“…you’d burn the house down keeping a crock pot going for 16 hours. Is this safe?”
I am not the Fire Marshall, but I have always thought that the low temps in crockpots could go for days (hopefully not) and still be safe. However, we have gotten in the habit of putting ceramic tile trivets under each foot of the crockpot whenever we use it, to allow some more air circulation under it and to keep the warm crock from warming the kitchen counter too severely. I have never read this advice anywhere and I guess the appliance’s feet do this anyway, but it’s our little nod to feeling safer.
[Side note: We had a laptop computer that prematurely bit the dust about 2 years ago, and our computer tech guy suggested it was staying warm, without air circulation under it, and this may have contributed to its demise. We bought a new laptop and now have put some old (old!) cassette tape boxes under the corners of the laptop to get it up off the table. I need to improve this arrangement, but it is another variation on “trivets under appliances to allow air flow.”]
