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Comment by jcims | Hacker News Reader

Unrelated to the article, but I'm surprised how many new gas stoves do not have a flame interlock on the burner valve. I have a nearly new Samsung gas range, and if I twist the valve just a bit too far past the igniter stage, it will happily pump propane into my home until my 500 gallon tank runs empty.

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> Unrelated to the article, but I'm surprised how many new gas stoves do not have a flame interlock on the burner valve.

In Germany, it's (mostly) mandated by law to have these (see §4 FeuV for example: https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/BayFeuV2008-4), the only exception is when there's a powerful forced air ventilation system present and operating. Can't remember ever not seeing an interlock as a result, even the cheap IKEA gas stoves have one.

The Kenmore stove that was installed here has the ignition feature past the 9 levels of gas you can choose to release. That means to even get a flame going there would have to be wasted gas pushed into the air, and a lot of times it does not even light for several seconds, which usually leads to a following smell.

There is no way to make a stove safe in the face of incorrect usage. I wouldn't be able to judge whether flame interlocks should be mandatory without any statistics about the frequency of this type of accident.

Sure. The risk is low, it just seems unusual given the tendency to wrap everything in five layers of liability reduction features.

It seems society's tolerance for mortal danger depends more on the cause of the risk than its magnitude. I guess the occasional gas accident is one of the acceptable reasons for people to die.

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