Two years ago my husband and I completely renovated our kitchen. All the appliances were replaced, wiring was upgraded and surprisingly, we didn’t encounter any unusual electrical or plumbing issues with our 1970’s home. That is, until we found ourselves with a non-working oven. Four new ovens and five new glass touch panels later we finally discovered the problem.
All our other new appliances: tankless water heater, microwave oven, dishwasher, refrigerator, and electric cook top range were all working perfectly after installation. It was summertime and we weren’t using our oven much but we noticed that occasionally the oven would just turn itself on.
It’s the type of wall-mounted oven wherein you must turn the oven “on” then set the temperature before it actually starts warming up. If you turn the oven “on” and don’t set the temperature the oven beeps as a reminder. That’s what was happening: very randomly our oven would start beeping as a reminder for us to set the temperature. But we hadn’t turned the oven on. Why was it doing this? Additionally, when I did turn the oven on and set the temperature, the oven would turn itself off after eight minutes. It did this over and over again so I couldn’t complete a baking cycle.
Please bear with this saga…
Our first thought was that either the oven was faulty, or that the electricity was faulty, or both, so we contacted the appliance store and they delivered a replacement touch panel. The new style of glass touch control panel looked great but as there were no dials to turn we thought perhaps something was wrong with the electronics. Unfortunately the same problem continued after replacement. So the appliance distributor sent us a replacement oven. The delivery men (not the most competent) failed to put the oven shelf back in place properly and the second, brand-new oven dropped through the supporting shelf and landed on our new wood floors. Ouch.
So, the second oven was returned for obvious reasons and after replacing the oven cabinet unit we had a third oven delivered and installed. The exact same issues plagued this new oven so we tried two new glass touch panels; but the problem continued. A fourth oven was delivered with the caveat that the appliance store would thoroughly test this fourth oven in their showroom first, as well as test the third oven upon it’s return, just to see what was going on.
Meanwhile, we had two professional electricians come out and test the wires, upgrade the circuit box and make sure it wasn’t our house that was causing the problem. I’ll spare you the details of their thorough exam and testing. Needless to say the electricians did all they could and came to the conclusion that it was indeed the oven’s fault. The fourth oven arrived and even though it had operated perfectly in the showroom it failed to operate in our home, even with an additional replacement (twice) of the touch panels.
At this point I was mere moments away from going crazy. I had the electrician saying it was a bad oven, I had the oven guys saying it was bad wiring in the house. And all I wanted was a working oven! From the beginning both the appliance distributor and myself had been in communication with the manufacture. Had they ever heard of an issue quite like this? Did they have any suggestions? No, apparently we were quite alone in our madness. We came to the conclusion that we may just have to replace this oven with a different brand or model. Of course having spent so much time and money remodeling our kitchen so that it looked “perfect” the last thing we wanted to do was to be forced into selecting a new model whose door handle did not match all our other door handles. You design-minded readers know what I’m talking about.
Then one day I received a call from the appliance distributor asking me if I lived near a radio tower. As we lived in a major metropolitan city the answer was, “Of course!” There was one tower near us but it was located a few miles away. He mentioned that our particular situation had risen through the ranks of the oven manufacturer’s engineering department and as it turns out, radio waves can interfere with the delicate computer system in appliances such as our oven. Considering we’ve never had issues with any other electrical items in our home (TVs and computers seem to be particularly susceptible to radio wave interference) I thought this was a very unlikely scenario. But, being as we had exhausted all other possibilities the repair man came over with a simple insulating device for the oven’s control panel. And wouldn’t you know it, it worked! After months and months of agonizing phone calls, repair man visits, installations of four ovens and five control panels, we had a functioning oven!
Now, have any of you dear readers encountered a similar situation with your home? Have you ever been driven nearly crazy with a seemingly “possessed” appliance? Please vent, I mean, share!
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Do they make body insulators out of that material? I'd like one please...
insane! i've never heard of such a thing
I had a microwave that used to randomly start beeping in the middle of the night and display a series of "6"s on the digital screen. I'm not superstitious, but it was rather funny. I used to say it had a very uncreative poltergeist. After about 3 months of it happening on and off I replaced it.
If it happened to your oven, what else could this be happening to? My microwave has strange issues -- decided that the vent no longer worked after it was repaired (and nothing else was working). Repair person had said that the whole thing was installed improperly (?). If one lives in a city, hello!, we're surrounded by radio waves of all kinds - what else is being affected? I'd like to insulate my whole apartment!
My Kitchenaid dishwasher drawers (made by Fisher Paykel) can play the Star Spangled Banner and Ode to Joy. When it started doing it, I called customer service and they were as surprised as I was. I think some engineer put an Easter egg in the design. You can see it in action at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVhFyvySVtI
Not quite so expensive a story, but it nearly drove me crazy, too. I used to be the curator at a newly opened military museum. We bought a medium-priced but good quality cordless telephone for the office. I diligently programmed it with all the necessary information but invariably, it would go all wacky. I returned it twice.
I did not work at the museum every day, but one day I was there with one of the volunteers who wore a digital hearing aid, and when he answered the phone I "heard" it go nuts. The microphones/amplifiers/speakers on the hearing aid and telephone fed back through each other, and scrambled everything. As it turned out, well over half of our volunteers wore hearing aids!
I bought a regular, corded telephone the next day, and that solved the problem. This was a long time ago, and I think technology has solved this kind of problem, but for awhile I though I was losing my marbles.
I lived with my grandmother as a teenager and always got blamed for leaving the garage door open, but it would actually open by itself at random times of day and night, likely due to a nearby signal.
Oftentimes, getting the cheaper model with simple knobs is far better than spending money on the fancy touch-screens.
Touch Screens don't make your oven work better, they're more difficult to operate, and they're a PITA to fix when they go wrong.
That is completely wild. I think after all you went through the next step would be an exorcist.
That is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard. How is this not a more common problem in metropolitan areas?!?!
I recently threw away a brand new digital alarm clock for turning its radio on by itself. First time in the middle of the day, 2nd time at 3am. Buh-bye.
On another note, stories like these further underscore my inclination to keep my 50-year old oven and stove (both gas and original to the house) when we redo the kitchen. No electronics to break - just mechanical switches that clearly are built to last.
"He mentioned that our particular situation had risen through the ranks of the oven manufacturer’s engineering department and as it turns out, radio waves can interfere with the delicate computer system in appliances"
This actually gives me hope. Cheers to the folks behind the scenes actually thinking about this and providing an answer!
GOOD JOB!
I had a Sony Wega TV several years ago that was possessed. The "initial setup" screen would pop up - the first time it happened the TV was only a few months old but I just thought I'd accidentally sat on the remote or something, so I just hit the - button for "no," and everything was fine. Or so I thought. Several months later (and now out of warranty) it started happening again...but there was no way to make it go away, hitting the - button would remove the pop up for a few seconds and then it would come back. It was impossible to predict when this would happen and how long it would last, sometimes it would be fine for months and then be virtually unwatchable for a week. Unplugging the TV overnight seemed to help, strangely.
Finally, when the TV was less than 5 years old it went completely nuts. I was watching it one night when all of a sudden the "initial setup" screen started flashing, while at the same time cycling through the various modes (TV, DVD, VCR, AUX, etc.) AND cycling the volume up as loud as it would go! It was nonresponsive to the remote and the controls on the TV, so I had to yank the cord out of the wall. At that point, I replaced it.
And yes, I called Sony first - some internet research had informed me that this was a pretty well known problem with the WEGAs and there were lots of other people complaining about the same thing, but when I called them the first time ($600 TV at that point was only 1.5 years old), all I got was "sorry, you're out of warranty." Getting it fixed would have been at least $150 and I would have had to somehow get the 27" non-flatscreen WEGA into my car and to a repair place, so I gave up.
The silver lining was that I replaced it with a flatscreen HD Samsung, right before the Beijing Olympics, so it wasn't all bad.
I stayed away from a touch screen stove because I was worried one of the cats might turn it on. My kitchen island doesn't look as sleek with all those dang knobs popping up but I can sleep at night.
This is scary... you don't want an oven (or a stove) turning itself on. What an ordeal, I'm glad you found a resolution.
Touch screens are a pain! I've had 2 control panels short out (from oven steam/heat) on a Jenn-Air range in that many years; when the screen shorts out, the oven can't be used. Ugh!
I'm still laughing at the dishwasher that plays "Ode to Joy!" Posted that link on my Facebook page...
Can I ask what brand it was? We're getting all new Maytag appliances soon.
We need some insulation for ourselves with all this crazy stuff! If it can interfere with our appliances, it can't be good for our bodies!
Maytag is great choice! But recently I learn about a brand - Miele.
Does anyone has any experience with this brand?
I had a stereo that would turn on at random (the radio part). This would happen only in the winter and it was always a bit of a shock. We wondered if it was somehow picking up signals that the leafy trees were blocking the rest of the year.
Threecordme, we had the same garage door opener issue. I left for work after my wife did, and she got home before me. She'd scold me for leaving the garage door open all day. But I knew I'd closed it. I figured someone nearby had the same code. She didn't beleive me until her sister in Florida called to tell her the funny story of her and her next door neighbor having the same code.
On another note, thieves have been known to drive through neighborhoods pushing buttons on a number of garage door openers until they get a match, then clean out the garage or house.
My CD of Revolver would play only the background music to Eleanor Rigby (not the lyrics) in my room only, and for only that song. All other rooms/stereos, the album worked fine.
@86753oh9: That was hilarious!
I really love your cabinets, where are they from? Your kitchen looks really great and really functional.
My old microwave started turning on when you opened the door and off when you closed it.
Super scary.
The ceiling fan and light in our master bedroom would go on/off/dim/fan at any time. We live in a city and figured out the waves from cordless phones and radios were interfering with the wireless remote my husband installed.
I could've swear your house was haunted half way reading your story. This is so crazy!! But I guess it does make sense somehow.
My Vizio TV is also possessed. I am always very careful about turning off all appliances before I leave the house and I do double check (not 15 times). One day I came home, and realized my tv came back alive. I didn't think much of it, except maybe I just simply forgot it. This repeated for the next several days, and I was seriously having doubt of my ability of remember turning things off before I left the house. Then, just like how it started, it stopped. I still can't put a finger on it....
this is also a problem with Valor fireplaces and the pg and e smart meter in California.
The newer Kitchenaid microwave that came with our house, started turning on by itself one night. And on the control panel it would flash the word 'PAN'. Kinda freaky. The only way to stop the microwave from turning on was to unplug it. Apparently, with this particular model had this known issue where it would turn on by itself. Anyways, Kitchenaid replaced the control panel for free. So far this problem hasn't happened again. But I still unplug the microwave whenever the husband and I go on vacation. I just don't trust it.
Laffygirl my cousins have a Miele dishwasher in their kitchen. It is an open concept house with a living room connected to the kitchen. You cannot hear this dishwasher. Only the draining. I stood right beside it and could not believe how whisper quiet it is. There is a separate rack just for silverware and it washes wonderfully. I wish I could afford one of my own as my dishwasher sounds like a demon is attempting to bust out of depths of hell.
I had never heard of a radio tower interfering with an oven. Crazy! If only the company had asked the company engineers after the second oven. That would have saved you some headaches.
We have a flat screen TV that turned itself on at random times of the day and night unless unplugged from the wall. That was about 18mths ago and for the last 6mths it has stopped doing it.... spooky!!
This sounded familiar, so I googled it. A man's cell phone did the same thing to his oven.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/18/national/main5248949.shtml
We have a Fisher Paykel washer that is about 5 years old. It worked fine when we first got it, but it would often get hung up in the rinse cycle and beep. Sometimes we could get it to go again, but other times not. We had technicians from two different repair places out on several occasions. They both replaced several of the parts, and the second place replaced every single part. We went through two control boards, 4 or 5 divertor valves, shocks and who knows what else. After a while, we just kind of lived with it. We could do a couple of loads of laundry, but then it had to "rest". If you did too many and it got hung up, it had to sit for a few days before it would work again. Finally, my husband posted something on Twitter about it (we were expecting our third child, planning to cloth diaper, knew we couldn't continue laundry at the pace we'd been doing it), and Fisher Paykel ended up sending out an area representative who dismantled the machine. He found that there was a kink in the pressure sensing hose, and trimmed an 1/8 of an inch off it it. It works fine now, but we lived with it for several years like that.
As an engineer who designs electronic equipment, I can tell you that this is a very real problem for electronics, but that there are safety standards out there to make sure this doesn't happen. (Oven turning on and burning down a house = not good!) Many manufacturers test for this. In the US, you can look for marks from Underwriters Laboratory (a "UL" is usually written near its power plug or on the packaging) if you're concerned about electrical safety of an appliance, stereo, TV or whatnot.
It sounds like the manufacturer of your oven had to fess up that they didn't meet the strictest standards for signal interference. It's a shame they weren't more up front with you - could have saved everyone time and money!
We had a Phantom Flusher - our toilet would spontaneously flush itself several times a day. It was a bit creepy the first time it happened, when I was alone on the house.
It was a simple plumbing problem, which he quickly fixed by changing out the insides of the toilet tank.
I've lived in my apartment for about six months. When I first moved in, my refrigerator, a Frigidaire Crown, about 15-20 years old, kept setting itself to the coldest ("6") setting. It doesn't do it as much anymore but it still does move itself once in a while. The control is a manual dial, like TVs used to have.
@86753oh9 : that's hysterical.
Ovens and stoves turning on my themselves is VERY scary! Nevertheless - a pretty hilarious story all around. When good kitchens go bad! Ha!!
http://blog.purehome.com
After about 15 years my microwave oven starting to turn itself on a random times. I had to unplug it each time I left my apartment. However after about 6 months the problem went away only to return about a year later. That is when I decided it was time to go microwave free.
After we moved about 15 years ago, our cordless phone (the kind with the antenna) started acting up. It would make this strange, high pitched, dial-up modem noise that nothing could stop. Normally, this would last for a few minutes, and we would ignore it.
The last time it made the noise, it wouldn't stop. Literally. We unplugged the stand, took out the battery, used wire cutters to cut out the battery, dropped it in a sink of water, and it still wouldn't stop. My parents kept it in their closet for 2 days in a stack of sweatshirts to drown out the noise until it stopped.
Shortly after moving into one house, my TV, stereo, and cell phone began to emit HORRIBLE screeching noises, seemingly at random.
I finally realized that it only happened when helicopters and other small aircraft flew nearby...which, unfortunately, happened several times a week because I lived less than a mile from a Navy base.
The TV made the worst, and loudest, noises, so I started leaving it unplugged when it wasn't in use.
@laflygirl Miele is a very populair european brand of very good quality. I have a dishwasher and had numerous different appliances from them over the years in different houses
We have a very similar situation! We're on our second IKEA oven and about to take it back as well. It takes ages to heat up and the fan doesn't go on. It's as if it's only getting half of the electricity it needs but the wiring is fine. We will definitely look into this. Although we live in a very rural area in France, we have a tower just behind us. This could be just the thing to save our sanity! Thank you!!
I love all of these INSANE stories! It makes me feel less alone :) In our first apartment together my boyfriend and I had a a stove that worked great for several months and then all of a sudden it developed a mind of it's own; it would turn on or off without being touched. Turns out there was something wrong with the wiring in our apartment because one evening I tried to use the stove and as I turned the dial up to high a lamp in our living room (with multiple settings) got brighter and brighter but the burner on the stove never turned on. So naturally we played around with it for a while and discovered that the light switch would actually turn on our stove but no longer had control over the lamp and the dials on the stove only served to distinguish which burner we wanted to use but the power level was determined by the dimmer switch on the wall...it was all very strange and made us seriously question the electrical wires running through our entire building (a former 1920s hotel that had been converted into apartments).
Other than the fact that I myself bought a chef's stove...love it and have no idea how to operate it and cried the first time I turned it own because I didn't realize that it preheats first before it went to the 350 degrees (I thought it was broke because it was at 100 degrees for awhile) I needed to heat my frozen pizza..no... Sigh...
@86753oh9 - it's not (Beethoven's) Ode to Joy, it's (Bach's) Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Which, I think, makes the story even funnier. I am jealous - my F-P dish drawers don't play anything.
I had a GPS that would randomly reset to the default language which, in alphabetical order, was Afrikaans rather than American English. It would start giving me directions in another language in the middle of a trip. So not helpful at all! I ended up returning it.
We had a lot of power outages in our area this year with severe weather etc. Even though our range is plugged into a power surge protector, I noticed that each time the power took a hit and turned off and on, the stove's electronic viewer started acting weirder and weirder until finally the clock no longer sets. The gas burners and the broiler work but the oven will only come on to 267 degrees and then the counter on the viewer stops. It's a Fridgedaire and only 4 years old. Never had this type of problem with plain nonelectronic gas ranges. Oy vay!
OMG, remember those touch controlled lamps that came out in the mid 80's? I was living in Texas and my Mom sent me one as a gift. Turns out that nearby lightning strikes turn them on, in addition to touch. We were having a particularly stormy stretch and that darn lamp kept turning on every time the storms passed. I was going to give it to Goodwill, but figured the next person would have the same issue, so I ended up throwing it out.
i had a possessed tv -- it would randomly turn on at 3am or so or 2pm in the afternoon. i thought it was perhaps a faulty sleep timer or something .i called the manufacturer and they sent out a repairman who replaced something inside the tv and it hasnt happened since. it was SO creepy when it was happening though.
Ironically, my computer refuses to play the sound on the YouTube dishwasher video.
Also, @pier723, my tv is a vizio. call the manufacturer, it's something wrong on the inside.
@86753oh9: Love this. BTW, that's not Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". It's by Bach, but I can't remember its name right now. If I can recall it, I'll post it.
I finally remembered that it was "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" -- and then saw that Woodlyn had already posted this! Sorry for the repeat.
Nice recording of it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilpsDTOSTKQ&feature=related
@woodlynn and @rapunzel, thanks for the correction. I have to keep my story straight!
@knitsmcgee--the cabinets are from the 1950s, but updated with hardware and hinges. We're lucky because they are solid and timeless. Countertops are poured concrete. Thanks for the comments.
My mom swears to this day that periodically her built in microwave fills up with flames...
Bizarre sounding, but every time I visit home, she microwaves something swearing it will do it and it never does...
@jenawithonean, oh thank God you went through the same thing (you know what i meant haha). I will definitely call up the manufacturer and see what they can do about it.
Our toilets are haunted. They go through periods where they randomly flush themselves. The building maintenance guy replaces the flappers and that sometimes helps.
Recently our microwave healed itself. For several months it was shutting itself off while it was running and making a moaning noise. Then it all stopped as abruptly as it started and has been fine for a year.
@ pier723: Be careful of that Vizio. I've seen many of those being returned to my local Costco. I overheard one customer say that his was shooting sparks.
I had new remote control ceiling fan/light installed and would come home finding them with lights on and fan on high when i knew they hadnt been on. Also the light would slightly flicker at times.(a lot) After a few visits from the fan company, it turned out that the remote control was on the same frequency as someone else's in our large block of flats. So frequency was changed and problem solved. Does the light flicker at the same time every night? i was asked. Hmmm well, actually yes. Apparently due to living in high density area and being somewhat near to an electricity station, the electricity was being effected by the change in the off peak power kicking in. It still does it but it has never bothered me now that i know.
Had the exact same issue with a garage door opener's door sensors. One model when it was installed worked sporadically. Sometimes the door would go down and then instantly back up and you had to go and manually close the door. They replaced it twice with the same model and then finally with a different manufacturer and it work. I'm guessing the cheaper system was picking up radio waves somehow as we also live near a tower.
I had cheaper computer speakers that would pick up local talk radio but newer speakers do not.
I had an old treadmill that would randomly speed up to the fastest speed setting while I was walking or jogging on it. I almost got tossed off of it several times. It seemed to go through phases where it would be "good" and operate properly for weeks on end, and then suddenly be "bad" for a few days or so and try to throw me off again. Playing around with the on/off buttons would make it stop acting up. But I quickly got sick of wondering if I'd get tossed off during each workout, and ended up getting a nice, non-possessed one from Craigslist.
oddly enough my computer will not even play the video :(
sometimes i gotta wonder at all our devices ....
My dad put together a Heathkit TV when I was a kid and we lived in Oklahoma. The TV had an ultrasonic remote control (as opposed to infrared like most today) and it worked great. Except, during bad thunderstorms overnight. You could just hit volume up to turn the TV on, and it turns out loud thunderclaps triggered volume up on the TV. So in the middle of a thunderstorm the TV would turn itself on and get gradually louder until it was as loud as it could be!
we have had a joke in my family since I moved into my house at the beginning of the month that I have a ghost because my brother thought it would be funny. Of course, I embraced it and named the ghost "Felix" and any time something seems off I make a joke about felix. Of course last night at about 3 am I get up for a glass of water and my oven light blinks three times then shuts off.
Upon further inspection this morning it turns out that my oven door is slightly loose (triggering the light) but at 3 am? I kinda thought felix might be real..
So we have a Miele wall oven in our brand new kitchen that does this as well - replaced touch screen once but still does it - we have to turn it off at the breaker so it resets and then it is ok for a while again - too expensive to replace. It doesn't actually turn on just beeps and gives weird messages - any Miele expert want to weigh in
@laflygirl - I think Miele produces some of the best quality appliances around. We have a Miele washer and refrigerator, and when the oven and the dishwasher goes, we'll get them replaced with Miele as well.
There is currently a new problem (seen it in several local papers and TV newscasts) with interference between military communications electronics and garage door remote controls. Apparently, the remotes operate, unlicensed, but legally, on a government frequency. With increased traffic on the frequency from the military due to increased national security issues, people who live close to military installations have their garage doors going berzerk-oid on them....opening & closing on their own, or refusing to work when the remote is pushed.
RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) is a serious problem with some difficult fixes, I am a RF technician and you would be amazed at the things inside a radio that are affected by it's own interference.
Many of the "Touch Panel" appliances work by using the fact that our bodies are good antennas. I know I am dating myself, but if you had a "transistor" AM radio as a kid, you may remember that some stations would not come in unless you were holding the radio in your hand. Your body was the long antenna and you were using capacitive inductance to the antenna inside the case of the radio. The touch panels often have small antennas just under the glass and register the higher amount of RF noise as an input. Walking by with a cordless phone, cell phone or as above living in a high RF environment will often cause those controls to malfunction. I imagine the fix for the OP's control was to put "chokes" on most of the wiring and reduce the sensitivity of the controls.
If you suspect that kind of problem $150.00 is kind of steep but usually less than repeated service calls:
http://www.grove-ent.com/zap185.html
This device may help convince the service guy to check his data sheets and find the proper fix.
BruceB