In Mom’s mind, back in the day, sticking a knife or fork in a plugged-in toaster…well, you may as well be tugging on a tiger’s tail.
I’ve never pursued it, but I doubt that she would have had an issue with me poking the refrigerator or the electric can opener with a fork.
So…danger danger?
Or old Mom’s tale?
mmm
Yes - there’s a bare metal heating element in there that has mains power running through it.
In most cases, if you touched it with your knife, other parts of the knife would be touching some other metal component inside, and if the machine is earthed, that will blow the fuse.
In other cases, if you have a good RCD ‘trip’ switch on your mains supply, it will cut the power as soon as any earth leakage is detected (including if it’s flowing through you) - and you wouldn’t come to harm.
But both of those statements have an ‘if’ in them.
If you stick a knife in the toaster and it touches a live conductor while it’s not touching any other metal, or if the device is not grounded, and you don’t have an RCD, you’re at risk of electric shock.
IANA electrician but here’s how I understand it. You see those hot wires inside your toaster? They get hot because electricity is running through them.
What do you think would happen if, while electricity was running through them, you accidentally severed one with a metal knife, creating a new circuit via the knife through your arm and other body parts to the floor or other grounding point? Bad things, is what.
Even if you don’t break one of the heating elements, you’re still an alternative path to ground for the electrons, and they’ll take it (well, some of them)
For a toaster with an unpolarized plug (which would have been the only type back when), it is a real danger. One side of the internal switch would be hot and the other side neutral. If the hot side was also thru the heating elements then a knife brushing up against the elements (a fairly easy thing to do when fishing a jammed piece of toast out) then you’re holding a piece of metal in contact with live voltage. That can become a real problem depending on what else you or the knife comes in contact with.
With a polarized plug, hopefully the elements are connected to the neutral side of the plug. You’d have to get the knife to touch somewhere on the hot side of the switch. Accessibility, wire insulation, etc. would make that difficult but depending on the engineering, quality, condition of the parts it might be doable.
There could be toasters out there that are not made safely, esp. the el cheapo ones. So they’re more like the first case than the second.
Just unplug the thing first and then fish.
Furthermore, if you have some crappy $10 toaster that with some combination of not having a polarized plug, not being made well or not having both hot and neutral cut switched at the same time, those heating elements could very well be live even when the toaster isn’t in use.
Also, the wooden tongs meant for grabbing stuff out of the toaster can be found for less than $5.00. Certainly worthwhile if this is something that happens often enough.
(ninja’d because I went to Amazon to double check the price on the tongs and got sidetracked and spent a bunch of money).
As a practical matter, it’s not particularly dangerous typically. The reason is because most residential kitchens don’t have dirt or concrete floors. Ground floor tile could be a problem, however, especially in socks or barefoot. The subject in this scenario must be simultaneously earthed or grounded. However, metal sinks are not unusual, and the danger would be for example if a person happened to be contacting (grounded) to the sink in this example at the same time as exploring the toaster innards with a knife. Even if the proper contortions were exercised, the most likely outcome would be a rude “bite” and Mom saying “See! I told you not to do that!”
I’ve done this.
Gives quite the shock. Probably not going to kill you, as honestly, you really have to work at it to get house current to kill you, but it’s probably not recommended.
Unplug the toaster first.
BZZZ!
Wrong!
All the appliances in a kitchen are grounded, so contact with any one of those while probing your toaster could cause a shock. For example, our toaster is right next to our range, so leaning on the range while giving your toaster an exam could result in a shock.
Yup, I looked over at my toaster after I read that post. It’s right between my fridge and my oven. I was trying to pick something out of my toaster, I’d most likely be leaning against the fridge, which is grounded. If not, there’s a better than even chance some part of my body would be touching the stove, also grounded. If the outer shell of your toaster is metal, it may be bonded to the neutral as a means of grounding it, that means that you’ll be grounded if you’re holding the toaster, if the knife touches the toaster (remember Operation), if your palm touches it, anything.
Also regarding the tile on concrete floor. I know I’ve gotten a shock while on a carpeted (over concrete) floor and at least a few other ones. I’m always surprised at the lack of respect people give electricity. I can assure you that just because you aren’t knowingly grabbing on to a piece of grounded metal, you don’t have to be standing barefoot in a puddle on a concrete floor to get a shock. If you don’t want to get a shock, don’t touch a wire that has the potential to carry a current until you’ve tested it. Most people will get one or two (or more) shocks here and there, but let’s not call them ‘rude bites’. That’s dangerous advice, they can be lethal and should be avoided at absolutely every cost (and for some good advice you can pick up a cheap, good volt tester for like five dollars).
I enjoy fresh toast during my evening bath, but I specifically avoid bagels, due to the safety concerns others have voiced.
When I saw the title to this post, I had to read it. That warning was given to us as kids all the time. It was “burned” into our brains. To this day whenever I make toast and I’m standing there with the knife in my hand waiting for the toast to pop up, the thought always runs through my mind l “should I try it?” !!
Unless the toaster is turned on and operating, in which case the heating element is obviously connected to the hot side.
Note - on this side of the pond, an RCD (Residual Current Device) is generally referred to as a GFI (Ground Fault Interrupter) or GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter).
This is presumably the reason I didn’t get more than an odd tingle when I grabbed a live wire while replacing a light switch - I was standing on thick carpet on the upstairs landing, so wasn’t well grounded.
I’ll try to stand in the same place next time I probe the toaster :o
Me too. I was a kid and this was in the seventies. I got one hell of a shock.
I was in my twenties, and this was the 90’s. It was not the first time I had gotten a shock off AC current.
Pro-Tip: While using a cut potato to remove a broken bulb is a great idea, turning the light off first is an even better one.
I though we’d ALL done this!
Reporting in from the lab…
Newish craptastic toaster from walmart
Aside from never working well at all, it is modern, polarized plug and all that jazz
Opened it to look inside it
1st observation, it was not designed to be dismantled, pieces broke.
Oh well it sucks anyways.
2nd observation
The switch disconnects both sides from the heating elements
When it isnt toasting, the heating coils are a completely dead circuit.
Investigation 2
Great Grandmothers huge shining chrome piece of art deco disguised as a toaster.
Yes, it still works and is bad assed at making proper toast.
External observations
Internal observation
It has SCREWS!!! It is made to be taken apart, and probably repaired too.
It is made of heavy materials inside, nothing is flimsy, even the heating coils are heavy duty looking things, bigger than the ones in my dryer almost.
The switch only disconnects one leg of the AC power, so the heating coil is live depending on what way you put the cord into the wall.
Yes there is a lovely surprise awaiting the casual knife wielder here, one that GFCI maybe wont save you from.
So do what Mommy told you kids, keep the damned knife out of the toaster.
For the curious, i can attest that the matching waffle iron and coffee percolator still work quite well also, and are probably just as fatal in design.
Can we start a thread about why you should never ever take the wooden back off that still working radio that granny bought in 1936?