Appliance Repair Wisdom for the Ages

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Big Ed wrote:

Used my cheap MagicChef Gas Oven to heat the house for about a week, (after the wall heater went out). Now it won't burn over 275/300 degrees. Even then, it takes 15 minutes to light.

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The only thing "big" about Big Ed is that space between his ears. Heating your house with a gas range is one of the most stupid and dangerous things you can do. Why? Two words: carbon monoxide (abbreviated as CO).

For some background information on CO, its health effects and exposure limits, check out this OSHA fact sheet on carbon monoxide. I've summarized the main health effects and CO exposure limits in the table below. The CO exposure limits are listed in PPM, which means parts per million. Don't worry about what this means, all you need to know is that PPM is a common way of expressing the amount of a contaminate, like CO, in the air.

Now, after reviewing the above table, here's a Fun-Fact-to-Know-and-Tell that'll blow your mind: manufacturers are allowed to make ovens that give off up 800 ppm of carbon monoxide from the bake burner. Look in the table above and read about the health effects of CO at 800 ppm. Hello? Is this thing on?

Ok, I know what you're saying. You're wondering, "Well, Dr. Samurai, if breathing 800 ppm of CO for 2-3 hours will kill you, how is it that Big Cranial-Void Ed lived to write you an email about his gas range problem?"

Maybe his trailer is extra drafty and dissipates CO quickly. Maybe he didn't spend much time in the kitchen where the concentration of CO would be the highest. Maybe the CO really did give him headaches, dizziness, and nausea but he thought it was because his mother-in-law was visting. Maybe he's a neanderthal and is already clinically brain-dead. Who the hell knows? Bottom line: pure dumb luck. To paraphrase Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, "Do you feel lucky, punk?"

1 Comments:

Hey Samurai guy,
I'm building a small cabin and am wondering why with the CO hazard of ovens and all of us people who want to heat with our ranges, is there a range that is vented and capable of heating a small cabin, or supliment heat?

By  Ben, at September 03, 2007 3:00 PM  

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