Gas Safety: Your advice, NEFF cooker is this just us being careless or not?

[365drills]

Situation:

I own a lovely sleek contemporary NEFF GAS hob its about 3 years old. And of course during the use of this appliance we will put a pan on to "simmer" or its lowest setting.

However on a couple of occasions my wife and I have forgot to turn off the burner. If you look at the photos below you can see how this mistake is being made.

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker1.jpg
Above is a wide shot of the cooker and its controls. Looking at it front on there is nothing to spot its been left on.... The controls appear to be "off" but the gas is there burning... So whats going on?

Its actually to do with the style of the knobs!

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker3.jpg
Look closely at the 5 knobs. You can see they are almond shaped and in symmetry with each other. However the second one is actually "on" the rest are "off".

The situation is caused when the knob is turned downwards to simmer the food. When the knob is turned downwards they actually line up again and so it looks like they are all off. The gas flame is very week so difficult to spot.

Its then very easy to walk away forgetting about it.

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker2.jpg
This is a closeup of the burner.. The gas is barely alight so difficult to see.

Question:
Is this just operator error? In other words is it just forgetfulness to turn off the cooker. Or does the manufacture have a duty to make it more obvious the burners are live.
1) Should they have a blue or red glowing lamp on the front to show its on?
2) Should they change the knobs so when turned a painted colour shows up?

Or is this just the effect of consumer demand for the contemporary "minimal" design the thing people look for in appliances?

Should I write to NEFF to point this out? Or will it just get binned. This is not exaclty watchdog stuff.

All that happened was that the cooker was left on for TWO DAYS. My wife finished cooking at 7pm. We shut the house up at 11am and went to bed. She got up for work the next day. It wasnt until late the following afternoon that having walked past it many times I finally spotted it!

Be interested to see what you thing is the route cause.

 

[newbie1]

are you actually serious
the dials have marks on them to indicate their position ime amazed you havnt figured it out you dont even have to lookm close to see one of them is on

 

[jpm]

Situation:

I own a lovely sleek contemporary NEFF GAS hob its about 3 years old. And of course during the use of this appliance we will put a pan on to "simmer" or its lowest setting.

However on a couple of occasions my wife and I have forgot to turn off the burner. If you look at the photos below you can see how this mistake is being made.

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker1.jpg
Above is a wide shot of the cooker and its controls. Looking at it front on there is nothing to spot its been left on.... The controls appear to be "off" but the gas is there burning... So whats going on?

Its actually to do with the style of the knobs!

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker3.jpg
Look closely at the 5 knobs. You can see they are almond shaped and in symmetry with each other. However the second one is actually "on" the rest are "off".

The situation is caused when the knob is turned downwards to simmer the food. When the knob is turned downwards they actually line up again and so it looks like they are all off. The gas flame is very week so difficult to spot.

Its then very easy to walk away forgetting about it.

http://www.*********.com/jpgs/z_cooker2.jpg
This is a closeup of the burner.. The gas is barely alight so difficult to see.

Question:
Is this just operator error? In other words is it just forgetfulness to turn off the cooker. Or does the manufacture have a duty to make it more obvious the burners are live.
1) Should they have a blue or red glowing lamp on the front to show its on?
2) Should they change the knobs so when turned a painted colour shows up?

Or is this just the effect of consumer demand for the contemporary "minimal" design the thing people look for in appliances?

Should I write to NEFF to point this out? Or will it just get binned. This is not exaclty watchdog stuff.

All that happened was that the cooker was left on for TWO DAYS. My wife finished cooking at 7pm. We shut the house up at 11am and went to bed. She got up for work the next day. It wasnt until late the following afternoon that having walked past it many times I finally spotted it!

Be interested to see what you thing is the route cause.

I would say turn it's a windup.

 

[Puddle]

I think the problem is that your wife is to keen to get into the bedroom and the comfort of the newly installed B&Q air condition unit ,providing all round climent control....mmmmm
The solution is to be firm but fair tell her the air con will not be put on until all household tasks are done and fully checked by a male credit control officer,such as yourself, if it Is found household tasks not completed correctly or appliances left on, she will have to sleep in the spare bedroom with Aunt Gladis and her bowl problem, this usually corrects the situation and would be surprised if you find hob left on again
Failing above get yourselves to spec savers
ps can you cut the expanded foam out from around your window sills and point up correctly

 

[jonathanb]

Yeah lol! shoud've gone 2 spec savers!

 

[Bernie2]

What if the person is visually impaired?

To be symmetrical is okay but without some kind of a lump or bump for a visually impaired person to feel to know its on or off it could be a bit of a hazard.

 

[365drills]

Well this IS ONE photo that might shed some light on the forgetfulness...