The other day my mum forgot to turn the iron off before she went out to the shops. While she could've just called us on her mobile, she couldn't, because we have dial-up and I was on the half- the internet.

I reckon it would be a fairly easy job to make a mobile-controlled iron, so that if you go out and you can't remember whether you left the iron on or not, you can check it's temperature, and if it is on, then you can either alert someone in the house about it (by setting off a alarm, tune, whatever, but I'd prefer a man yelling about how the iron is on and all the accidents that could occur), or you could switch it off remotely.

Either way, it would prevent burnt shirts, housefires, or accidents.
-- froglet, Aug 03 2005

(?) Olde http://images.dpcha...enge/281/124153.jpg
I prefer an iron you can set fire to. [skinflaps, Aug 03 2005]

(?) irons with automatic shut off are available http://store.yahoo....t/panni1corste.html
[dentworth, Aug 03 2005]

well froglet here's a good idea for you and your siblings to buy mum for Christmas. see link
-- dentworth, Aug 03 2005


Hmmm. What a cooincidence.

Yesterday (August 4th)' s Metro ( OK-ish free London newspaper for commuters) had an idea for a cut-off switch in its letters section. Could it be that there are people out there who seek to steal from the Halfbakery? Nooo!

Today there was a reply, saying that there is such an iron, although your name is much better.
-- dbmag9, Aug 05 2005


If it's a mobile controlled iron then it's essentially a phone bolted onto an iron with some sort of control interface. What's to stop some wag dialling your iron and setting it to burn your house down?
-- DocBrown, Aug 05 2005


(Sends naughty text message to iron from mobile phone)Iron lets off a burst of steam.
-- skinflaps, Aug 05 2005


//(Sends naughty text message to iron from mobile phone)Iron lets off a burst of steam.//

*Falls off chair laughing*

//What's to stop some wag dialling your iron and setting it to burn your house down?//

Well, I'm not sure about you, but whenever we turn off the iron, we turn it off at the mains and unplug it, so that there's no chance of any unfortunant accidents.
Or you could have a password, so that when you press 'iron' in your mobile phones adress book, you have to put down a 4 number code.

Edit:

I also designed this for the excessively paranoid, like those people you get who are constantly worried that they left the oven/ iron on while going off on holiday. I met a person like this, who was really stressed because she thought that she'd left the iron on when they were on holiday. So her husband opened the boot of their car, and produced the iron...
I was thinking along the lines so that you could check the iron's status, just to make sure that you didn't leave it on.
-- froglet, Aug 05 2005


The iron you are dialing is currently unavailable or temporarily out of the service area. Please try again later, or for an additional fee...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 05 2005


Maybe you could upgrade from dial up to broadband then send it a email.
-- skinflaps, Aug 05 2005


//Maybe you could upgrade from dial up to broadband then send it a email//

*Sends iron e-mail in txt talk*

*Iron crashes*

"Uh... Mum? I think I crashed the iron..."
-- froglet, Aug 05 2005



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