I’m actually kind of amazed that the failure mode for “toaster used sideways” is that it just catches fire. That’s one hell of a design flaw.
Is it a design flaw if someone uses the toaster in a way it’s clearly not intended for, and food touches the hot elements and catches fire?
Id say the design flaw is allowing it to function in that position at all. Put a gravity switch in there like space heaters have, so that it it tilts more than a few degrees it shuts off
This is an incredibly American attitude. The appliance clearly has a commonly occurring misuse that puts consumers at risk of burning their neighborhood down.
It would be a trivial addition to put a physical deadman’a switch on the bottom, exactly like what space heaters use.
The role of government and regulation is to serve and protect the people. I cannot believe you are unironically advocating that corporations should just put out whatever dangerous products they want with no repercussions just because there is one specific way to use it “correctly”.
Nevermind the million things that could happen. Cat knocks it over. Disabled or elderly person? Stoned college kid? Child?
I guess it’s all about pErSoNaL rEsPoNsiBilItY when it benefits you, and all about collectivism when it only benefits you huh?
There’s a thousand things that can destroy your house if you use them wrong. Leave the stove on, turn the gas on without lighting it, store loaded firearms in the oven, extension cord trees, breaker bypasses, tinker with any utility, any number of cleaning products, cars in general, water leaks, just leaving the water running, space heaters, portable generators, shorting the terminals on a battery, the list goes on.
And preventing the use of the toaster sideways won’t fix the problem anyway. People will still cram extra stuff in there, and overcooked toast can catch on fire without much provocation. Even just forgetting to clean the crumb tray can cause a fire. Trying to foolproof a toaster just gets you an incredibly expensive device that rarely works.
If you didn’t expect a machine that has very hot elements very close to your food to make such food burn if used wrongly, that’s on you.
I agree, but I feel like having the toaster itself catch fire could have been mitigated somehow.
Then you get to play the “asbestos flakes or salt?” game. Fun for the whole family!
