@adamliaw Turn a toaster on the side to make grilled cheese toast. (or a croissant!) #lifehack pic.twitter.com/Pm2DNmjiS9
— finicalgal (@finicalgal) January 17, 2015
Those life-hack lists are fun, right? You can breeze through 20 clever ideas in just a few minutes, maybe making a mental note to try one or two. Next thing you know, all your cables are organized with binder clips, your keys are color-coded with nail polish, and you’ve got pre-mixed pancake batter in an old Heinz bottle. Life solved!
Except that sometimes these hacks are much better in theory than in practice — as in the case of the old “turn your toaster sideways to make a cheese on toast” move (endorsed in a Guardian column by Jamie Oliver). Here’s an idea that makes sense: You’re essentially turning the toaster’s heating coils into a Salamander broiler.
But there’s a pretty obvious problem — anyone who has ever used a toaster knows that toasters suck at being hacked. They are shockingly cheap because the technology is insanely simple, but they’re also only really able to handle one job: toasting bread.
Most toasters can barely manage a bagel, so putting the thing on its side and expecting it to operate as normal is absurd. As life hackers are beginning to discover…
https://twitter.com/oli07r/status/527065434210988032?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But surely, this is just a solitary case of one person doing it all wrong.
Tried that "life hack" where you turn a toaster on its side and make cheese on toast. Nearly burned down kitchen. #downwithlifehacks
— Erin Fornoff (@jarsofshine) November 1, 2013
Fine, two people…
https://twitter.com/lissboswell/status/460041653286608896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Okay, three.
Make that four because last week, Brit Suzanne Dale was trying this hack when sparks and flames started licking her cabinetry. Luckily, Dale was able to get the toaster outside before any real damage was caused (besides the damage to her ego at having her ensuing Facebook status shared a few thousand times).
“Luckily, I live in a house and have a garden,” Dale told the Manchester Evening News (via Telegraph UK), “but if it was anyone living in a flat or somebody who was less agile, who couldn’t get out as quick, they were real flames, it could be dangerous.”
The situation was troublesome enough that the London Fire Brigade tweeted a warning and the Guardian updated Jamie Oliver’s article.
Fire caused by cooking cheese on toast in your toaster in #Manchester this time. Bad idea https://t.co/SfyzweIuqS pic.twitter.com/3pPe3jvsvU
— London Fire Brigade (@LondonFire) November 23, 2015
Which makes this as good a time as any to remind people that CHEESE ON TOAST IS ALREADY EASY AS SH*T TO MAKE! LOOK INSIDE YOUR OVEN — SEE THE BROILER COILS? IT’S LIKE A SIDEWAYS TOASTER!
When in doubt, stick to the Life Hacks that can’t cause costly damage — besides the damage to your reputation when people at work catch you storing your bagels in a CD spindle.
(Via Telegraph UK, Mashable)
