Weight sensitive oven racks will automatically turn off your oven timer and oven heat when they register no weight.

No weight necessary as oven preheats. Oven will turn off automatically 15 minutes after reaching the specified heat if weight is not added.

However, if bliss is just basting her turkey, the digital oven will provide one beep to remind her to hit the "over-ride" button which will then keep the oven on and the timer going as scheduled.
-- Marassa, Dec 10 2002

The inspiration http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Oven
[Marassa, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Very nice. Sounds like a feature that a good number of people would want (or would do well to have, at any rate).
-- Pharaoh Mobius, Dec 10 2002


Terribly sensible; if I get that Fridgedaire job I really oughtta propose it to their stove-making cousins.

At the "Steele" household we all celebrated the day the oven became smart enough to not stay on preheat forever. Mom has a history...
-- RayfordSteele, Dec 10 2002


Great idea!

A possible variation: infrared beam(s) that aim vertically through the racks to a receiver at the bottom. If the beams are not broken then the oven shuts off after the 15 mins.

Too much crud on the bottom of the oven huh?
-- gootyam, Dec 10 2002


Weight-sensitive stove elements exist, but oven racks seem not to. There might be good reasons for this, though: The racks need to be movable, pre-heating is common, the weight-differences can be very slight (a piece of tinfoil with triscuits on it might weigh less than ordinary gunk that's accumulated on the rack itself), a hot oven is less dangerous than a hot stove element, etc.
-- Monkfish, Dec 10 2002


It's true that I don't care much for your comments. I feel they could be a little more friendly, but I must admit that this is an excellent idea. Perhaps you should spend more time creating ideas and less time terrorizing newbies.
-- waxingpoetic, Dec 10 2002


I thought these racks would be ultra-sensitive and able to measure the increase in mass of your turkey due to its increased temperature as predicted by E=mc^2 and thus let you know when your turkey's done.
-- hippo, Dec 11 2002


Could you tell the oven what meat you are roasting, so that it could automatically calculate the correct time, based on weight?

I believe some rice steamers operate on a similar principle - they stop heating once the weight stops going down (i.e. once all the water has evaporated).
-- whimsickle, Dec 11 2002


waxingpoetic, that is so yesterday.
Croissant
-- thumbwax, Dec 11 2002


"..the weight-differences can be very slight (a piece of tinfoil with triscuits on it might weigh less than ordinary gunk that's accumulated on the rack itself..."

I agree with this, right up to the word 'triscuit'. 'Biscuit' comes from the Old french 'bis cuit' or twice cooked, except that you dont cook biscuits twice, so it doesn't. Does 'biscuit' comes from the Greek, as part of a semi-infinite family 'moniscuit', 'biscuit', triscuit', 'tetriscuit', pentisciut',...

However...

I though we might use some sensor that is able to detect nice cooking smells, because there is a lot of clever stuff using microcantilevers that makes good detectors of organics. If you aren't using gas, then detecting water ought to be enough.
-- Richard K, Dec 11 2002


//You two related by chance?//
Not by chance nor logical extreme
-- thumbwax, Dec 11 2002


I'm disappointed: I thought this was going to be a diet aid - the stove takes one look at the macaroni cheese casserole you are about to put into it, another at your bulging midriff, and tells you, "I am sorry David, I am afraid I can't do that."
-- dalek, Dec 11 2002


The Oxford English Dictionary has the following to say about Triscuits:

"Also triscuit. [f. TRI-, irregularly after biscuit.] The proprietary name of a savoury cracker or biscuit."

The OED records no uses before 1906, when the Natural Food Company seems to have coined it by modifying 'biscuit' to reflect a feeling they had that their cracker had something to do with the number three. Maybe it contained three types of grain or was thrice-baked; maybe it was to give the impression that it was "one better than" biscuits.

Rock and roll forever.
-- Monkfish, Dec 11 2002


I suppose scuits are just blobs of dough.
-- bristolz, Dec 11 2002


And nonscuits are nothing at all.
-- Pharaoh Mobius, Dec 11 2002


and Hard Tack begat Seabiscuit....oh, wait, wrong subject....
-- Marassa, Dec 11 2002


I guess Swing Onscuit doesn't sound as good.
-- bristolz, Dec 11 2002



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