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I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

jdstillwater.blogspot.com

271–280 of 331 posts

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#271
post #138

I was once involved in a similar (unintentional) experiment with a multi-billion dollar defence radar. A several metres deep underground bunker, containing several 19" racks full of electrical/electronic gear, filled to ground level with a combination of mineralised surface water and mud during a storm. What we wanted to do was cut the power, pump the water out of the bunker ASAP and immediately clean the whole lot w…

I have a similar experience from waaaaay back (now near 30 years). We had a water leak in the basement of the institute of physics. Nothing terribly major, ran for a few hours shorted power downstairs eventually (that's how it was found). Once fixed, pumped out, all that remained was a musty smell for a few days.

Except four days later network connection failed in the building. Tracing the cabling eventually lead us to the basement; some under-stairs / slightly below floor level comms cabinet, empty other than the building's outbound router. 48V Telco, no mains connect, had sat under"water" (well some rather murky stuff) for almost a week and done well. Once we got it washed (with clear water) and dried, it continued fine (till replacement a few weeks after). We were a little amazed, to be honest, physicists or no. Brave device, that.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#272
post #138

I was once involved in a similar (unintentional) experiment with a multi-billion dollar defence radar. A several metres deep underground bunker, containing several 19" racks full of electrical/electronic gear, filled to ground level with a combination of mineralised surface water and mud during a storm. What we wanted to do was cut the power, pump the water out of the bunker ASAP and immediately clean the whole lot w…

It's quite impressive it kept working for that long, and even more amazing someone was capable of saying "no, let's not cut the power, there might be a problem if we do"

It is only impressive coming from the consumer grade electronics.

Microchips, capacitors, PCB's and other stuff like manufactured for defence have much wider and higher tolerances. One won't find the cutting edge 2 nm processes (depending on the specific area of defence, 200-300 µm would still be cutting edge today for them), materials used are different, plus all sorts of chemical and physical hardening is employed. Most of the time, the chips can't use the consumer grade cutting edge designs and processes as they have to withstand not just abuse but also stronger EM fields (in radar equipment) or EM pulses (e.g. a nuclear explosion).

After electronics have been manufactured, they proceed onto the QA phase where chips are literally baked in ovens for a day or a few, then retrieved and tested. They may get irradiated, soaked for periods of time etc. Most people would call it abuse – from a civilian perspective. The surviving ones are deemed to have passed the QA and are used to make the actual equipment.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#273
post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, that doesn’t surprise me at all. This seems perfectly in line with “I don’t care what it is, or how well I perform it, as long as I have a job.”

I don't see how that manager expected to have a job by deciding not to cut power to submerged equipment, and have it flushed of the brine and cleaned, ASAP. It looks completely idiotic/incompetent from where I'm sitting.

Different industries prioritize different things. I'm speculating but being the military they may consider that the enemy is planning an incursion exactly when some critical detection systems are expected to be down. So they'd rather kill some equipment while they mobilize a contingency measure. No idea what was in the manager's head or if the threat model makes sense but things aren't always super obvious and don't lend themselves to generalization.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#274
post #29
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've owned the same machine for five years. I haven't inspected the bit where the water comes out. Maybe I should. Though neither of my two kids seem to have been harmed!

It looked like the water going down splashed some milk back to there repeatedly and dried and formed some sort of crystallized milk powder that looks quite disgusting. I would recommend a wipe.

Right! I'm doing this ! Thanks :)

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#275
post #230
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder although wasteful, isn't this better than accelerated failures taking the defense radar offline at random times in the future? Reminds me of a friend of mine who somehow blew a shift in his car and did something bad to his engine. Instead of pulling over and stopping, he just drove it home and ended up destroying the engine. So he got a whole new engine instead of having insurance pay to dismantle the engine…

But the action that has actually been taken just guaranteed the prompt destruction of the radar equipment, and a prolonged outage to replace it. Unless an attack was underway that the radar was tracking, the right course of action was to power it off immediately, and start cleaning it. After the cleaning, it would go online promptly, and then parts of it could be assessed for damage, taken offline when the replacemen…

It would explain a surprising amount of events at least here in Sweden if BCG and McKinsey were part of a conspiracy to weaken the crisis preparedness of states worldwide.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#276
post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That hurts too much but doesn't kill. It didn't kill once. Not enough of a sample to draw a firm conclusion from.

Reminds me of a post on HN: No random clinical trials were done to demonstrate parachutes actually work.

Most papers that cited that one have ended up getting retracted. Turns out rigour matters.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#279
post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure the boards are fine after that. Wouldn't feel so great about the dishes you put into the dishwasher afterwards. Ain't no getting fine metal dust out of porcelain, and idk what else got washed off of those boards.

I appreciate the concern voiced by you and sibling comment! I failed to mention that I do use a dedicated dishwasher in my garage for this purpose! (And occasionally washing other shop-things). I also have two toaster ovens, a microwave, and a couple minifridges I've dedicated to non-food use over the years.

Now we're talking!

Curious to hear about non-food uses of those.

So far, I've used a dehydrator machine to dry 3D printing filament, and was going to use a slow cooker for acetone vapor bath smoothing of ABS prints, but never got to it.

Re: I put a toaster in the dishwasher (2012)

#280
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. The point is that it's not just soap but soapy water that has just washed off all kinds of gunk and dirt off your hands or dishes. It's a good idea to rinse it off. But, apparently, that's not the done thing in certain sectors of British society, e.g. see: I wash up like a normal person: I fill a sink with hot water and washing-up liquid, and scrub the dishes in order of what needs the least attention. Glasses n…

Don't you then have soap residue on your glasses, plates, and cutlery? I assume it's probably not a problem for your health to consume trace amounts like that, but I'd be surprised if it doesn't affect the taste of whatever you later eat using them.

Watching a roommate leave mountains of suds on dishes always made me cringe. Consuming detergent seems like a bad idea to me, and rinsing is so quick anyway. But I used the dishes anyway and never tasted any residue.
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