How to Survive Exploding Appliances

4 min read

You hear a loud clunking noise coming from your fridge. Your oven door just shattered, sending tiny glass shards toward you. And that small piece of tinfoil just caught your kitchen on fire. You thought an exploding phone was bad news, but when your kitchen appliances decide to cook more than your meal, it’s a catastrophe. Your kitchen can be a danger zone. It’s packed with flammable items and machines that run on natural gas. There are a few things that the instruction manual didn’t cover. So we put together a list of the top exploding appliances. Pay close attention because some are more common than you think and guaranteed to be in your kitchen. When shouldn’t you use the self-cleaning cycle of your oven? Where’s the worst place to put an air fryer? How could this appliance squirt hot liquids at you?

Number 5. Oven

The very thing designed to make your life easier can hurt you and destroy your kitchen. When you put your oven’s self-cleaning cycle on, its temperature rises to 454 °C (850 °F) for an extended period of time. This can cause fractures in its glass door. If there’s even a microfracture when you run the cycle, it can expand to a crack and cause the door to shatter. To prevent sharp bits of glass from flying toward you, always check for a fracture before turning the oven on.

Number 4. Fridge

Refrigerators might be cool, but they need potentially flammable gas to run. They’re equipped with a compressor and a pump that pushes gas refrigerant through coils. It’s these coils you need to keep clean if you want to avoid an explosion. It’s possible for the compressor to overheat, which then contracts the coils and traps gas. When the gas can’t vent out, it builds up and bursts. Pay attention to the sound coming from the compressor. It should give a high-frequency humming noise. If you can’t hear the hum, the coils might be clogged.

Number 3. Air Fryer

In 2021, Abbey Trbovich posted a video on TikTok of the remnants of her air fryer that went up in flames and destroyed her stove in the process. It took 10 firefighters to control the resulting blaze. Turns out that Abbey did the very thing you’re not supposed to do with an air fryer. She had put it on the stove instead of setting it up on the counter. Air fryers aren’t designed to go above 204 °C (400 °F). If placed too close to a running stove, they can overheat and explode.

Number 2. Microwave

There are a couple of reasons why your microwave can burst into flames. One is faulty construction or wiring. More common is putting metal in it. Metal containers and aluminum foil are made up of atoms with free electrons that generate a massive amount of heat when microwaves pass through them. Temperatures can get so high that everything starts to burn. And it can get worse. If uneven metallic surfaces are involved, the free electrons bounce back and forth, forming concentrated negative charges. Expose these to air particles, sparks start to fly and boom. Your microwave is cooking itself over an open flame.

Number 1. Pressure Cooker

Pressure cookers are called that for a reason. It’s number one on our list, and rightfully so. If they’re not used properly, serious injuries can result. The most common mistakes that lead to explosions include inadequate venting and faulty gaskets that allow the lid to pop off while in use. Cassie Hodges and her partner found out the hard way about the dangers of using a pressure cooker. The couple thought that the pressure had been released, but when their cooker unlocked the lid went flying and the burning hot contents splattered everywhere. She ended up having severe burns on both of her arms, chest and stomach. Her partner also suffered burns on his stomach that immediately resulted in the skin peeling off. Experiencing any of these appliances catch on fire first-hand is horrible.