Just bought a new combi micowave/grill, and although it's a good piece of kit, was dismayed to see that even today these appliances are STILL being made with a builtin time-of-day clock which goes into an error condition if the power is ever disconnected.
Point of fact, a clock on a microwave oven serves no identifiable purpose anyway. It is a pointless gimmick. Those on conventional ovens may form part of a timer, and many of these suffer the same problem.
The issue here is that the presence of this clock effectively ties the appliance to the mains supply, making it impossible to isolate it for safety -or to save unnecessary power consumption when not in use.
Perhaps the next edition of the IEE regs could include a clause to the effect that 'Where a cooking/heating appliance features a realtime clock, the presence of this clock shall not impede the disconnection of the appliance from the supply when not in use."
Manufacturers would then have to comply, by either making the clock 'nonvolatile' or by removing it. Since removing the clock would in most cases be a simple firmware change to a microprocessor, it should not be an expensive mod.
I reckon this one item would be a lot more effective in promoting safety than most of the other plethora of electrical regs.
Basically the mains-tied digital clock is a piece of outmoded 1970's technology. It was a bad idea even in its heyday. It is still in-use because manufacturers can get away with fitting it, and it will continue to be fitted to new designs -and thus to cause avoidable electrical hazards- until legislators act to ban it.
Point of fact, a clock on a microwave oven serves no identifiable purpose anyway. It is a pointless gimmick. Those on conventional ovens may form part of a timer, and many of these suffer the same problem.
The issue here is that the presence of this clock effectively ties the appliance to the mains supply, making it impossible to isolate it for safety -or to save unnecessary power consumption when not in use.
Perhaps the next edition of the IEE regs could include a clause to the effect that 'Where a cooking/heating appliance features a realtime clock, the presence of this clock shall not impede the disconnection of the appliance from the supply when not in use."
Manufacturers would then have to comply, by either making the clock 'nonvolatile' or by removing it. Since removing the clock would in most cases be a simple firmware change to a microprocessor, it should not be an expensive mod.
I reckon this one item would be a lot more effective in promoting safety than most of the other plethora of electrical regs.
Basically the mains-tied digital clock is a piece of outmoded 1970's technology. It was a bad idea even in its heyday. It is still in-use because manufacturers can get away with fitting it, and it will continue to be fitted to new designs -and thus to cause avoidable electrical hazards- until legislators act to ban it.
