Stove Guard appliance timer and motion detector lowers the risk of range fires

An estimated 47,000 residential fires a year start on rangetops, injuring more than 2,400 people, killing about 80, and causing $135 million in property damage, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Many of those fires start when someone leaves the kitchen with food still cooking on the stovetop.

For many years, representatives of Underwriters Laboratories, Consumers Union, the nonprofit publisher of this magazine, and appliance makers worked together with the CPSC to find a technological solution such as heat sensors that would turn off burners before the food in a pot or pan ignited. But according to a CPSC spokesperson, the agency has refocused its efforts on other “high-priority flammability projects.” The CPSC did add that it would revisit the issue in the future when it has sufficient resources.

Meanwhile, a small distributor of security products in Saskatchewan, Canada, is making and selling a safety device that serves much the same purpose, at least for owners of electric ranges and cooktops. The Stove Guard, a $299 automatic timer and motion detector, shuts off the elements and the oven if there is no motion near the appliance after a preselected time period.

How it works. Stove Guard has three easy-to-program settings. The first, “on/auto,” turns power off to the burners if there is no motion near the range after a specific period of time. You set the time, anywhere from 1 to 39 minutes. The second setting, “on/timer,” turns power off after a preset amount of time, up to 99 minutes, regardless of motion. An adjustable sensing level keeps the device from turning the range back on because of a child’s or a pet’s movement. Pressing the “off” setting returns the range to its regular use.

In our tests, the Stove Guard worked exactly as advertised. But proper installation and maintenance are crucial. Mount it too close to the stove and steam from boiling liquids in pots can interfere with its use, as it did in our tests. Once mounted, simply unplug the electrical cord to your range and plug it into the Stove Guard. Then plug the electrical cord from the Stove Guard into the wall outlet. It’s also important to periodically clean the sensor to minimize grease buildup, which diminished the Stove Guard’s sensitivity in some of our tests.

Comments

[Arthur]

Waste of money! Arrived non-working. Poorly built, looks cheap and not-reliable. and cost that much? hmm..