Is Your Oven Stuck on 350 Degrees? It's Not Broken, It's in Sabbath Mode.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

A-HED

Is Your Oven Stuck on 350 Degrees? It’s Not Broken, It’s in Sabbath Mode.

A feature designed to help Jewish users abide by religious laws confuses cooks of many faiths

By Tripp Mickle
https://twitter.com/trippmickle
[e-mail]
Aug. 19, 2021 3:39 pm ET

When Brenda Glasscock’s top-of-the-line GE oven recently powered down instead of heating up, she worried her newest appliance was torched.

“Call GE and say: I broke the oven,” the 75-year-old told her husband.

Technical support turned into a lesson in digital-age dogma.

In her effort to bake brownies, Ms. Glasscock, of Athens, Ga., discovered that she inadvertently turned on “Sabbath Mode,” a feature designed to freeze an oven’s settings so observant Jews can abide by religious law restricting electricity on holidays. The Glasscocks tried to skirt that doctrine by flipping the circuit breaker—a trick Sabbath mode is designed to override. They later turned to the Talmud of appliances, the manual, and pressed bake and broil buttons simultaneously for three seconds to revive the oven.

“I pray to God I never do it again,” said Ms. Glasscock, a Presbyterian.

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[CloudWatcher]

1. Not satire?

This isn't the Onion, it's in the Wall Street Journal.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Nope. This is for real. It's Friday afternoon, so I stopped at the library to hold some print

newspapers in my hands. This story is in Friday's The Wall Street Journal.

[Totally Tunsie]

3. When all else fails, read the instructions! n/t

[eShirl]

4. what other helpful appliances have this feature?

[Totally Tunsie]

5. Apparently many made by GE, Whirlpool, KitchenAid, LG and others:

https://thespoon.tech/why-whirlpool-and-ge-make-sabbath-mode-appliances/

Dishwashers power down, ovens stabilize at 350 degrees, and refrigerator lights automatically turn off for the Sabbath.

The traditional day of rest, which starts at sundown on Friday and ends at sundown on Saturday, forbids any work, including turning on lights, ovens, blenders, whathaveyou. That’s why dozens of major appliance brands like KitchenAid, GE, LG, and Whirlpool consult with Jonah Ottensoser at kosher-certification company Star-K to offer appliances with something called “Sabbath Mode.”

The Sabbath Mode
The short version? The Sabbath mode keeps lights off in your refrigerator, automatically ends timers, and so on, so Orthodox Jews don’t have to interact with their appliances.