Dementia and Hotpoint cookers

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Wondering if any foccer can help;

This is a bit of a long shot.
Wondering if anybody has a electric or for that matter dual fuel HOTPOINT cooker with a minute timer,
ie like models DSC60 or HUE61

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/cooking/cookers/hotpoint-ultima-hue61ps-electric-ceramic-cooker-white-10127659-pdt.html

It's for my mother who lives at home by herself and suffers dementia.  She likes to use the oven to heat up Wiltshire Farm Foods (WFF) meals.
At the moment she has a well used HOTPOINT HUE62 which has a multi-function multi programmable oven.  She switches the cooker on and back off at the wall (ie the dual pole isolator) - a good thing I think for somebody with dementia.

However when she switches on the HUE62, first it wants to know the time.  This confuses my Mum as she just wants the oven on.  Eventually it stops asking for the time.  But though the oven is on the same setting that it was when she switched it off, well the oven won't come on till you move the rotary selection switch (this has settings for fan, conventional, meat roasting, fish, bread etc etc).  So she has to bump that one way and then back the other, then select the temperature with the little knob next to the digital display.

The problem I have is sometimes she selects the meat roasting setting.  This incinerates a WFF meal, and frankly is a fire risk.  So I have to make sure at the mo that I am there every dinner time for her putting the oven on.

Oh, no she won't use a micro-wave and I wouldn't be able to teach her how to use one now.

So I'm wondering if anybody has a HOTPOINT DSC60 or HUE61 or similar.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/cooking/cookers/hotpoint-ultima-hue61ps-electric-ceramic-cooker-white-10127659-pdt.html

If you do - would you be able to tell me;
If the cooker main oven is on and say set to 140 degrees C (WFF meal temp).  If you then knock it off at the isolator.  Well what happens when you switch it back on?

I've tried HOTPOINT technical support, but you get a guy who tries to help, but can only send an e-mail to the engineering dept, and well I haven't really got an answer to the question I was trying to ask.  Lost in translation I think.

I know this is a long shot, but I don't want to spend 400 quid on a cooker my mother cannae use.  But the one she has right now is no longer really safe for her.  But there is usually some foccer that knows something about anything.

[noggythenog]

I don't have that cooker Andy but I can possibly give some wisdom on the basis I have an electric hob oven, 5 year old thing which is built in but perhaps the fundamentals are the same.

I always switch mine on off at the plug because it is a fire or burn hazard if I don't......mainly because cleaning the top you can hit the switches by accident and not realise and next thing burn your hands.

Because I switch it off at the plug then it always resets the clock...I don't care as I have a kitchen clock anyway.

To stop the oven just switching on automatically when I hit the power switch...say for example like with your mum she leaves the dial on 200 degrees from previous meal......the timer switch needs to be activated to switch on the oven.....it doesn't mean however that you have to set the timer...you can simply press inwards the button that you would use to silence the alarm.

So that dial thingy im guessing on the pics is to set the timer up and down.......to cancel the timer alarm im guessing that you press the nob inwards.

Try this...maybe it will work.....leave the dial on 200 degrees....switch on at the plug.......press the timer button inwards towards the oven a click stab and woola the oven will fire into life and heat up to 200 degrees. (worth a try they must all be similar)

timers are great though especially for the elderly...in so much that if they forget they have something in the oven it wont keep heating until it ignites......the timer beeps a million times and then switches the oven off.....thing is that is too complicated for allot of old folks so I can also see the logic with your mums switching off at the plug scenario.

Microwaves and the elderly are pretty lethal though.....using margarine tubs in them which leaks BPA everywhere, nuking everything to death....and in the case of my granddad....forgetting that he had put one of those lavender smelling bean bag thingies for bed in the microwave and set to 20 minutes instead of 2 minutes.......cue on fire microwave and him hoofing it out into the back garden on fire........took me a week to clean the kitchen after that because he was too embarrassed to claim off the house insurance........black plastic filth coating on every thing and surface

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Cheers Noggy.

That's the thing, I can't try until I buy.  Then it's too late.  But the current cooker is an issue now.

I'm hoping that the timer will stop asking for the time, and the oven will then cut in.  Maybe I'm hoping for too much!

But on yours it's just one stab of the timer button?  Amd then the oven kicks in where it was left before?

Want to keep her doing wee things for herself for as long as possible.

Somebody must have a HUE61 (or the curry's only DSC60)  The dual fuels oven will be the same - so it would be HUD61

Picture of timer and oven control -

[noggythenog]

But on yours it's just one stab of the timer button?  Amd then the oven kicks in where it was left before?

[/img]

Yep that's it....it will always be flashing the time of 00:00 because it has been off at the plug.......1 stab of the timer button then and oven fires into life....the time stays as 00:00 throughout but it doesn't matter....& the light coming on inside the oven is usually the combat indicator that the stab of the button has worked....well that and the sound of the oven kicking in but with old ears the light is probably a better indication.

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Hmmm, it may be the same, but it might not.

So if it was the same, then on that wee HOTPOINT snap, it would be - switch on at the isolator - the time flashes - stab the clock button in the middle once - and bingo the oven will kick in and go to the temp it was previously set at............?

Anybody got a HOTPOINT cooker with fan only oven and minute timer?

Oh me old dear uses a separate timer that she sets and takes through to the living room with her.  When that goes off she goes and takes the WFF meal out of the oven.

[noggythenog]

Hmmm, it may be the same, but it might not.

So if it was the same, then on that wee HOTPOINT snap, it would be - switch on at the isolator - the time flashes - stab the clock button in the middle once - and bingo the oven will kick in and go to the temp it was previously set at............?

Anybody got a HOTPOINT cooker with fan only oven and minute timer?

Oh me old dear uses a separate timer that she sets and takes through to the living room with her.  When that goes off she goes and takes the WFF meal out of the oven.

Yeh I think someone with the same cooker is the best now......thing is all these old foccers never ever used a cooker .......more fool me for being part of the younger generation that does everything.

thing is it is different to see from the picture but if the selector for the heat temperature of the oven involves the LCD display in any way then my process might not work........when she toggles on and off to get it back to oven and then she goes to select the heat....does the temperature she has selected get displayed on the LCD display?.....if so then I would imagine that the power switch being off would reset the LCD and this would mean my method of just pressing the timer button wont work..because the heat needs to be dialled in again........if it is just a physical heat select dial though then my example seems more plausible....The first picture looks like the heat dial is pretty much a physical dial that can be turned round to say 200 degrees and just left there.....switching off the power wont physically alter that......so I still reckon the old press the timer button once and leave the heat dial as is would be fine.

[slappy]

I think with all modern electric cookers the oven will not operate until the clock is reset by pressing any of the clock buttons, this is to stop the oven coming back into operation in the event of the power supply being interrupted.
We had a series of power cuts two years ago and I had to reset the clock every time afterwards to get the oven to work as the clock automatically reset to 00:00 every time. This was on a Prima oven not a Hotpoint but as I said I do think they are all made that way for safety reasons.

[BBROWN1664]

:Agree

This is a safety feature they all use now. It is a pain sometimes but better than having a power cut when the oven is on, going out to eat instead, and coming home to find the oven has caused a fire when the power came back on.

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Surely some foccer's got one of these cookers?

[AndyL]

I have a cannon/hotpoint cooker though it's a ch60dpxfs bought three years ago.
I just tried turning the main oven on, dialing it down to 140 and turning off at the switch. It came back on at 140. If you use the dial to turn it on and off then it will always come on at 200 (or 190 when it's not in fan assisted mode for some reason).


A couple of other thoughts though. I used to live with a blind guy who had sticky on things for oven dials and so forth. The top oven on my cooker is a more simple turn it around to the desired temp. If you stuck one of those knobs on the dial and another just above the dial you could make it harder for someone to turn it past 140


a final point on my cooker, this could (and I hope) just be mine but I seem to have to cycle through setting the clock before getting to the timer. If that one works the same way that could be very confusing for her.  (just re-read and she uses a separate timer so maybe less of a concern).

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Cheers Andy,

Thanks for your help.

I think your model has the multi-function oven which is what my Mum and indeed I have just now.  We need to move away from that.  I could try and modify it so that the grill type elements in the oven wouldn't work, but the cooker is well worn and me Mum wants a new one anyway.

I am looking for anybody who has a fan only main oven Hotpoint.

Also the power off safety interlocks seem to kick in only after the oven has been off for a period of time.  I'm trying to work out what the minimum time is.

Meanwhile my sister, who is named as attorney along with myself is opposing the purchase of a new cooker.  But she opposes everything I try to do.  Murder I tell you.  I would have ordered a fortnight ago but I've got to be as certain as I possibly can that this purchase is the right move.

Meanwhile Currys have just stuck the price of the HUE61 up by over 100 quid.  Probably so they can do one of their pretend special offers in a couple of months time.  Aaaaagh

Anyway if anybody has a DSC60, a HUE61, or a HAE60 or any other HOTPOINT cooker with a fan only oven then I'd love to hear from you.

So current favourite is the HAE60 - http://www.johnlewis.com/hotpoint-hae60ps-electric-cooker-white/p1967640