With fall and winter fast approaching, many people will find themselves spending more time in the kitchen, making favorite seasonal recipes or preparing holiday meals for friends and family. Many families love time-honored seasonal traditions, and look forward to spending time in the kitchen with loved ones.
But that extra time spent in the kitchen might bring more than “smell good” memories and enjoyable evenings—kitchens are home to many dangerous household tools, chemicals, and appliances, and you may run the risk of cuts, scrapes, burns, or more serious injuries during a time of year that’s better spent enjoying favorite activities. Here, we’ll break down the most dangerous kitchen appliances, and how The Tub Pros can help keep you safe in the kitchen as the end of the year approaches.
Blenders or Immersion Blenders
With sharp blades, high speeds, and hard-to-clean areas, blenders or handheld immersion blenders are some of the most dangerous kitchen appliances out there. But it’s not just sharp blades that can pose a hazard with their risk for cuts or scrapes—splashes or spills from hot liquid can cause burns or steam burns.
How to stay safe? Always make sure to unplug the appliance when you aren’t using it—to ensure it doesn’t get turned on accidentally—and make sure to keep your fingers safely away when cleaning it, perhaps using a brush. And with a blender, ensure that the lid is firmly on before turning it on—while a smoothie splashing into the kitchen might just be annoying, hot liquids could pose a real hazard.
Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker
Pressure Cookers—and their cousins, Instant Pots—rely on heat and steam to raise temperatures quickly and speed the cooking process. These high temperatures and pressurized inner chambers mean that users face a risk of steam burns, contact burns, spilled liquids, or—worst of all—explosions.
But there are steps you can take to stay safe. Instant Pots often come with many built-in safety features, so it’s a good idea to check the user guide and ensure you follow the instructions to make sure they work. Check your equipment for cracks or damage—particularly to the rubber gasket that seals it—and make sure not to overfill it, while also ensuring to use enough liquid. Before you open the lid, make sure you follow all directions to release steam safely, and make sure to keep your face away and protect your hands and arms with oven mitts if using the pressure release valve.
Canning Pressure Cooker
Canning your own fruit preserves or family favorites can be a great way to spend an autumn day—but canning pressure cookers, which differ slightly from regular pressure cookers, can pose hazards of their own. In addition to the hazards from pressure and heat posed by pressure cookers, these appliances are used specifically for killing pathogens and ensuring that home-canned food remains safe—and issues with the gauges, or using the wrong appliance, can result in issues long after the appliance has been packed safely away.
Always make sure to follow the safety precautions for the appliance, and make doubly sure to keep an eye on the gauges or settings on your appliance, to ensure that it’s correct for your recipe.
Deep Fryer
With oil in a deep fryer reaching 350 to 375 degrees—hot enough to cause serious injury—deep fryers can pose a real threat of accidents. The combination of even a tiny bit of water and hot oil can cause big problems, too, which means that food that isn’t very dry when it goes into the oil can invite splashes of that very hot oil. That hot oil can be dangerous for its fire-causing potential, too—and pouring oil down the drain can pose hazards to your pipes and drainage systems.
To use a deep fryer safely, make sure not to overfill, or use too much oil. Keep an eye on the temperature controls or thermometer, and make sure that food isn’t wet when you put it in the oil. Keep your fingers well away, use oven mitts, and dispose of cooled oil in the trash—not down the drain. Remember, too, that water will not extinguish a grease or oil fire—smother the fire instead, using a metal lid or baking sheet.
How can the Tub Pros help keep my kitchen safe?
What is the first step in safely using most kitchen appliances? Being able to set the appliance firmly and safely on a flat surface! This will help avoid working right at the edge of the counter or an uneven surface which puts you at risk of knocking over the appliance—and puts you at risk of damage to your appliance and surfaces, and at risk of injury.
That’s where The Tub Pros can come in to help. A kitchen counter with cracks, chips, or damage can at worst have dips and cracks that can create an uneven surface that can work against your efforts at safety. And even if your counter remains flat, those chips, cracks, stains, or wear-and-tear can make your kitchen look worn, dated, dirty, and tired—and not at all like a room you want to spend time in. But even if you love the newest kitchen trends, you don’t need to invest in a full remodel to get those counters looking great and your kitchen functioning at its best.
Refinishing, or reglazing, is a process where the counter is repaired and a new coating applied to the surface. This durable new surface looks and feels like new, for a fraction of the cost. At The Tub Pros, we can work on a variety of surfaces—including marble, solid surface, and granite countertops. And for those with Corian surfaces wondering where can I find Corian countertop repair near me? Corian was designed for refinishing—and Corian, and a variety of other surfaces, can be updated to a range of colors of faux granite countertops, too.
So when you’re looking for counter refinishing and sink reglazing near me, turn to The Tub Pros! Give us a call at (901) 871-8827 today, or use our online form to get your project started.
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