My guess is that someone put Gallium in an Aluminium pan. Similar to https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IgXNwLoS-Hw
Aluminum melts at 1,220° F, I doubt electric stovetops get that hot.
https://www.alineautomation.com/at-what-point-does-aluminum-begin-to-melt/
"For example, pure aluminum metal melts at 660°C (1220°F). However, when you alloy it with other metals, such as copper or magnesium, the melting point can change significantly. Copper-aluminum alloys can melt between 500-600°C (932-1112°F), while magnesium-aluminum alloys can melt between 600-700°C (1112-1292°F).
Additionally, aluminum oxides have even lower melting points than pure aluminum metal. They can start to melt anywhere from 200-400°C (392-752°F). As you can see, understanding the point at which aluminum begins to melt depends largely on what form it takes."
But, steel loses 1/2 it’s strength far lower than the melting point, assuming something similar here… how hot can an electric stovetop get?
https://www.thedailymeal.com/1486561/mistakes-cooking-on-electric-stove-top/
“This is because the uppermost setting can result in the stove top reaching extremely high temperatures, anywhere between 500 and 750 degrees Fahrenheit.”
“Just like steel, aluminum alloys become weaker as the service temperature rises. But aluminum melts at only about 1,260 degrees, so it loses about half of its strength by the time it reaches 600 degrees.”
And there it is…
- Coil stoves get red hot by resistive heating of nichrome, reaching 700-900C, near or above the melting point of most common alloys of aluminum.
- Even cheap coil stoves should have a thermal fuse that shuts off the coil if it gets too hot but it could have been disabled or otherwise not prevented heating the aluminum to over 500C
You can’t just post this and not give context. I keep looking at this and go, “How?”
I’m guessing they forgot about it and left it on until whatever was in it boiled dry/burned off, and then heated the pan to the point it began to melt. I’d bet it took at least overnight if not through the weekend. Some pans will take longer to get to this state than others depending on what they’re made of.
The fact they didn’t burn the place down is sheer luck.
When I was in highschool my mother left a pot of stock simmering and went to work, except instead of leaving it on low she left it on high. I came home to a smoke filled apartment, and the pot was full of chicken bone shaped black carbon. As I grabbed the handle and brought it toward the sink molten metal poured out of the heavy base into the sink. It was scary and I’m grateful I wasn’t severely burned and that our place didn’t burn down!
I discovered the hard way when I had my own business with me as the only employee that if you leave a coffee machine with only a small amount of coffee in it on overnight, there will be no fire.
But good luck trying to get the smell of burnt coffee out of your office for the next week.
I’m guessing he was trying to boil water in a aluminium pan and forgot about it? I’m also guessing said roommate must have left, because a burning non-stick coating would be rather noticeable.
I mean, I did something kinda like that as a kid, I forgot a aluminium bottomed steel pan once and managed to melt the base (thankfully with no non-stick coating fumes).
Aluminum vapours are toxic and deadly. Apparently they used to make tanks with aluminum, but then tankies who survived a direct hit inhaled some containing it and died from that instead.
That is an untruth. There has never been medical proof of this. It was a citation that was read out of context of one random study on Alzheimer. And the internet misinformationed it to the max. Have you heard that you should buy Baking Soda without Aluminum in it? Lie! Baking Soda has NEVER had Aluminum in it. But people constantly repeat this ridiculous myth. Just another fact to ponder, In many Asian nations, aluminum sauce pans have been used for decades (Japan is a great example), and the level of Alzheimer’s is no different than the rest of the world.
Really old research found aluminum in the plaques once, it was actually from contamination in the water they used to wash the brains for the staining agent.
There’s no solid evidence either way.
IMO the biggest problems with aluminum is
- a low melting point :)
and
- It’s reactive to high ph, so you have to be careful what you cook in it.
How dumb must one be to get a stove well hotter than they should rightfully be able to get that it melts your pot and even the heating element itself? 🤨
Oh get down off your high horse and stop pretending that you haven’t tried to make macaroni while entirely too drunk to operate a doorknob and passed out in the bathroom wearing a toga you made while trying to espouse the glory of Rome to an imagined detractor of the empire based on a conversation you had five years prior.
You need therapy and ave Imperator.
You win! Your roommate deserves some kind of prize, and you deserve a reward for putting up with them.