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Comment by jjkaczor | Hacker News Reader

Still looking for a good "smart stove" for the mother-in-law who is showing early stages of Alzheimer's/dementia, but in complete denial and will not seek medical advice. So, I need something to be able to monitor it, turn it off, etc. LG or Samsung seem to be the only games in-town - I have also looked at a smart-plug capable of 220v, but - that "all-or-nothing" may be overkill.

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An induction stove doesn't answer your monitoring needs, but it's probably the safest thing to cook with. Only heats up when there's a pan, not prone to fires, ours even complains loudly if something unexpected is happening (eg lots of spilled liquid).

Every induction stove I’ve ever used though, was designed by someone who either has never heard of human interface design, or has done and entirely hates the concept of it.

Eg, buttons so close to the heating element that they hurt to press

Buttons to turn it off that only work when dry, places near where a spill would go.

Buttons you have to press up to 10 times just to get it to a reasonable heat.

Why does induction also have to equal no buttons, and no dials?

There is an ease of cleaning value that comes from a single unbroken surface.

That said - placement needs some work. Or put the UI in a phone.

Dials are easy to pop off and clean behind. What sucks with the flat buttons is they wear out in 10 years now you get cleaning solution behind the plastic into the internals.

I think the parents are mostly talking about touch buttons below the glass though.

I am very pleased with my induction stove controls:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhZjqhs8314

So easy to control and to clean, I shudder at the thought of cleaning fat splashed physical dials/buttons.

I like the Impulse Labs hob which has an unbroken surface and magnetic knobs that can be removed for cleaning.

This one is absolutely legit amazing, but the price, oof.

Pull out my phone to turn on the heat on my stove ? A simple and satisfying mechanical motion that’s in my muscle memory since forever ? Hard to express how much I would hate that !

LG has built induction models with knobs for years. The touch surfaces are nice but can be difficult for the elderly.

Yep the LG induction models have a sensible UI with big knobs. The oven is pretty good too IME.

Yeah there are admittedly lots of designs that make me scratch my head.

I housesitted at a very nice house with an induction stove and it was one of the most anti-human designs I've ever experienced in a stove. If I wasn't being as clean and tidy as possible for the sake of the homeowners I couldn't imagine how much worse it could've been as the entirely touch based interface added a whole other layer of frustration on top of the extremely confusing UX. I thought this was maybe unique to this stove but every other induction stove I've seen sold at appliance stores has had the exact same layout. I truly don't understand it.

I spent a year in a bunch of airbnbs and every time there was an induction hob it had at least one of these issues. I really like them otherwise but the buttons are just so bad.

Hobs built into the countertop are usually like that (and I hate them vigorously for the reasons you state), but freestanding furnaces (oven plus hobs) exist with big physical buttons. Since the buttons are on the front of your unit, the heating surface is still flat and easy to clean. Smeg makes nice ones, and I’m sure others exist.

Isn't a stove/cooker guard actually what you're looking for?

They're legally mandated in Norway, there's already a big section of them, some have Zigbee, like this one:

https://www.firefence.org/ https://www.bekkelund.net/2024/02/19/firefence-komfyrvakt/

I'm sure there are products in other markets too.

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