I think this is a safety function. You may not be able to turn off the stove yourself if something boils over, and the buttons get covered in hot liquid.
I've never seen one of these soft touch control designs on a cooktop but I did hear they existed and at least one cat had turned one on by standing on it resulting in a house fire. The only dumber idea I can think of is a touch screen, which I'm sure they're hard at work integrated right now.
Right, that's bad design.
The cooktop I'm familiar with always turns off and beeps if something (metal pots or a liquid) covers a part of the button area.
To turn it on, you have to press two different buttons within a certain time limit, with a pot standing on the appropriate cooking zone. Most cats probably won't manage to do that.
> The only dumber idea I can think of is a touch screen
Oh, don't get me started. We own an oven with a touch screen. It's pure idiocy. But the cooktop is actually very good IMO.
Cats responsible for 107 house fires in Seoul in past 3 yrs ... According to the Seoul Metropolitan Fire & Disaster Headquarters, cats are believed to have started the blaze by turning on the electric stove in the kitchen with their paws. ... Electric induction cookers often come with touch-sensitive buttons, which can be switched on by the paw of an animal.
That'd be my go-to panic resolve anyway
* For folks unfamiliar by this I mean it takes almost zero effort to turn the switch off, but takes a little bit of force to switch back on
If I'm honest I only noticed it because the last one I came across seemed to be wired upside down (easy on, resistant off) and I'm almost certain the house before had the same but wired the "right way"
Could just have been some rogue grease or something either lubricating or gunking up the switch haha