Toast
Maybe it's time to start an on-line wish-list. Or a how-do-I-fix-this list (with a nod to Kerri). My toaster died yesterday.
It's a special toaster, with a single opening about 10 inches (25 cm) by 1.25 inches (3 cm). I bought it a few years ago at a flea market, and it's been good to me the whole time. It is my primary cooking utensil, given that my diet consists mainly of salad in either a tortilla or a pita, and that both of those breads are too large to fit in a normal toaster, but do very nicely in this one.
It failed yesterday, with great arcing and sparking, while I was toasting a flour tortilla. Consequently I didn't eat much today - mainly peanut butter on cream crackers - until I decided that enough was enough, and fired up the god-awful gas grill on top of my stove/cooker.
This gas grill is a nuisance in that it takes several minutes to arrive at a decent toasting temperature, and given that the flames are shooting out of the back of the grill, it cooks the back edge of the toast long before the front edge. So I have to rotate the toast back to front.Then I have to turn the toast over and go through the same process. There's never a nice, even toasting job.
This is just the way people like to do things in Britain. It's cute, but not that clever. Grills are still way more prevalent than widemouth toasters, lemme tell ya. Go ahead, prove me wrong. Of course, there are not many pita and tortilla eaters here. You can buy a pita and flour tortillas in a shop, but when it comes to toasting it, well, I guess most people use their grill.
Back to the main story
I fired up the grill, burned a tortilla, put some salad in it, and was - as if by magic - no longer hungry. This was fine until a few hours later when I really had had enough crackers and peanut butter. So I decided to see about fixing the toaster. First, I checked the 13 amp fuse. It's fine. Not a good sign. I took the toaster apart. No small feat, given that the manufacturer screwed it togethr with some very nonstandard fixings. I resorted to the Dremel tool in extracting the screws. Once I had the thing open, I tested the electrical points and found them to be conductive. I cleaned them just to be sure, then plugged it in, pulled the lever, and waited to see if it heated up. It didn't.
I looked more closely at the innards. There was a funny blister on a piece of insulation, which is where the fault had occurred, melting something in the process. This particular piece of insulation looks like it might be a protective cover for something conductive.
I haven't been able to figure it out. So I'm still toasterless. I'll be burning tortillas on the gas flame until I can get the thing fixed or replaced.
It's a special toaster, with a single opening about 10 inches (25 cm) by 1.25 inches (3 cm). I bought it a few years ago at a flea market, and it's been good to me the whole time. It is my primary cooking utensil, given that my diet consists mainly of salad in either a tortilla or a pita, and that both of those breads are too large to fit in a normal toaster, but do very nicely in this one.
It failed yesterday, with great arcing and sparking, while I was toasting a flour tortilla. Consequently I didn't eat much today - mainly peanut butter on cream crackers - until I decided that enough was enough, and fired up the god-awful gas grill on top of my stove/cooker.
This gas grill is a nuisance in that it takes several minutes to arrive at a decent toasting temperature, and given that the flames are shooting out of the back of the grill, it cooks the back edge of the toast long before the front edge. So I have to rotate the toast back to front.Then I have to turn the toast over and go through the same process. There's never a nice, even toasting job.
This is just the way people like to do things in Britain. It's cute, but not that clever. Grills are still way more prevalent than widemouth toasters, lemme tell ya. Go ahead, prove me wrong. Of course, there are not many pita and tortilla eaters here. You can buy a pita and flour tortillas in a shop, but when it comes to toasting it, well, I guess most people use their grill.
Back to the main story
I fired up the grill, burned a tortilla, put some salad in it, and was - as if by magic - no longer hungry. This was fine until a few hours later when I really had had enough crackers and peanut butter. So I decided to see about fixing the toaster. First, I checked the 13 amp fuse. It's fine. Not a good sign. I took the toaster apart. No small feat, given that the manufacturer screwed it togethr with some very nonstandard fixings. I resorted to the Dremel tool in extracting the screws. Once I had the thing open, I tested the electrical points and found them to be conductive. I cleaned them just to be sure, then plugged it in, pulled the lever, and waited to see if it heated up. It didn't.
I looked more closely at the innards. There was a funny blister on a piece of insulation, which is where the fault had occurred, melting something in the process. This particular piece of insulation looks like it might be a protective cover for something conductive.
I haven't been able to figure it out. So I'm still toasterless. I'll be burning tortillas on the gas flame until I can get the thing fixed or replaced.
posted by d3 @ 12:45 AM
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