this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
611 points (99.0% liked)
Funny
13948 readers
962 users here now
General rules:
- Be kind.
- All posts must make an attempt to be funny.
- Obey the general sh.itjust.works instance rules.
- No politics or political figures. There are plenty of other politics communities to choose from.
- Don't post anything grotesque or potentially illegal. Examples include pornography, gore, animal cruelty, inappropriate jokes involving kids, etc.
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
When I read about people worrying about that, I always wonder how many people don't turn their oven off immediately before or after taking out the food they prepared in it?! Assuming that it's been a while since the last time you used it, why would it ever be on?
Now forgetting to properly turn the oven on (turning only one of the two knobs necessary to turn it on) when preparing food, that has definitely happened to me too a few times. :(
I believe it’s a holdover from older oven technologies. Like gas ranges with an always-on pilot light and manual gas on off pipe valves you were supposed to close before travel. IIRC those were the origin many historic city fires in dense housing, and the reason for a lot of current gas safety like the sulfur/bad-eggs additive that makes unburned gas an lot easier to detect.
But nowadays the worst that awaits those who return after forgetting the oven is generally… just a bigger utility bill instead of losing everything and maybe killing people.
Because some of us are so forgetty that we lose the thought to turn off the oven between grab food and set food down.
I personally haven't forgotten the oven-off, but for other things, many times.
Just yesterday i forgot to put the coupon in my pocket after reading it and so got to the place and realized i didn't have it. It was sitting right nect to where i pit my keys, but didn't make it into my pocket.
Brain no worky.
I've never forgotten to turn it on, but definitely forget to turn it off at times. Usually notice when I finish eating.
The reason why it gets left on is I usually am taking something out of the oven before I'm certain it's done, then an serving up a plate and forget to turn it off.
You could try the timer function to turn it off at whatever time it was supposed to be done? That way even if it finishes sooner and you forget, you know it’ll be off shortly. :)
Not all ovens have that. Pretty sure mine doesn't, though my induction hot plate does. And tbh it's kinda annoying because the timer finishing doesn't always mean it's done cooking, it might just mean time to add the next batch of ingredients or flip whatever is baking. But I've got two other timers on other devices within reach, so I just pick the most convenient one for the current objective (or just look at the time and try to remember on my own).
Sometimes when I'm sick and the brain fog is worse, I'll forget to turn off a burner, especially if I was using multiple burners, as I'll have turned off some at least.
But my husband knows and usually we see after an hour or so. Because of this though nothing flammable is ever even close to the stove. I also check before bed in case. I think he does as well.
That's why I love induction - this happened a few times to me as well, but since I always move the pots & pans off the hot plates, they turn off automatically.