still American). I kind of just associated front controls with “rich people stoves” which was a false equivalence since most of the online cooks I know happen to be rich but it’s the fact they’re gas stoves that makes the difference lol. I also follow one who has an induction cooktop with touch controls which seems kind of annoying.
Or "soviet people stoves"
I had same stove in same color
Never seen a stove with knobs on the front outside of restaurant kitchens. I've been in many houses of varying wealth levels, and never seen that unless in a residential kitchen.
This is regional thing. In Europe it is in front, which is of course superior. /s
American here and I agree. They even do trucks smarter. The boxy version makes it so much easier to judge spaces and distances down over the hood.
But of course, we have to be stubborn and ignorant, because we measure things in feet and fingers and spider legs and bags of salt.
If it's really big they always say how much of a Texas it is. As if anyone really has a good grasp of how big Texas actually is. After all even if you live there it's literally impossible to see all of it at the same time.
People are just bad at scale in general, even for objects we obstensively know about, it's just better to give the actual numbers in my opinion, like, off the top of your head without looking any of it up, is the Eiffel Tower bigger or smaller than the Empire State Building. And what is the difference, are we talking closer to 30 ft or 200 ft?
I agree it's better, but not normal. Most ranges are like this
*Most ranges in the very small part of the world you live in
You have to reach over hot bits in the front to get to hot bits in the back when cooking anyways... once again, for a normal sized adult this poses literally 0 risk of anything.
What if you don't have hot bits in the back? The design seems annoying
Yeah but reaching over a pan that is spitting oil everywhere because it's too hot is not fun.
I've never known a modern stove to have the controls anywhere else, and I've never really considered reaching over a pot or pan to turn the thing off. Most of the time, I'll take the pot or pan off the stove first so it doesn't burn. And if I am simply turning down the heat to go from boiling to simmering, I go around not over.
I can totally see where you're coming from tho. I grew up with this style; I've been tempered by the grease and steam of experience lol
That's really odd. I had never seen a stove with controls over and behind the hobs like this until today. If you just google "Stove" then 90% of the images are with the dials on the front, both home and commercial ranges. I don't think it's the norm to have controls positioned potentially hidden by superheated objects and seems like something that could even fall afoul of safety laws in the EU.
Try searching for "electric stove" and you'll see that 95% figure swap the other direction. I'm in the US and probably 95% of the stoves I've seen have the controls in the back like this one.
I'm guessing gas ranges are more common in the EU and more commonly have front controls but they aren't as common in the US. Our house has natural gas but only for the fireplace and furnace. The stove is electric. Of all the people I know, I think only one has a gas stove in their home.
I've only had electric stoves everywhere I've lived for the past 20 years of my adult life across various EU countries, along with every friend, family or airbnb I've stayed at. I didn't even know the controls could be positioned back there! It seems wild to me that could ever be the norm.
That's probably it. There's probably some EU law somewhere that says that this obviously dangerous design is dangerous and you can't have it, and then the US is like, we don't care about our citizens anyway, go right ahead.
Different views of dangerous—knobs in front are more easily turned on by children. So they both have their risks.
That's why most off them have to be "unlocked" first. Usually they need to be pushed inwards for a second and then they jjmp out and can be turned. It's realy just a regional thing between US and EU
Every electric stove I've used in my 30 years of life in Canada has had the knobs at the back.
It's common in America, especially with electric stoves. All gas stoves I've seen use the front, though.
This is what I was wondering. (Gas vs Electric) Wires are easy and cheap to route vs gas lines.
So small children can't reach them.
I have not seen a electric convection stove in 10 years. Aren't they all induction these days?
And my plate top have the controls digitally/touch sensitive area on the top itself
Hub, I've yet to live in a house with an induction stove. All electric ones have either been ancient coil ones or glass top convection stoves. Would love to get an induction one someday, though.
Induction requires ferromagnetic pans. Also, they pull a shit ton more power than standard electric why actually heating up the pan (their "efficiency" comes from getting there much faster and then not having to waste as much heat maintaining the temp). So, there are plenty of older buildings that are not wired to be able to handle induction. So, standard electric stoves are still very common.
What, you don't like your arm being incinerated when you go to turn the heat off?
What's wrong with you, that's the best bit.
It's induction and unless you are dragging your arm across the top the likelihood of burning yourself is nil.
To make them harder to reach so that you (or a child) don't accidentally turn one of the burners on when you don't intend to use it.
To burn your arms of course!
That's the standard location of stove/oven knobs.
This is a safety feature. US homes use gas in some of thier stove tops and there have been cases where toddlers have turned knobs to release gas into the house and there have been fires associated with pets and toddlers bumping into the knobs.
I've used both. Think it's more a style choice than anything.
Glad it's not just me, I've always thought this too. Surely you have to put your arms over the hot stuff?
It looks a bit old fashioned tbh. In Norway it's all separate tops and ovens. All the tops are induction and the controls are mostly touch sensitive areas on the top itself.