Toastmaster hot plates

The reports, as CPSC published them

1. No one hurt

   Made Mar 3, 2025 · , sent to the company Mar 6, 2025 · , published by CPSC Mar 20, 2025

   The product, in the report: It is a single burner hot plate. You plug it into the wall there is no flame the coils just get hot as if an electric stove and Cooks your food. It is not a double coil it’s a single coil. It has a shallow grease catcher underneath. This is so that obviously when your food boils over as things tend to do when you’re boiling noodles or this or that it goes down into that. Of course when you’re boiling noodles or cooking you usually cook with oil or butter and those things accumulate underneath the coils in the hot plate. Which is how it eventually ignites into flames. I don’t know if I said this but it usually takes about 3 months for this to happen. I don’t know what type of accumulation happens at that three month Mark but it doesn’t happen before that. Meaning just because water with oil or butter in it goes under the coils into the grease catcher it’s not going to catch on fire. There’s some sort of black soot that acquires I feel that is what catches on fire eventually. It’s like this accumulation of stuff. It’s almost like even if you clean it which is almost impossible because you can’t remove the hot plate I mean excuse me the, you can’t remove the grease catcher from underneath, but even when you do clean it it’s like it doesn’t get all the way clean, and whatever that accumulation of stuff is eventually ignites.

   I recently purchased a hot plate by toastmaster from Dollar General in the town I live in. Today as I was cooking with it it ignited and caught on fire. This is about the 5th one of these I’ve had and I’ve never had one to my knowledge that doesn’t eventually burst into flames. The reason for this as far as I can tell is because the burner is too close to the grease catcher underneath and if you really don’t watch it it will eventually ignite. I feel like if there was some way to remove the grease catcher and actually really clean it out and wash it was soap and water and put it back this would not happen. But unfortunately there’s only so much you can do by lifting up the burner and wiping. If I recall correctly the very first one I had I had attempted to get it very clean but, and I am testing my memory here but I feel like even though I cleaned it very well even the black soot that was left over it that was almost impossible to remove ignited and defire. The point is I’ve had approximately five of these and every one of them to my knowledge has burst into flames after about a month to 3 months. This one I’ve had about 3 months. I was warming up some water to cook some noodles and thank God I was close by within I shot and I started to smell something and I looked up and the whole thing was engulfed in flames. I know from experience to keep an eye on these things since all five of them that I’ve ever had have exploded into flames at one point or another. I have pictures and the plug where you plug it in would normally place the burner directly under my kitchen cabinets. I just happen to know I have to keep it out from under that in case it burst into flames. If I did not know that this thing could eventually burst into flames I might feel comfortable leaving it close to the wall under a cabinet, and my house would have most likely caught on fire by now. Once ignited every time this has happened including today I grab it by the cord yank the cord out of the wall open my front door and just throw it out onto the sidewalk and let it burn itself out. I tried today to blow the flames out but they wouldn’t go out. So yes this is a very dangerous thing. The reason I buy these is that it’s a lot cheaper than having gas. All my house is gas and so it’s just cheaper to buy these little hot plates. But again as far as I remember I’ve never had one not burning burst into flames and catch on fire. This is very dangerous. I’ve already filed a report on the last one I had and I’m filing another report on this one. So this is the second report I’ve done on these. My apologies for this being so long, I am on voice text and am just talking.

   Model

   TM-10SB

   UPC

   K0579

   Serial number

   655572012784

   Bought from

   Dollar General

   Bought

   Dec 13, 2024, about then

   Where

   Hamshire, Tx, 77622, Texas: Home/Apartment/Condominium

   Who was involved

   Age 48, Female

   The reporter’s relation to them

   Self

   As this report names them

   Brand Toastmaster, made or sold by Select Brands, Inc.

   How badly, in CPSC’s words

   Incident, No Injury

CPSC’s disclaimer

Sources