Anybody else having any electrical issues?

Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

Two things happened.

I rolled over in bed and had a huge amount of static electricity. I touched the lamp next to my bed and the light came on....without me twisting the thingy to turn it on. I took my hand away from the lamp and it went out.

Today the cable went out just for a minute but when it came back on we had no channel numbers and no station identification. I've never seen that before.

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

Yes, having problems the last few days with the TV changing channels all on it's own. it will flip through several channels and i have to manually change it back to where I was.

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow, you were sure lucky that you were home when that toaster over caught fire! Our fire department here told us that most of the home fires they go to are caused by small appliances "Made in China" and recommended that they be unplugged when not in use. It might also be power surges since others are havingproblems with other things. As for the smoke odors, go to your local hardware store and tell them what you are looking for. I know that there is a cleaning solution they sell just for that. Good Luck and be careful.

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

You know, now that you mention that we have been having problems with several lights in our house. We have a light over the stove that went out a few months ago. Well right before Christmas, my husband and I were sitting in the living room and all of a sudden the light just pops on and we looked at each other and I just looked up at the ceiling and said "Alright guys, I know that you are here, I guess this is your way of letting us know". The only thing is now we can't turn the sucker off. No matter how you push the light switch, it stays on.

Last week one of our lamps had one of those curly lights that are supposed to save you money (I haven't seen it happen on the electric bill but maybe I am not looking at it correctly) and last like 7 years, well it just goes poof, right out. Then the light that is in my oven would not go on for all the tea in China. I kept pushing the button, went into the oven and checked to see if it hadn't come loose which it wasn't. Then I go to use the oven yesterday and poof, the sucker goes right on. Then last night the light over the stove, starts to flicker.

I don't really know what to make of the electrical issues. Maybe it is because the house is as old as I am (49) or maybe it is the bulbs or maybe other issues. It sure has mystified us and especially my husband as he has worked on electricity.

:[/quote]
Wow, you were sure lucky that you were home when that toaster over caught fire! Our fire department here told us that most of the home fires they go to are caused by small appliances "Made in China" and recommended that they be unplugged when not in use. It might also be power surges since others are having problems with other things. As for the smoke odors, go to your local hardware store and tell them what you are looking for. I know that there is a cleaning solution they sell just for that. Good Luck and be careful.[/quote]

Well after freezing yesterday with all the windows open and doors, it is just a little faint smell, so hopefully after cooking, making coffee, etc. it will finally go. Someone suggested burning some fragrant candles.

I will take your advise and unplug my small appliances from now on. Seems like a good idea, it must have been some surge. The knob to turn it on was melted so bad that it just fell off in my hand.

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this story. My grandson played basketball in the Northern Division Finals for all elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley and had just left for there at 7:00 a.m. The good news is my daughter and I were running a little late and were getting ready to go and meet them there. If we had left, the house would have been burnt down. The bad news is we missed the game and he came in 3rd in all Northern Division schools. He is happy and won beautiful trophies for the school and himself. The team did really good without us, but we went to the 1:00 games and he got another trophy there and a party, so all was not lost. Just glad we were home and got it in time. All my small appliances are not unplugged. I also need to get new batteries for the detectors.

Polly, AZ wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

Yes, having problems the last few days with the TV changing channels all on it's own. it will flip through several channels and i have to manually change it back to where I was.

Hi Polly-
NO random channel changing, but the satellite receiver was not working for at least an hour yesterday evening. We have Dish, and at a bit after 5:00 PM (MT time) we turned on the TV to watch the Weather Channel. We had no satellite signal and the message screen that shows it reestablishing the satellite link was not working. So we unplug the receiver for awhile to reset it. Comes back up and the satellite link message is there and functioning, but it took more than 30 minutes to reestablish the link, and another 15 or so to get the schedule up and running.

Two things are notable here. First the system has gone down before in power outages and it took about 20 min. overall to reset everything. This took a much longer time to reset. Secondly it was a Sunday evening between 5 and 6 pm. Over the years I have lived here in swNM I have noticed several satellite TV signal disruptions for no known reason on Sunday evenings.

This morning the satellite internet was out for a short time, but we have bad weather moving in, so it could have been weather related. From the posts here this seems to be much wider ranging than just my little corner of the desert. OH, I also heard yesterday that there was a big cell phone outage somewhere in the southeast- that could be related as well. Take care and stay safe.
Blessings- Paula.

Nightmoves wrote:

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this story. My grandson played basketball in the Northern Division Finals for all elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley and had just left for there at 7:00 a.m. The good news is my daughter and I were running a little late and were getting ready to go and meet them there. If we had left, the house would have been burnt down. The bad news is we missed the game and he came in 3rd in all Northern Division schools. He is happy and won beautiful trophies for the school and himself. The team did really good without us, but we went to the 1:00 games and he got another trophy there and a party, so all was not lost. Just glad we were home and got it in time. All my small appliances are not unplugged. I also need to get new batteries for the detectors.

Yeah, don't forget the batteries. Smoke detectors do work, once the smoke gets to them. Of course don't put on in the kitchen unless you want to be looking like a flagman waving the kitchen towel all the time in the air to take away the steam.

We have three total. One in the entry way, and two down our long hallway. We also have an alarm system that will send the FD if no one is here, which is never since my mother-in-law is always home. However she is hard of hearing and is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers which is not a good thing, but my son is here three days a week and I am home some of the time when I have time off. So it kind of works.

Good thing you were delayed. I always believe that we are meant to be in specific places at specific times for specific reasons. I never question if I go one way when I know that there is a shorter way. I never backtrack I just keep going the way I am. For whatever reason I am headed the way I am it may be for my safety. I don't try and second guess.

If you know anyone locally who has a Ecoquest air system....they will take it out...sometimes realtors have them so they can clear out the air in homes...but don't get the huge one unless you clear all people and plants and animals out...pretty powerful. But the little Alpine units should do it the job as they pull out it all...you might be able to find in on the Ecoquest website online and they even have very small units that can sit on the counters......(not sure if I am posting this correctly..but am trying...kay)

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Nightmoves wrote:

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this story. My grandson played basketball in the Northern Division Finals for all elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley and had just left for there at 7:00 a.m. The good news is my daughter and I were running a little late and were getting ready to go and meet them there. If we had left, the house would have been burnt down. The bad news is we missed the game and he came in 3rd in all Northern Division schools. He is happy and won beautiful trophies for the school and himself. The team did really good without us, but we went to the 1:00 games and he got another trophy there and a party, so all was not lost. Just glad we were home and got it in time. All my small appliances are not unplugged. I also need to get new batteries for the detectors.

I did check with my son and he said that what you need to do is see if the smell might be in any surrounding vents. If there appears to be a smell there, the only solution is to call out a company like ServePro as they are really the only ones who know how to deal with these types of situations and have the correct type of cleaning solutions that will rid the smell once and for all. Wish that was better news.

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this story. My grandson played basketball in the Northern Division Finals for all elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley and had just left for there at 7:00 a.m. The good news is my daughter and I were running a little late and were getting ready to go and meet them there. If we had left, the house would have been burnt down. The bad news is we missed the game and he came in 3rd in all Northern Division schools. He is happy and won beautiful trophies for the school and himself. The team did really good without us, but we went to the 1:00 games and he got another trophy there and a party, so all was not lost. Just glad we were home and got it in time. All my small appliances are not unplugged. I also need to get new batteries for the detectors.

I did check with my son and he said that what you need to do is see if the smell might be in any surrounding vents. If there appears to be a smell there, the only solution is to call out a company like ServePro as they are really the only ones who know how to deal with these types of situations and have the correct type of cleaning solutions that will rid the smell once and for all. Wish that was better news.

Thanks for checking Calibabe -

The smell is very faint now. We opened up all the sliding glass doors and windows (froze our butts off), and it has pretty much gone. The good news is the air/heat vent is on the other side of the kitchen, so it might have gotten a little, but it's okay. It just smells faintly like burnt logs from a fireplace now. That plastic like smell has gone. I can live with it and I am sure it will fade in time. Cooking should do the trick after awhile. I cleaned the wall, etc with Ajax and all the cabinets and counter tops with the appropriate cleaners, and even baked a cake. The kitchen is the only room that has the slight odor now. All the smell went out of the Living Room, Family Room and Dining Room and hall. Our bedrooms never really had too much to begin with, so that was good. All my small appliances are unplugged in the kitchen area and I got new batteries to replace in the smoke detectors. I am grateful we were so lucky. I got a new toaster oven, but it will not be plugged in.

Nightmoves wrote:

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

Calibabe wrote:

Nightmoves wrote:

geenee wrote:Tv went bizerk thought the picture tube was going out. It was flashing like one of those strobe lights. Never had that problem before.

OMG, I can not believe you posted this. I had a major electrical problem. Some kind of short or something in my toaster oven. No one was near it or used it for about 3 days. I was in my room and my daughter in hers. All of a sudden I smelt smoke. I ran to the kitchen and found the toaster oven was on fire. Every thing in the area was smoldering. If I would have come out about a minute later, my kitchen would have been engulfed in flames. I am still trying to air out the kitchen. The smoke was so bad and it still stinks. Anyone know how to get rid of smoke smell. I have tried everything from coffee grounds, vinegar and water, cloves and various spices. I even baked a chocolate cake tonight to get rid of it. It is not as bad as yesterday, but still lingering.

Wow

I will ask my son tonight. Since he will be attending the fire academy in the fall and has been doing some computer work for LACoFD, he might be able to ask someone there about what you could use.

You sure were lucky. However the other good thing to remember is that the general response time of the LAFD out here is 4min or under so hopefully it would have been confined to the kitchen had it become worse.

I had it happen with a pot on the stove about 6 mos ago. Somehow there was some grease on the bottom of the pot, after it had gone through the dishwasher and it caught flame after being put on the stove. Next thing my son comes out and I am sitting in the living room and says "Mom, what the hell is on fire?" I said "I am cooking" and with that he looks and yells "The damn stove is on fire", at which point I jumped up and looked at this flame that was all the way up to the bottom of the cabinets. I damn near had a heart attack. I started to blow on the damn things which did diddlysquat and he grabbed the fire extinguisher and next thing you know, we have haylon all over the kitchen thanks to that extinguisher. Well I guess it was better to clean that up than it was to call the fire department out. In our other house we had to call them about 2 months before we moved. Our CO2 detectors went off right in the middle of the night. Shot us straigh out of bed. My husband looked at them, we each looked at each other, checking for signs of CO2 poisoning (cherry red lips, lightheadedness, feeling faint, sick to stomach, etc.). Hit the rest button and they shut off. He got his gas detector out and went around and didn't get any readings. We went back to bed and no sooner did we get back in and get comfortable, and the darn things went off again. Had to get back up. This time I wasn't fooling around and I just called LACoFD and they sent an engine and paramedic vehicle. I asked them to respond without lights and sirens and the dispatcher said while they were on the main roads they had to use them but they would not use them in our community. They also told us to go outside. By that time we had opened all the windows, and doors and then put on some robes and went out and waited for them to get there which was quick. My mini-schnauzer was puzzled and the other two dogs were out in the back yard. As the fire captain got out of the engine he asked how we felt and we all said fine. Mandi was growling and he looks at her and says "Hey there vicious" and she began wagging her tail. They came in and went around, used their meters and found nothing but I wanted to be safe. Thankfully after they left and we put the detectors back to reset, nothing else happened, but the day after we were drained. It was like 1:45 in the am and it took us about 2 hours to get back to sleep.

Watch those appliances. I will let you know about anythnig that is out there to get rid of that smell that is out commercially.

Well there is some good news and bad news to this story. My grandson played basketball in the Northern Division Finals for all elementary schools in the San Fernando Valley and had just left for there at 7:00 a.m. The good news is my daughter and I were running a little late and were getting ready to go and meet them there. If we had left, the house would have been burnt down. The bad news is we missed the game and he came in 3rd in all Northern Division schools. He is happy and won beautiful trophies for the school and himself. The team did really good without us, but we went to the 1:00 games and he got another trophy there and a party, so all was not lost. Just glad we were home and got it in time. All my small appliances are not unplugged. I also need to get new batteries for the detectors.

I did check with my son and he said that what you need to do is see if the smell might be in any surrounding vents. If there appears to be a smell there, the only solution is to call out a company like ServePro as they are really the only ones who know how to deal with these types of situations and have the correct type of cleaning solutions that will rid the smell once and for all. Wish that was better news.

Thanks for checking Calibabe -

The smell is very faint now. We opened up all the sliding glass doors and windows (froze our butts off), and it has pretty much gone. The good news is the air/heat vent is on the other side of the kitchen, so it might have gotten a little, but it's okay. It just smells faintly like burnt logs from a fireplace now. That plastic like smell has gone. I can live with it and I am sure it will fade in time. Cooking should do the trick after awhile. I cleaned the wall, etc with Ajax and all the cabinets and counter tops with the appropriate cleaners, and even baked a cake. The kitchen is the only room that has the slight odor now. All the smell went out of the Living Room, Family Room and Dining Room and hall. Our bedrooms never really had too much to begin with, so that was good. All my small appliances are unplugged in the kitchen area and I got new batteries to replace in the smoke detectors. I am grateful we were so lucky. I got a new toaster oven, but it will not be plugged in.

Wow glad things got taken care of!

geenee,

Funny you should ask! Yesterday late afternoon--Massive system crash on my iMac while on a Skype call (Skype's been wildly varying as to whether it rings on other end, too). Late last night--weird breakdown of this and other sites in that headers and sections of text disappeared, replaced by rows and stacks of tiny blocks apparently representing one character each. This site was reduced to practically background and avatars, but others were pretty intact. Reload failed to improve things. Condition continued today but went away following cold reboot of computer and modem. Today--DVR fast forward has gone insane, leaping repeatedly to end of recording, no matter which way I'm going, at anything other than the slowest FF speed. Maddening, but less exciting than the appliance fires. Eek!

John

n/t

John Kettler wrote:geenee,

Funny you should ask! Yesterday late afternoon--Massive system crash on my iMac while on a Skype call (Skype's been wildly varying as to whether it rings on other end, too). Late last night--weird breakdown of this and other sites in that headers and sections of text disappeared, replaced by rows and stacks of tiny blocks apparently representing one character each. This site was reduced to practically background and avatars, but others were pretty intact. Reload failed to improve things. Condition continued today but went away following cold reboot of computer and modem. Today--DVR fast forward has gone insane, leaping repeatedly to end of recording, no matter which way I'm going, at anything other than the slowest FF speed. Maddening, but less exciting than the appliance fires. Eek!

John

Wow John kinda reminds me of that movie where all the appliances had come alive and had juice running through the whole house or something like that can't quite remember the details. Everything came alive and ran amuck!

p.s. how ya feeling tonite? The house is having electrical issues .

geenee,

to the list you can add several losses of signal on Time Warner Cable Channel 411 (FOX HD) right at the beginning of American Idol and another system crash while on Skype, this one at ~11:17 p.m. PST. As for me, I've been bundled up for hours on end and am trying to stay sane while being ripped apart, especially in my middle. Just want this to end! It's 2:18 a.m. PST. Hope your electrical system stabilizes!

John

ATTUverse kept freezing up last night during Idol also. Lots of static on my am/fm radio too that I usually have on before I go to sleep.

geenee,

FOX Reality Channel and FX are both exhibiting repeated short freezes. Have Time Warner Cable.

John

Yes as did a friend of mine also WA had no internet connection for century link (formerly embarq, formerly sprint) all day yesterday

This is really getting old! Not only is it annoying to me, but it's very disconcerting to the other party in the call.

John

John Kettler wrote:geenee,

to the list you can add several losses of signal on Time Warner Cable Channel 411 (FOX HD) right at the beginning of American Idol and another system crash while on Skype, this one at ~11:17 p.m. PST. As for me, I've been bundled up for hours on end and am trying to stay sane while being ripped apart, especially in my middle. Just want this to end! It's 2:18 a.m. PST. Hope your electrical system stabilizes!

John

I have been giving a lot of thought to all the problems listed by everyone and it's driving me crazy not being able to figure it out. It seems to me that the electronic problems could be caused by solar effects, especially if they effect satellite signals. I imagine that car batteried going dead could be from the same too, but what about the home electrical problems? I don't think that electrical companies work off of satellites, although I imagine that solar flares "could" cause the companies or electrical lines to give off power surges. I think what bothered me the most were the two people who only reached out to an appliance and it went on. That sounds more like an "earth electrical disturbance". Years ago, during a thunder storm, we had a bolt of lightening strike six feet away from our house, burning a small tree and melting the sand in the ground to glass. I remember the fire department not allowing us out of our house until they brought us rubber boots and the neighbors were told to stay in their homes and they told us then that "electricity can travel over 100' through the ground". Is it possible that earth is putting out a lot of electrical surges that might be effecting everything?