The kitchen from hell, or how cooking messes with my scales

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yirara
yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I love my kitchen scale. After moving internationally this great tool of 5 years suddenly started acting up and would occasionally jump between up to 30 grams without fixing on a weight. I might have broken it by squeezing it into a very full backpack I thought.

I bought a new one. Lovely darkish green. Fits with my dish brush and a sponge :D . All worked fine for breakfast. Preparing dinner: fine. Adding more ingredients while cooking: the same thing happened again! :#

I bought a third one and started the return procedure for the green one. Again breakfast was fine. Preparing to cook: fine. Adding more stuff while cooking: the same happened. :o

After some experimenting I found out that all the scales start acting up when both the extractor hood and the gas cooker are running at the same time. I have no idea how that's even possible. :o The scales are not even on the same row of cabinets but on a worktop opposite the cooker.

Returned the third scale and only weigh when neither the extractor nor the cooker are running. My original scale is fine as well, btw. But honestly I can't even imagine what kind of freak physical things are going on in my kitchen. :o

Anyone ever experienced something similar? Anything else strange? Discuss :p

Replies

  • babysaffy
    babysaffy Posts: 232 Member
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    How weird!! Really cool that you managed to work it out and find a solution.

    The wiring in my kitchen is crappy and electricians haven't been able to help so I can't have certain appliances running at the same time or the whole circuit crashes then I have to flip a switch in the fuse box. I'm constantly forgetting and curse myself as I walk there for the thousandth time lol

    My kitchen lighting the 4 bulbs have never all worked at the same time since it was installed 10 years ago.

    My kitchen tv ariel can be temperamental and certain channels will go fuzzy if I stand in certain places or picture will go bad sometimes if the water is running so I have to move it around but...
    all this to say haven't really experienced anything similar that I can remember :D
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    Wow, that sounds like a nightmare, babysaffy!
  • RelCanonical
    RelCanonical Posts: 3,882 Member
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    Scales are weird! I read a story of a particular scale that would go haywire if you were using a wifi-enabled device near it (e.g. checking a recipe on a tablet while cooking).
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    RelCanonical wrote: »
    Scales are weird! I read a story of a particular scale that would go haywire if you were using a wifi-enabled device near it (e.g. checking a recipe on a tablet while cooking).

    That really is weird. :o If it was a scale with a kind of wireless enable chip inside I could understand. Actually, I better check this option as well. it might add to the chaos as my phone tends to be on the kitchentop when I'm cooking, for recording all the stuff. :D
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
    edited January 2019
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    My scale will sometimes jump when I have my phone next to it, and I have to move it away to get it to zero. But that's the phone literally inches away.

    Are all three scales you are having the issue with the same model of scale? I have another large, higher quality kitchen scale, and it doesn't seem to have any issue with RFI.

    edit: The scale I see the RFI issue with is an Escali Primo. It comes in many different colors so maybe this is the scale you are using? Although given the manufacturing world, many cheap scales probably have the same components inside and similarly bad RFI susceptibility.

    3le8qk8x9zjy.gif
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    Nope, all three scales are completely different brands. One a Scandinavian brand that I bought in Denmark ages ago. The green scale is a cheap Dutch brand. The final scale is.. no idea from a local supermarket chain. All also look completely different. Who knows... I'm using the green one now as it adds a bit of colour to my kitchen. Actually, quite similar to the Tarragon Green example in your image, only very flat and with a glass surface. (glad I got rid of the third one again: silver metal. Just didn't look good)
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    My scales' numbers fluctuate when the microwave is on. I do things in a specific order so that I can work around this and woe be to anybody who upsets my order when I'm making breakfast :lol:
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
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    Fans can be electrically noisy. You may have a loose connection in your fan that's generating EMI.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    Jruzer wrote: »
    Fans can be electrically noisy. You may have a loose connection in your fan that's generating EMI.

    Interesting. I checked the extractor hood with the scale, and everything was fine. I checked the gas cooker, and everything was fine. Only when I use both together things to wrong. That's just odd, isn't it?
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
    edited January 2019
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    That’s pretty weird but I believe it! What amazes me is that you actually figured out this weird connection ⚡️
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    In reality, your kitchen is haunted. :)

    You get an 'insightful' from me for this. It might be true :D My flat is part of a former 1950s car show room. There might be some really odd things going on there. :D
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    lorrpb wrote: »
    That’s pretty weird but I believe it! What amazes me is that you actually figured out this weird connection ⚡️

    Hahaha! It's part of my job to analyse data so I'm constantly looking for connections in things that have none anyway :* And I'm rather unorganized when looking thus I constantly cut and weigh things I forgot while cooking. Simple step to recall when I nearly threw the scales out of the window :D
  • middlehaitch
    middlehaitch Posts: 8,484 Member
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    yirara wrote: »
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    In reality, your kitchen is haunted. :)

    You get an 'insightful' from me for this. It might be true :D My flat is part of a former 1950s car show room. There might be some really odd things going on there. :D

    Boy, your new life gets more interesting every time you post.

    I have images of a car hoist in the living room, and chrome everywhere.

    Cheers, h.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,442 Member
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    middlehaitch wrote: »
    yirara wrote: »
    middlehaitch wrote: »
    In reality, your kitchen is haunted. :)

    You get an 'insightful' from me for this. It might be true :D My flat is part of a former 1950s car show room. There might be some really odd things going on there. :D

    Boy, your new life gets more interesting every time you post.

    I have images of a car hoist in the living room, and chrome everywhere.

    Cheers, h.

    Keep the thought there :smiley: it makes my live more exciting as well :D

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