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Reminds me of modern stoves. All of them have touch controls which means every time a friend of mine is presenting me their new kitchen, I have no idea how to u
by s4i 4y ago
Reminds me of modern stoves. All of them have touch controls which means every time a friend of mine is presenting me their new kitchen, I have no idea how to use the stove. They always say "No, no, it's really easy to get used to" but it's still frustrating because the touch controls never bring any new features to the table. They are just knobs abstracted into separated buttons and sliders, of which the latter you are not quite sure if you should drag them or just point to the wanted value. With a physical knob, the intuition of the laws of physics tells you how the knob can be turned.
They are easier to clean for sure but I can't believe the current "click this, slide that" UX is the best the manufacturers could come up with.
- XorNot 4y agoCleaning is what I spend far more time doing with a stove, and is more important, then the very brief period I'm involved in setting the temperature during cooking. So it seems like a fairly good trade-off to me.
- tobr 4y agoIn my experience they’re not great for cleaning. They get confused when they get wet and start blinking and beeping and turning things on and off randomly. A set of well-designed physical dials could be made in a way that’s easier to keep clean.
- crowbahr 4y agoYou can't keep physical dials clean by their nature. They have to connect to something, which means you have holes. Holes + aerosolized grease = sticky 100% of the time. There's no way around it. I do my best to clean under the knobs of my stove but they don't come off. Don't even get me started about how much of an ass pain burners are. When I'm not renting I'll definitely install an induction system. If I never deal with cleaning burners, and knobs again it'll be too soon.
- christophilus 4y agoHaving had one of these, I just want to say: “Never again.” Mine would turn itself on when you washed it and turn itself off when something splattered (like 50% of the time when I boiled water). It made me wonder if anyone actually tested the damn design before approval for mass production.
- tobr 4y agoOften they’re also too damn close to the heating elements, so you risk burning your fingers when you operate them.
- zikzak 4y agoAnd this heat degrades the component. And it is almost never worth replacing a control board over buying new. There is, of course, no hidden agenda.
- sshlocalhost98 4y agoHaha that’s true! I am an electrical engineering student, if I have to guess it may be due to random electric charges, probably grounding was not done properly.
- jraph 4y agoI know nothing about electricity but water always seems to confuse those hotplates... or laptop's touchpads FWIW. (how do I know??)
- LaputanMachine 4y agoI think this is a safety function. You may not be able to turn off the stove yourself if something boils over, and the buttons get covered in hot liquid.
- cbm-vic-20 4y agoSounds like these stoves could use an "oh shit" / "Big Red Button" that's easily accessible when this happens.
- Gigachad 4y agoMy parents have one and I think it works really well. There is a physical power button, start button, as well as a physical knob. For the basic usage, you press power, turn the knob to select the mode, press start, then turn the knob to select your desired temperature. No use of the touch screen for the basic flow. But if you want to do something else like start self cleaning or turn steaming on, you use the touchscreen rather than pull out a manual that tells you to press button 1, 3 and 4 for 4 seconds.
- usrn 4y ago>No, no, it's really easy to get used to Says everyone on Linux with their ridiculous custom setup on an obscure window manager. The difference here being that you can change things to make them more comfortable and don't have to wait for some "designer" to have the idea first.
- tobr 4y agoI’m hopeful that we will see less and less gratuitous use of “hi-tech” UI in consumer electronics in the near future. It seems that many manufacturers still believe consumers think blinking LEDs and touchscreens and beeps and chromed plastic spaceship shapes are cool. Despite most of us using high resolution touchscreens many hours per day. A good physical knob or button usually feels much more luxurious and expensive.
- NikolaNovak 4y agoNone of my friends say their stove touch buttons are great. They are not just unintuitive, most implementations are painfully slow. (my own pet peeve though are microwaves - they are a positive monstrosity of horrible interface bearing no connection to actual typical usage. I'd like one with a massive "add 30s and start button", and anything else is a nice optional extra for me :-D
- unwind 4y agoGet a Whirlpool with Jet Start [1], it's a big-ish button that does exactly that. Easily the nunber 1 used button on our microwave (which, unfortunately, has loads more buttons). A pretty good idea, I'm sure other manufacturers have the same but I don't know the marketing lingo. [1]: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/972967/Whirlpool-Jt469.html?page=14 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/972967/Whirlpool-Jt469.htm...
- dsr_ 4y agoCommercial heavy-duty microwaves and the cheapest plastic microwaves share the same interface: two dials. One is time, the other is power cycle. Sometimes it's just one dial for time.
- cinntaile 4y agoThis is why I buy the cheapest ones. They don't break and their buttons are intuitive, I don't need a Bachelor's in microwave UI to use one.
- bschwindHN 4y ago> two dials. One is time, the other is power cycle This is the ideal design and no one can convince me otherwise. Same thing goes for ovens. All I care about is "how hot do I cook/bake this?" and "For how long?" Two dials is perfect.
- vel0city 4y agoPersonally I really like the sensor modes of my microwave. For most of my leftovers, I can toss the plate/bowl in the microwave, hit REHEAT, and it figures it out. If it thinks I need to stir/rotate, it'll beep at me to do so while its cooking. Seems a lot simpler as a user than thinking about how long to cook it, what power level, etc.
- sshlocalhost98 4y agoYup definitely on your side, it’s frustrating to see button less interfaces, buttons make many more sense.
- tremon 4y agohow to use the stove I've been using an induction stove for years now, and I still can't get over the fact that I don't have stepless control over the output power. When I have to keep something on a simmer, I'm continually adjusting the controls because keeping the pan on 2 will eventually get off the boil, and if I keep it on 3 it boils too hard. Give me back my continuously-variable controls, please.
- fold3 4y agoI was looking at new models lately and they have way more refined range, you could even do succesful bain-marie and butter caramel risk free of burning. Still don't know why they won't do a touch knob for quick actuation of the temperature (when you wanna make fry rice or things like that.)
- jameshart 4y agoOn the other hand, literally last night the physical knob for one of my stove burners came off in my hand leaving me having to use a pair of pliers to turn it off. So, your mileage may vary.
- couchand 4y agoBut you could put the knob back on, right? I mean, it slides off to make it easier to clean or replace, and you just need to slide it back on...?
- jameshart 4y agoIn this case, weirdly and confoundingly, no.
- tunap 4y agoOr, replace the barrel and molex, or maybe solder a couple wires, but where's the fun in that? You could instead replace a high dollar board & / or controller(s) to get back your otherwise basic functionality.
- eimrine 4y agoor put a neighbour knob if you have already realised that you can dismount and mount them again.
- pahae 4y agoI'd rather have some physical knob that I can use to turn something off, even if I have to bust out the pliers. Good luck shutting off some touch control that's on the fritz. The stove at my parents place has some touch control to activate another heating ring(?). Not only is that hard to activate with wet or greasy fingers, but after a couple of years of use it keeps turning itself off now. Thank god that thing fails "closed" and does not (yet?) spontaneously activate effectively doubling the heating power.
- deskamess 4y agoEverything seems to be done for looks rather than utility these days. Appliances have to 'look good' and 'fit' in the kitchen scheme. Knobs are apparently too 'protrudy'.
- jraph 4y agoI was at a friends' and they had touch buttons on the hotplate. Nothing really hard to understand, but it would not register touches with my index finger. After fighting, I figured I would try to use my thumb and that worked. One vote for the physical buttons. If you want to act quickly, tactile buttons are really annoying.
- Macha 4y agoAlso home appliances love to use icons without any seeming standardisation. On one oven, the fan icon means fan assisted cooking and is basically the one you want 90% of the time, and then on another it means turn the fan on without applying heat. Also various half open rectangles with squiggly lines which may or may not have anything to do with grill modes depending on your specoific oven.
- bqmjjx0kac 4y agoAs I've gotten older I've become very anti-icon. Just use text!
- tuxie_ 4y agoWhile I agree, I assume that the reason behind it is that icons don't require translation which allows them to sell the equipment worldwide without modifications to the interface. Not saying it's a good reason, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's just economics behind.
- Aaargh20318 4y agoText means that you need different versions for different international markets, which causes a lot of additional SKUs and associated logistics costs. And it's not just that, but words with the same meaning can have vastly different lengths depending on language, which may or may not fit in your original design. To name an example: If you have an fan-assisted oven, you can have a small round button labeled 'fan'. In Dutch, however, the word is 'ventilator', which would require much more space.
- KronisLV 4y ago> Text means that you need different versions for different international markets, which causes a lot of additional SKUs and associated logistics costs. If only we could all decide upon a "default" language to use globally, much like a lot of software out there is available only in English which seems to be good enough (almost all programming languages included) for most cases. Then again, I'm the kind of person who finds most localizations in my native language to be uncomfortable to use and attempts by the academia to force people to use translated IT terms pointless - that will only lead to more confusion. Of course, not everyone knows multiple languages so maybe that's not the best argument, since we should be accomodating to many people if possible. And then there's the fact that I might have to learn Mandarin eventually if such an initiative came to pass.
- TT-392 4y agoPretty sure this is often a cost saving measure, capacitive buttons can be less expensive than knobs, especially if they have to be waterproof.
- dec0dedab0de 4y agoThis is the only reason I don't have a Tesla yet. I want physical buttons for almost everything.
- pkorzeniewski 4y agoI despise touch controls in almost everything, from cars to home appliance, in my opinion the only reason they're replaced physical controls is because it's simply cheaper to make and people just got used to them because manufacturers convinced them through marketing "it's the future! be modern!". For example an induction hob at my wife's parents home - recently my mother-in-law couldn't turn it on because some cryptic key icon was flashing, I had to look into the manual to find out it's a children protection mode that is turned on and off by holding the key icon for 3 seconds, I didn't even know you can press it and it's so easy in general to accidentally press various things when cooking, sometimes you don't even notice that you have accidently changed the temperature.
- grayclhn 4y agoTBH, a “child protection mode” does seem like legitimately new functionality, even if it was unwelcome for your in-laws.
- gen3 4y agoMy parents electric stove with knobs also had a child lock on it. Like the rest of the controls, it’s also a dial. It’s just harder to turn
- the_gipsy 4y agoTouch controls are also cheaper to iterate, soft-update, or reuse across models.
- lloeki 4y agoYou don't even have to touch them, water (even slightest amounts), metal, or anything like that can trigger a "press". It's like the thing hasn't even been field-tested in an actual kitchen.
- duxup 4y agoI'm remodeling my kitchen, all my appliances (except the microwave) has nice big knobs on them, big display on the oven to show the results. I LOATH my current oven / cook top that has up and down push button arrows and a tiny screen that is pointed at my waist ...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- vel0city 4y ago> the touch controls never bring any new features to the table. 1. Far easier to clean (you even mention this despite saying it brings no features...) 2. Easier for a lock function to help prevent kids/accidental turning on of the stove 3. Take up less space, makes the stove top a flush surface making it more reusable as a counter top There are pros and cons to knobs vs capacitive buttons on a stove. In my kitchen I do not have a lot of spare counter space, so having the entire stove practically flush with the rest of the counter with absolutely nothing protruding is a big positive feature to me. I've never personally encountered any misunderstandings of the on/off or up/down buttons, and I've never had issues with boil overs or something triggering buttons unwantingly or been unable to make adjustments while cooking. So for me, the flush capacitive buttons are a huge selling point; having knobs would be worse in my use case.
- Too 4y agoNever seen a stove with knobs on top of the stovetop. They are usually on the front of the bench. Removing point 1 and 3.
- vel0city 4y agoThere are tons of stoves which have their controls on the top. It is an incredibly common feature. You're practically arguing there aren't cars with four doors because you've only personally driven coupes. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=stove+top https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=stove+top Lets compare two pretty similar stoves and see how they compare to my 3 points above: Electric stove with knobs: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-profile-36-built-in-electric-cooktop-black/4208403.p?skuId=4208403 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-profile-36-built-in-electric... Electric stove with touch controls: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-profile-36-built-in-electric-cooktop-black/4208405.p?skuId=4208405 https://www.bestbuy.com/site/ge-profile-36-built-in-electric... 1. Which one looks easier to clean, the one that's literally a flat plane of glass, or the one with six protrusions which would need to be removed to clean under, which then need to be individually cleaned themselves? 2. It looks like this one actually has some kind of lock function, so that's nice. Not all knob-based stoves have this idea. Looking around at other stoves this feature is somewhat uncommon, but not ultra rare. 3. Once again, one is truly a flat plane of glass, while the other has six protrusions on it which you then have to deal with when moving things around the counter. Its nice not having those dials in the way when you're just trying to use that space as a counter in a pinch.
- Too 4y agoThe worst model of this i used only had a single set of + and - buttons. Then a single selector-button for which area of the stove you wanted them to control. Have fun cooking with 2 zones, any time you need to adjust the heat of the next zone you need to press select 3 times to circle the whole stove and then adjust several times with plus or minus. Add the mandatory touch-delay to each action and by the time you reach desired temperature your food is burnt already. How can anyone think this is a good idea?!