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The kitchen tends to be the heart of the home—it’s where we gather to share meals, nibble on snacks, and talk about our day. It’s also a pretty dangerous place. Aside from open flames, slippery floors, and flammable gas that is literally pumped into our homes, the innocuous little appliances that crowd our countertops can also represent real dangers.
More than 150,000 people head to their local emergency room every year after an accident involving a household appliance of some sort. Small appliances might seem safe enough sitting on your kitchen counters, but they can be extremely dangerous if defective, misused, or placed in the wrong spot. Aside from the danger of hurting yourself, a misplaced countertop appliance can actually damage your home, as well. Here’s what you need to think about when you’re deciding where to place everything in your kitchen.
If you want your kitchen to be as safe as possible, there are a few basic safety rules that apply to any countertop appliance:
Keep stuff away from water. Don’t operate any electric appliances near sinks, pot-fillers, or any other sources of running water. This protects against electrical dangers and keeps the dangerous bacteria growing in your average sink from infiltrating your food.
Plug into ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs). All your kitchen appliances should be plugged into GFCIs. Before 2023 only appliances located near water sources were required to be plugged into GFCIs, but the National Electrical Code was changed to include any kitchen appliance. These special outlets are designed to cut off to prevent electric shock, and using them reduces the chances that your countertop appliance will hurt you or damage your home.
Never use extension cords. Even if the cord is plugged into a GFCI outlet, it’s a bad idea. Many countertop appliances like air fryers or microwaves pull a lot of juice, and can melt most standard home-use extension cords, leading to serious fire danger.
Keep away from the stove. You shouldn’t place any countertop appliance near (or, lord help us, on) your stove. The heat and open flames can melt power cords, increasing the risk of a fire or other accident.
Keep away from the edge. If your countertop is crowded and something has to sit right on the outer edge, it’s time for a reorganization. Having any appliance right near the edge of the counter is just an invitation to disaster.
While these rules apply to any appliance, there are specific placement considerations for several countertop appliances.
The heating element in a toaster oven can reach 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and some toaster ovens can heat up to 600 degrees under specific settings. That’s pretty hot, and while even the cheapest toaster has some built-in safety features, placement matters. Never place a toaster or toaster oven on anything flammable, like a towel. If you’re concerned about your countertop being damaged from the heat (though most toasters and toaster ovens are designed to be placed safely on standard countertop materials, even wood), you can place it on a nonflammable surface like a silicone mat or even a piece of stone tile.
You should also never put anything on top of your toaster oven (or toaster). Yes, it’s taking up valuable counter space, but whatever you put on top could potentially be damaged from the heat, or even catch fire.
You might think that your humble coffee maker is pretty safe, but it might be doing long-term damage to your kitchen cabinets and walls because of one by-product of the coffee-making process: Steam. That hot, moist stuff drifts up and if it regularly interacts with your cabinets, it can cause a lot of damage, warping and staining wood and discoloring other materials. Since the most affected area will be under the cabinets, you can cause a lot of damage before it’s easily noticeable.
Always place your coffee maker away from the upper cabinets when you use it, and make sure your kitchen always has robust ventilation, especially when using any heat- or moisture-producing appliances.
Aside from being a time bomb if misused, pressure cookers pose the same steam threat as coffee makers: As they work, they emit steam, and continuous exposure to that steam can damage your cabinetry and walls. You can try aiming the pressure valve away from the cabinets, and you can buy steam diverters that redirect the steam. But your best bet is to operate the pressure cooker away from your cabinets.
Air fryers are very popular, and just like the other appliances on this list, they can damage your walls or cabinets with superheated fumes. Aside from the damage that steam can do, they can also scorch walls and cabinets if placed too close or with insufficient ventilation, so always place them with plenty of space around them.
Air fryers also get pretty hot, so just like toaster ovens, you shouldn’t place them on top of towels or anything else that could conceivably catch fire.
Slow cookers pose the same steam dangers as pressure cookers, but can be even more damaging because of the “slow” part. While occasional use of a pressure cooker or other steamy appliance probably won’t destroy a cabinet or stain a wall, occasional use of a slow cooker is more likely to because of the duration of operation.
It’s best to place your slow cooker away from the walls and cabinets, and never place it on or near anything flammable. And because of the duration of use, you should place your slow cooker on a metal trivet or heat-resistant mat to protect the surface underneath.
