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Comment by z2 | Hacker News Reader

Maybe an edge case, but ever since I've had people forgetting to turn off my stove, I've wished there was something like this that could trigger an alarm on either temperature or timer (say, heat detected on stove for over 2 hours). A peizo beeper could make a great addition!

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You should consider getting this product https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0863BFNWB/ref=pe_386300_4...

The canisters magnetically attach to your range hood, if there's a fire they pop open and spray a fire suppressing powder all over your stove. Very low tech, they only need to be replaced every 6 years.

I wonder what that powder is. My fire extinguisher uses a corrosive powder that is damaging to electronics especially. I think CO2 would be ideal from this point of view, but perhaps not efficient enough.

I wonder if I could make a poor man's version by filling a very thin plastic container like the kind used for bottle water and fill it with baking soda and attach it up there. If the heat melts the plastic, the powder will be dispersed and any flames will cause it to decompose, releasing CO2, hopefully snuffing them out.

Just install a 2-hour wall timer between the mains and the stove. Trigger the timer before cooking, it will cut the power to the stove after 2 hours (whether it is on or not). These timers are quite common in communal kitchens, e.g. in hostels. There are plug-in versions for devices like water boilers or clothes irons. No high-tech needed, always works. If you're broiling a mega-turkey you might want to restart the timer before it runs out, otherwise you won't notice it is there.

Won't work with gas burners, of course

It's not a million miles away from it though.

Typically gas stoves have a failsafe safety system that uses a thermocouple to keep the gas on only when there's enough heat.

If you used a timer to break that safety circuit (relay?), the solenoid will revert to it's safe state, and turn off the gas.

Doing that safely may be difficult. And doing anything with a gas installation may be illegal, depending on where you live.

In Australia this has only been legally required since 2017. My 2014 new house stove doesn't have it. Likely country dependent (I think more commonly it restarts the igniters instead of cutting the gas)

Sorry for the offtopicness but could you please email hn@ycombinator.com? I want to send you a repost invite.

A normally-closed gas solenoid valve is a readily available item for about $200.

https://www.mcmaster.com/gas-solenoid-valves/solenoid-on-off...

Combine with a countdown timer:

https://www.intermatic.com/Catalog/us/Products/In-Wall-Contr...

At ~$1200 DIY is a add-on fire suppression system for the range that would include a similar gas valve or contactor to shut down the range if fire suppression activated plus fire alarm klaxon and alarm system tie in possibilities.

https://guardianssi.com/

You can get those solenoid valves for around $20 online (e.g. [1]), that one is scandalously overpriced - a replacement coil costs $160...

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Beduan-Electric-Solenoid-Normally-Col...

McMaster tends to be that way, but it's got such a great catalog, that's why I end up there. I appreciate you forwarding the link for a more reasonable priced option.

At our company we have built a device which monitors your stove with an IR sensor and has an alarm for dangerous situations [0]. It does some processing on the sensor data - if it detects a dangerous situation it beeps loudly and sends you a text/call in case you are out. It can also guide you through recipes, currently there's only a small handful though [2].

We aren't entirely sure how to market it successfully though (there's an alternative landing page [1]), and the chip shortage is also affecting our ability to manufacture.

[0] https://mypippa.me/

[1] https://mypippa.me/pippa-saves/

[2] https://recipes.mypippa.me/

Nice idea for a product… one small piece of feedback from is is that whenever I see Kickstarter it is a big off switch for me.

I see it as a red flag for a product that may never actually launch.

Show me the product and let me order

Thanks for that feedback - the product is basically ready to go, the reason for Kickstarter was to get pre-orders to get enough capital to pay for a larger manufacturing run. Of course, it's quite possible to take pre-orders without using Kickstarter, so that may be a better route.

This sounds outstanding, and probably quick to design / cheap to add to BOM. Will try to get it in an upcoming revision. A simple solution may be to trigger it if the temperature gets very hot - ie the sort of temp above what you'd use for normal cooking, but could happen if the skillet is left unattended. Might be able to come up with something more sophisticated too. Eg above a certain temp for an extended time.

I wonder why stoves / ovens even have a “stay on forever” mode, let alone have it as the only mode. The microwave model of “be on this power for this duration and then beep and turn off” seems much nicer...

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