It ain't poltergeists: Cell phone activates oven
Ever have that sinking feeling that you left a major appliance running when
you left the house? Well you might not be paranoid: It may actually be on...
though not of your own doing.
Andrei Melnikov found that out the hard way: Something activated his oven,
causing it to turn itself on and melt a plastic meat thermometer which had
been left inside.
How did this happen? Melnikov and his Brooklyn apartment building's
skeptical super eventually figured it out through trial and error: The tenant's
ringing cell phone somehow turned on his nearby Maytag oven when it rang.
Calling the situation "highly unusual," Maytag (and other experts) blame the
problem on electromagnetic interference -- basically the same thing that
happens when your cell phone gets too close to your speakers and it starts
making that beep-beep-beeping noise. In this case, the interference didn't
make a sound but rather caused the oven to turn on.
And this may not be an isolated incident: The Times suggests that preliminary
experiments have confirmed that different brands of cell phones can activate
multiple models of Maytag ovens. And, as the story notes, the oven "prefers
high" and activates the broiler when it turns on -- which means anything
inside the thing is going to get totally fried. On the other hand, tests with a
General Electric oven failed to generate the same response.
Takeaways? It's hard to be a Luddite these days, but mysterious situations like
this are likely to become more and more common as advanced electronics find
their way into an increasing number of products. There's no special reason
why an oven or a toaster needs to have a computer brain so advanced, but
microprocessors have become so cheap it's probably easier to include one in an
oven than it is to include an old-fashioned, analog temperature control
system... and it's probably more accurate, too.
The bottom line: Always keep an eye out for oddball effects like this. If you see
something strange happening with the electronics in your kitchen -- or any
other room in the house -- consider how close your cell phone is when the
antics occur, and try a little home-grown experimentation for yourself. Hey,
maybe you'll make the
