Hey, its spring break, and my normally smart 12 year old is entertaining a sleepover guest while mom and I are out working in the middle of the day. I get a call from mom telling me that the kid apparently allowed a stainless steel saucepan to boil dry. When she picked up the pan to cool it off under the sink, the pan “exploded”. The kid’s alright.
When I got home, I observed large splashes of burn/melt everwhere on the kitchen lino floor. The kid was damn lucky. The sauce pan’s stainless coating drips would make you think of solder. Flakes large and small were gathered up, the once melted coatings now hard and sharp as glass.
My immediate reaction was to blame the kid for carelessness. But who hasn’t allowed a pan to boil dry? Sauce pans just shouldn’t be manufactured with this potential disaster. The kid could have been severely scarred for life. The house could have burned down.
I’m going to go after the manufacterer of the sauce pan. I’m going to tell them exactly what happened and request to have my floor replaced at their expense. That would be reasonable wouldn’t it?
Doesn’t sound unreasonable but the real question is, did the manufactuer already cover their ass? Is there a warning anywhere about not placing a hot pan under cold water?
:eek: I’m glad your kid is ok! Consult a lawyer, and see if it’s possible to get your floor repaired. Also, look into the reasons such a thing happened. Is it a flaw in all stainless steel pans, or is it only a freak flaw that rarely happens.
On preview. Can you clarify the order of events? Did cold water touch the pan at all, or did the pan “explode” without the cold water?
Ok, well I could see maybe an explosion if cold water touched the pan, but that’s just ridiculous. Was it coated? Definately consult an attorney about this. At the very least, they could pay the child’s hospital bill, if not also repair your kitchen. Might be a long fight, you should consider if it would be worth it at all, because it might end up costing more in legal fees than just repairing things would. However, there’s the thought that this might happen to someone else too.
The amazing thing is that the child is completely unhurt. The direction of the metal “spray” was mainly downward and some of the pieces just glanced off her leaving small scorch marks on her loosely fitting rugby pants.
And yes it was coated and its the ss coating at the bottom of the pan that melted and disintegrated.
Please, please don’t do this. If you stand up in court and say “I left my 12yo kid alone at home all day where she was allowed tot play with the stove” there are consequences you don’t want to think of.
Just be very thankful that no one was hurt and hope that everyone learned a valuable lesson. Lino isn’t that expensive, anyway.
I’m sorry - but - WHAT THE FUCK?!? A twelve year old is allowed to stay at home on their own, with some mate, and allowed to piss around with the stove??
You’re really fucking lucky you know that your child didn’t manage to kill both themself and their mate. I’m glad your child is ok, but, you know what, any damage is due to your own carelessness as an adult in allowing the situation to happen. How did some frigging pan maker know that you were going to be dumb enough to let an unattended kid play with it? How about you get sued for negligence. I reckon that would be a better result.
I wish some poeple would snap out of this ‘blame anyone but myself for what haooens to me or my family’ nonsense.
Get a grip. And don’t leave your kid unattended farting around with the oven.
Who said anything about playing with the stove? Hell, I’m 35 and I’ve let a pan boil dry! Such things happen, probably frequently. Not so with exploding steel pans.
lilabet The kid made the kind of mistake an adult might make. What if it had been the OP’s wife, or the OP? It’s still some kind of flaw in the pan, that nearly led to serious injury.
From what I’ve found on Google, Martha Stewart stainless cookware is 18/10 non-coated, and its melting point is 2,550 degrees F. I can’t find anything that explains how it would “explode”.
I started leaning to cook at a much younger age and I made the family diner by age 12. (nothing fancy but I did it by myself)
I was left ‘home alone’ at an earlier age than 12.
There is no way the heat from an stove should be able to melt off the bottom of a pan. This pan is clearly defective.
“Stainless” saucepans often also have quite a bit of aluminum in them (especially in the base) to conduct heat. I believe AL alloys will melt (or at least significantly deform) on a stove burner…
Not trying to be mean, grienspace but a saucepan wasn’t designed to be boiled dry. Insofar as your lawsuit is concerned, think it over - does this case really meet the “reasonable and prudent person” standard of litigation?
I recently purchased a nice T-fal non-stick pan and read the warnings. I’m sure your pan came with the same ones including not letting it boil dry (teflon “fumes” can kill birds etc) and several warnings about not letting kids handle said pan. I believe it even mentioned not to throw a super hot pan under cold water (hell, that’s common sense!). Also the pan (interestingly for me) said NEVER TO USE ON FULL HEAT. So far I’ve avoided exploding pans.
I agree, you’re lucky no one was hurt. I’m sure CPS would be on your ass if the papers ever reported “parents left children alone, sauce pan explodes, 2 dead” etc.
