kewb Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 I can barely bring myself to leave with the Crockpot cooking while I'm gone. There is NO way I could leave the oven on. Add me to this camp. I have left the house with the oven on to pick up one of my kids somewhere local and I know I will be back within 20 minutes but I am uncomfortable the entire time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iquilt Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 It's interesting, but I would never leave my oven running while I was away, yet I use my crock pot and my clothes dryer all of the time while we are gone. Is that safer? My MIL once had a fire from her dishwasher but I still run ours at night while we are all sleeping and more vulnerable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UrbanSue Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 Nope. Would never leave an oven running, gas or electric, if no one was home. The only exception was leaving the gas pilot light on to make jerky. I'm not sure how newer gas ovens work, but we always had to light ours. It was ancient. It sounds like you don't have this oven anymore, but you should know that most stoves with a pilot light need to have the pilot light lit at all times. The gas is always "running" and letting the pilot light go out will fill your house with gas which is far more dangerous than any risk of fire from a lit pilot. Maybe there were models where you first lit the pilot and then the burner. I've had 9 or 10 gas stoves in my life, some of which were quite ancient but I've certainly not seen them all. I'd just hate for anyone unfamiliar with how gas stoves work to read this thread and do something dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabi Sabi Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 If I had to babysit my appliances our laundry and dishes would never get done! We live in an older home with a slow septic system and very low water pressure. So, only one source of water can be used at a time (no showering and doing laundry at the same time!) and we have to wait a few hours in between dishes/showers/laundry so the septic won't back up. Most days we're home all morning, doing classes and activities in the afternoon, home in the evenings for dinner and I work FT on the weekends. Dishes and laundry usually get turned on as we're leaving the house- turn on the dishwasher, set the timer on the washer for a few hours out, and done. If needed laundry and dishes also get started to run during the overnight hours. It is what it is. I'm not worried about flooding- our washer is in the unfinished basement with a drain in the floor. The washer discharges into a utility sink and if the drain gets clogged with lint/leaves/whatever (as it occasionally does) the sink will overflow. Worst case scenario? That's why we pay for homeowner's insurance, IMO. I fail to believe that letting a washer run without you directly supervising it counts as gross negligence. The same thing could happen while I was home and in another part of the house. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hwin Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 A neighbor of ours left her washer running when she wasn't home. The hose popped off and water went all over the place. It came pouring through our ceiling and did an insane amount of damage. It was several months before it was completely fixed. Had she been home it could have been stopped much sooner. I simply don't have money to deal with "what ifs". So it's a simple precaution to me to be home while major appliances are running. You just never know. This happened to us but our washer wasn't running. It didn't do a ton of damage though, because we weren't gone long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisbeth Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 Anyone know if this is true? My dishwasher takes two hours to run and I usually have to run it twice a day. If I had to stay home for this, I would never leave the house! My best friend was running her dishwasher and ran out for errands. Her husband came home for lunch and as he sat at the table the dishwasher started a fire that rapidly spread to the wall behind it. If he hadn't been home to deal with it, it would've been much, much worse. We don't leave dryers, dishwashers, ovens, or the like running while we are gone. I have another friend whose husband runs an insurance agency, and he has some horror stories. Just.not.worth.it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisbeth Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 It's interesting, but I would never leave my oven running while I was away, yet I use my crock pot and my clothes dryer all of the time while we are gone. Is that safer? My MIL once had a fire from her dishwasher but I still run ours at night while we are all sleeping and more vulnerable. From what I understand, leaving the dryer running is particularly unsafe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLDoll Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 I've had a washer hose burst on me before and cause tons of damage on three floors (it's upstairs near the bedrooms), so I don't run water appliances when I'm not home/awake. I generally don't run the dryer when I'm not home either. But my electric oven has a delayed start feature and an auto-off timer, and I have used that on a few occasions, usually if I'm taking the kids to the park or running an errand in the late afternoon, but never for more than an hour. I also will leave chicken stock simmering on the stove top overnight, and I don't think twice about using a crock pot when I'm gone for hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magnificent_baby Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 The only things I leave on when gone are washer and crockpot. I should know better because the motor burnt up on my last washer and filled the house with smoke, thank goodness we were home to unplug it. On a rare occasion, the oven only if cooking a roast slow, and after reading this thread I probably won't be doing that anymore. Try to run dishwasher only when home. It has leaked before and we have wood floors, so that could be disasterous. Interestingly, had a conversation with FIL right before this thread was started. He was flabbergasted and irritated that I did not use my self cleaning feature on the oven. I've never used this feature before, it makes me nervous, especially as the oven is a built into the wall. They turn theirs on and then leave the house for the day. :ohmy: He said if he would have known that, he would have done it himself when DH and I went to run and errand that day and they watched the kids. :mad: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lisbeth Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 The only things I leave on when gone are washer and crockpot. I should know better because the motor burnt up on my last washer and filled the house with smoke, thank goodness we were home to unplug it. On a rare occasion, the oven only if cooking a roast slow, and after reading this thread I probably won't be doing that anymore. Try to run dishwasher only when home. It has leaked before and we have wood floors, so that could be disasterous. Interestingly, had a conversation with FIL right before this thread was started. He was flabbergasted and irritated that I did not use my self cleaning feature on the oven. I've never used this feature before, it makes me nervous, especially as the oven is a built into the wall. They turn theirs on and then leave the house for the day. :ohmy: He said if he would have known that, he would have done it himself when DH and I went to run and errand that day and they watched the kids. :mad: If my FIL said that to me, I would never leave him home alone in my house/or with the kids, again. Mostly because, if he has blatant disregard for your safety rules, he will do other things against your wishes, too. Just sayin'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raceNzanesmom Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 Nope. Can't do it. I'll leave the CP on, that's about it. I had friends have a dishwasher fire and another had smoldering in their dryer. Both could have been devastating had they not been home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Excelsior! Academy Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 You all are making me feel really irresponsible. We run everything all of the time; granted nothing is gas except my furnace, but it continues to run when we are gone. Our dishwasher runs 3x per day minimum, same with the washer. If I had to babysit appliances we would never go anywhere. I have often left my oven on low with a roast or chicken for 2-3 hours while we were out, and haven't thought anything about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tullia Posted March 6, 2013 Share Posted March 6, 2013 My dishwasher control panel exploded while I was in the house a couple of years ago-I'm glad I was there to shut the breaker off. It could have started a serious fire. I'm afraid I do babysit appliances. However, you can never cover all the bases--just assess your comfort level and minimize risk. MIL's next door neighbors' toilet cracked and flooded the house while they were gone. The only neighbor likely to have seen the water flowing out of the house was MIL and she was with them at the time. :crying: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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