Slow cookers have long been a source of worry for home cooks, but after Tuesday night’s episode of “This Is Us,” America is shook.
The show featured an unsettling scene in which an old slow cooker malfunctions and sets the Pearson family’s entire house ablaze. Earlier that night, Jack Pearson turns off the machine’s power switch before going to bed, but he doesn’t unplug it from the outlet. Later, the cooker’s red light flickers, sparks fly, and flames engulf the kitchen and quickly spread throughout the house.
And now, of course, we’re all concerned about the safety of our slow cookers.
For the record, the brand of the Pearsons’ slow cooker wasn’t shown. Though many people refer to slow cookers as Crock-Pots, that’s actually a specific brand name.
Responding to the episode, Crock-Pot said, “Our Crock-Pot slow cookers are low current, low wattage (typically no more than 200 or 300 watts) appliances with self-regulating, heating elements. The product is designed to cook foods over a longer period of time at low temperatures and the switches connect to only 1 side of the power line voltage, so there is never a high voltage applied directly across our switches. The switches within our slow cookers are subjected to additional internal testing … and constructed of self-extinguishing, flame resistant material.”
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