A few days ago we had a giant power surge in our neighborhood and a simultaneous viral attack of our website (and if you noticed, all of the 2010 entries into yours truly’s blog are missing).
The gap in power caused the clock on my gas range to blink, begging to be reset. My gas range has one of those touch pad cooking panels and sometimes the clock takes a bit of patience to reset. There was no hurry to run around the house re-establishing temporal sanity, so I left everything a-blinking whilst I did other chores around the house.
However, my husband decided to fix my gas range’s clock. I kept hearing the distinctive high-pitched beep beep beep sound and was puzzled by it, but didn’t pay any mind. Soon enough, the sound subsided and my ears went back to their regular routine enjoying the silence.
A few hours later, I’m in the kitchen and notice the clock on my gas range has some cryptic error code: 5ab. What the heck? I push the keypads, and nothing happens. turning off the circuit to my gas range from the electrical panel?Zilch. They are frozen. I cannot press broil, bake, or even see in the oven because the light won’t come on. Except for the gas burners, the rest of my gas range is dead.
Oh, drat! The power surge fried the circuits in my gas range, I thought. Maybe my gas range needs to be unplugged a few seconds to reset the touch pad memory. That’s what I usually do when my printer goes haywire. I just turn it off, wait 10 seconds, and turn it back on. That usually does the trick. Except in this case, several hundred pounds of appliance are in the way of the plug. My gas range will have to be moved out…a precarious proposition at best for scratching floors or chipping countertops. How about How about turning off the circuit to my gas range from the electrical panel?
Sounded like a plan. So, my husband, humbled by the idea that his attempt to reset the clock had caused the malfunction on my gas range, trotted off to find the circuit that would free the electronic buttons from their frozen state.
It didn’t work.
Several hours later, I realized my cooking routine was going to be interrupted since I couldn’t even press the “Bake” control button to heat the oven. Just before calling the lonely repairman, I pulled out the operator’s manual and learned about some very clever programming that my gas range and most other modern ranges have these days.
The “5ab” I was seeing on the clock on my gas range was not an error code at all. It was an indicator that the Sabbath mode was activated! According to the manual, “This is a mode of operation based on Jewish requirements for holidays and Sabbaths. On Sabbaths, devout Jews cannot operate any machinery, including appliances, because this is considered work, which is prohibited on the Sabbath Day. To accommodate this, the range can be placed into Sabbath mode where only the bake and timed bake modes are functional.”
My “5ab” was really “Sab” (the “5″ is used to represent an “S”) and only the bake and timed bake functions work om “5ab” mode!
One mystery solved. However, look as I might, nowhere in the owner’s manual are there instructions on how to get out of the “5ab” mode on my gas range. So I Googled “brand gas range problems” and found a marvelous website: http://fixitnow.com/ that gives quick advice on how to fix or troubleshoot problems with appliances.
Their advice was to hold the “Clock” button down for three seconds. Even though there was none of the normal “give” to the touchpad button, it worked! The clock went back to its pre-power surge time, and the oven light resumed. “5ab” was gone on my gas range.
What a relief that we didn’t have to go through the expense of replacing the gas range’s brain or wiring, like we assumed would have to happen. All is right with the world now. And our Jewish friends no doubt will have a laughing fit at our “5ab” adventure.
Happy Cookbooking,
Matilda
