leaving an appliance on

[EngTeach]

Is it truly safe to leave a slow cooker or crockpot on all day when no one is home? I posted in Food/Drink, but thought an electrician or builder could give a different perspective.

Thanks

( I worry about everything needlessly!!)

[buildersmate]

Depends on your definition of 'truly safe'. That might involve wrapping up in cotton wool, never going out and avoiding all sorts of activity. Risk with electrical appliances (as with any form of activity) is all about the probability of a fault occurring times the impact of what might happen if it did go wrong (a fire might occur).
Leaving a slow cooker on all day unattended doesn't change the probability of it going wrong - but being at home minimises the opportunity of a fire spreading - one would hopefully realise before it gets out of hand.
The point is that the probability of such an electrical device going wrong is very very very small. It uses little electrical current - perhaps enough for a 100W of power. Now you know how much heat comes off a 100W normal light bulb - it gets hot but not like an electric fire (of maybe 3000W of power). The chance of such a device catching fire and setting fire to something else is really slim.
So it's the same order of magnitude of danger of leaving a fridge on all day. You do that, don't you?

[chas2008]

we have one at home and my wife took a lot of convincing before she would use it.....Never yet heard of anyone having a problem..
As buildermate says you are probably leaving other things on all day with probably more wattage/power..

[EngTeach]

Thank you both. Perhaps I will make something next week in it.

[chas2008]

both my daughters use them and swear by them..we often leave ours on overnight..wouldnt dream of it if we were not 110% sure of the safety issue

[bednobs]

i worry about things too ever since my washing machine caught fire a few years ago - it wasnt even switched on although it was plugged in

[Disco Fever]

You could always make sure that you are fully protected by an RCD so if the electric cooking pot goes faulty the RCD will cut out....

RCD= residual circuit breaker....

[EngTeach]

Thank you all!!! Is an RCD like a Surge Protector Power Strip?

[coffeehot]

We had purchased a refrigerator last month from and now a days, it is making some kind buzzing sound.

Is it common in all the refrigerators ?