Not using the oven - causes it to break (due to climate)

[JR8]

apparently.

When I lived here many moons ago, I recall being caught up in some kind of double bind. The lease rather inexplicably required me to turn on the oven once a month. This was something to do with the heating elements. I was a 25YO banker, WTF did I care about ovens? By *not* using the oven I allegedly broke it.

Fast forward to 2013. We have rented a new place this month. As we found out last night the oven does not work (there goes the frozen pizza [sigh]). We report it to out trusted agent, who explains thus...

'Abt the oven, due to prolonged unused, the filament is moist tts why trip. Usually I will remove the earthing n on the oven regularly to dry the filament but dun bother yet... lets see wat the agt says.'

Anyone know what a 'moist filament' is, and why it seemingly only occurs in Singapore, because it's completely lost on me?

[PNGMK]

apparently.

When I lived here many moons ago, I recall being caught up in some kind of double bind. The lease rather inexplicably required me to turn on the oven once a month. This was something to do with the heating elements. I was a 25YO banker, WTF did I care about ovens? By *not* using the oven I allegedly broke it.

Fast forward to 2013. We have rented a new place this month. As we found out last night the oven does not work (there goes the frozen pizza [sigh]). We report it to out trusted agent, who explains thus...

'Abt the oven, due to prolonged unused, the filament is moist tts why trip. Usually I will remove the earthing n on the oven regularly to dry the filament but dun bother yet... lets see wat the agt says.'

Anyone know what a 'moist filament' is, and why it seemingly only occurs in Singapore, because it's completely lost on me?

He's saying "Due to the high humidity in Singapore, please operate the oven at a regular interval in order to dry out the heating element, if you have not done so the element will conduct to earth (due to lowered resistance caused by moisture ingress in to the ceramic insulator) tripping your RCB - if we remove the ovens earth link we may be able to prevent this parasitic leakage from tripping the RCB allowing the element to dry itself out when turned on and heated up". (Note - removing the oven's earth link is a very bad idea because the parastic leakage may decide to find a way to earth via your hand and arm when you touch the oven's metal parts).

[zzm9980]

apparently.

When I lived here many moons ago, I recall being caught up in some kind of double bind. The lease rather inexplicably required me to turn on the oven once a month. This was something to do with the heating elements. I was a 25YO banker, WTF did I care about ovens? By *not* using the oven I allegedly broke it.

Fast forward to 2013. We have rented a new place this month. As we found out last night the oven does not work (there goes the frozen pizza [sigh]). We report it to out trusted agent, who explains thus...

'Abt the oven, due to prolonged unused, the filament is moist tts why trip. Usually I will remove the earthing n on the oven regularly to dry the filament but dun bother yet... lets see wat the agt says.'

Anyone know what a 'moist filament' is, and why it seemingly only occurs in Singapore, because it's completely lost on me?

"n on the oven"

Wow. Singlish.

[Strong Eagle]

It's unmitigated crap. In eight years I've never had an electric oven trip the ground fault due to "parasitic leakage". At worst, reset the breaker and try again.

[PNGMK]

It's unmitigated crap. In eight years I've never had an electric oven trip the ground fault due to "parasitic leakage". At worst, reset the breaker and try again.

It's not likely I agree with good ovens but with a lousy element from China who knows. I agree that the oven should NOT be doing this (sorry if that was not clear).

[Mi Amigo]

Nothing surprises me about the electrical installations in condos here any more. I've seen so many diabolical (and usually dangerous) things in pretty much evey place we've rented. Worse thing is, if you tell the landlord / agent, they usually send someone over who has no freaking clue what they're doing. Then they ask something like "Do you really need to use this?" I normally just rectify anything broken or dodgy myself rather than have some 'handyman' d!ck around* with it for while and leave it in an even worse state than it was before they came.

*Technical term

[katbh]

I have to say this is actually true. If you do not use the ovens in the tropics they spoil. And yes, it does require a new element. And yes, most ovens have two elements....and yes... it is the same to replace the two elements as to get a new oven.
I do not know about the reasons why but it is 100% true (from my experience). Only anecdotal but I have moved into so many places where the oven does not work as it has sat for too long.

I have ended up buying my own full size oven that I take with me to each new tenancy. If there is an oven already there - guaranteed it is spoilt. So I just tell my landlord/lady that I will put my own in and take it when I leave. Plus it means I get a good oven that I know.

The other thing is that ovens here are often just plugged into a normal power point. This is dangerous. You need a proper over power point. AND DO NOT let them tell you that they are 'just taking this out' so it stops tripping the electricity. It is tripping the electricity for a really go reason so make sure that they put back in the thing that they have re-wired around. Yes, they sometimes do it to dry it out but then it needs to go back in. AND it usually does not fix the problem anyway!

[nakatago]

Nothing surprises me about the electrical installations in condos here any more. I've seen so many diabolical (and usually dangerous) things in pretty much evey place we've rented. Worse thing is, if you tell the landlord / agent, they usually send someone over who has no freaking clue what they're doing. Then they ask something like "Do you really need to use this?" I normally just rectify anything broken or dodgy myself rather than have some 'handyman' d!ck around* with it for while and leave it in an even worse state than it was before they came.

*Technical term

We used to rent a place where the light switches in the main hall were toggled to also switch the bedroom lights and electrical outlets.

The landlord's agent sent an electrician on the day we were to move in when I already started to fix the whole boondoggle. The un-handyman undid the decoding that I did (I was halfway to fixing it) and made it worse--by somehow making the combination of switches make no sense whatsoever and I was surprised he didn't manage to tie in the plumbing with the switches as well. I had to fix what he undid.

[Brah]

So is there a secondary market for Singlish-to-English translators?

[x9200]

It's unmitigated crap. In eight years I've never had an electric oven trip the ground fault due to "parasitic leakage". At worst, reset the breaker and try again.

It's not likely I agree with good ovens but with a lousy element from China who knows. I agree that the oven should NOT be doing this (sorry if that was not clear).

Yes it may happen, especially for modern, high performance heaters filled with heat conductive powders (i.e. Magnesium Oxide). I am not sure if this is even possible to completely seal such element as there is metal and ceramic sandwich with very different thermal expansion coefficients. In other words it may slowly suck in the moisture over time.

Actually there are many every day goods that have to be used in order not to break. Shoes with hard synthetic soles probably the most common ones.

[the lynx]

Actually there are many every day goods that have to be used in order not to break. Shoes with hard synthetic soles probably the most common ones.

Anything with rubber too. They will crumble the next time you touch them after few weeks!

[sundaymorningstaple]

Bicycle tires suffer as well if not used for a while.

[x9200]

This is the same mechanism for all the rubbers, synthetic, natural, in the shoe soles or tires. If left in peace the material will start to crystallize getting more brittle over time. Plus materials similar to natural rubber (-diene type) very easily reacts with Oxygen and gets decomposed. Take a latex glove or a kids balloon and leave it in full sun for a few days only to see a complete mess. For more bulky items if you handle them daily the decomposed layer wears off, but if not it will get sticky and brittle over time.

[durain]

the same goes with prophylactic?

[JR8]

Sheesh... if yours are going off... change gender or summing...