# Electrical outlets on stoves **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [November 10, 2023, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934 "2023-11-10T12:32:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/41 "2023-11-11T17:22:07Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > To this day I open the door and look in before turning the oven on. Never find anything, but I still do it. If nothing else, it’s easier to adjust the racks while they’re cold. My mother still does this, drives me nuts. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/42 "2023-11-11T17:41:27Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Seanette](#): > > > > I certainly recognize the oven door (with a window), but what’s the door-resembling thing to the left of that for? > > I don’t know about that particular stove; but it might have been a storage compartment. So might the one at the bottom. > > I never found those storage compartments very useful – grease and other cooking detritus seemed to creep into them over time, so anything stored there often needed to be re-washed before using. That looks a lot like my mom’s stove - the part to the left was a skinny, tall drawer where we stored our pots, and the bottom was a wide, short drawer where we kept the broiler and roasting pans. I don’t remember the pans to the side getting greasy and grimy, but we probably used them often enough that they wouldn’t. I do remember having to scrub the dusty grime off the big roasting pan before every Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/43 "2023-11-11T18:18:39Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > My mother still does this, drives me nuts. Why does it drive you nuts? It’s not a bad idea. I don’t usually; but I also don’t usually preheat the oven, I put stuff in and then turn it on. So I’ve already just looked in there anyway, when I put things in. A few things do really need pre-heating; but a lot of what I make doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/44 "2023-11-11T18:31:40Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Why does it drive you nuts? It’s not a bad idea. It’s an oven, not a storage drawer. A specific issue with my mother is that she lives in an apartment so her oven runs off 208V instead of 240V and takes FOREVER to heat up, so if we are using it we always preheat. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/45 "2023-11-11T18:34:52Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > It’s an oven, not a storage drawer. Meh. People have been known to stick something briefly into the oven to warm, or to get it out of the way; or to leave something in the oven after it’s finished cooking, to keep it warm or because they mean to eat first and then put it in the fridge, or because it’s almost done and they don’t want it to overcook if they forget to turn the oven off while they do something else – and then to forget that it’s in there. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/46 "2023-11-11T18:56:55Z")
I put large pans in the oven to dry. Nothing lived there, but lots of items might be lurking there. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/47 "2023-11-11T21:52:54Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I certainly recognize the oven door (with a window), but what’s the door-resembling thing to the left of that for? Storage. It’s where grandma kept her sheet pans. Old time kitchens didn’t have much storage space. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/48 "2023-11-11T21:56:04Z")
Ah. Hadn’t seen that type of arrangement. Under-oven drawers are of course familiar, but not that second compartment. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2023, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/49 "2023-11-11T22:58:22Z")
> [@FinsToTheLeft](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > Why does it drive you nuts? It’s not a bad idea. > > It’s an oven, not a storage drawer. Lotta people think otherwise. If one of them is a guest in your kitchen, surprises can happen. Who knew your kid’s fiancé did stuff like that? The people who routinely use the oven as storage would never think to mention having put something in there. They’re thinking: “_Of course_ everyone keeps their [whatevers] in the oven; that’s what I/we do at home.” As your Mom gets older and becomes forgetful, these habits will prove their worth. She only needs to 350F preheat a tupperware once to burn up her house. ---
**Author:** ![andrewm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@andrewm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andrewm)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/50 "2023-11-12T01:29:43Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > My current new-ish house has 20A outlets every couple of feet along all the countertops. Just FYI, the NEC in the US has mandated a minimum of two 20A circuits for countertop “small appliance” duty in kitchens for decades. The fact that the circuits are 20A usually isn’t obvious because it’s perfectly legal to install 15A receptacles on 20A circuits (the plural is important - a 20A circuit may not have just a single simplex 15A receptacle and nothing else). Builders mostly use 15A receptacles because they’re legal and they’re a few cents cheaper. You might have more power than the average kitchen if you have more than two circuits, but just seeing 20A receptacles doesn’t prove you have any more power available than any other kitchen built in the last 50-60 years. You do have the small advantage of being able to plug in appliances with actual 20A plugs, but those are exceedingly rare - very few such things are made because they would sell in very limited quantities because 20A receptacles are pretty rare. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2023, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934/51 "2023-11-12T02:05:28Z")
> [@andrewm](#): > > The fact that the circuits are 20A usually isn’t obvious because it’s perfectly legal to install 15A receptacles on 20A circuits (the plural is important - a 20A circuit may not have just a single simplex 15A receptacle and nothing else). Conversely, the CEC also requires 2x 20A SABC but does not allow the use of 15A receptacles on 20A circuits so we have 20A T receptacles up here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/electrical-outlets-on-stoves/992934.md?page=2)