Heat diffuser for stove


 
timothy

timothy

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
What do you use?
Mom had one that sat on a burner all the time and looked like this.
Reviews are alright, but a handle like this would be nice and there is also cast iron one from Italy.
 
I have two:

I've had this one for decades and use it under a large pot simmering for a long time.

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I also have one like this one. I think it has a wood handle and this one looks plastic. The handle is nice, yet can get in the way at times.


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I have one of each size.
Do they work? I guess.
Are they worth the price? Not really.

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G Schafer said:
I remember using asbestos pads under flasks and beakers with bunsen burners in 7th and 8th grade science class. Playing with mercury was fun too.

Gerry
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Yeah, I recall when my girls were in middle school. I suddenly get an urgent call from school. Gotta pick them up. Someone broke a thermometer and a couple beads of mercury went on the floor. They had to shut down the entire school complex for the rest of the day and the next for hazmat. SMH
 
On a family trip to Quebec when I was a kid (early 60's) we stopped in a town called Asbestos, Quebec which was an open pit mining town. Brought a big chuck of this green fibrous material home that I took to school for show and tell. I remember all of us peeling strands of fibers off the chunk. Who knew!
 
Mercury poisoning..... that's a problem. Not just thermometers, also used as a floating frictionless bearing for things like rotating lighthouse beacons.

Asbestos isn't an issue as long as it's not broken up so the fibers go floating. An asbestos pad, while not necessarily completely desirable at home, shouldn't be a problem unless you're cutting it up. I've also been told that due to the rather loose legal definition of asbestos, practically every dump truck in MI should have hazmat plaques on it.
 
I know about asbestos all too well having been a mechanic when asbestos was used to make brake parts. We had no clue. We'd clean he brakes by blowing them out with compressed air. The whole shop would be filled with the stuff.
 
LMichaels said:
I know about asbestos all too well having been a mechanic when asbestos was used to make brake parts. We had no clue. We'd clean he brakes by blowing them out with compressed air. The whole shop would be filled with the stuff.
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And nobody used masks then either! Never mind in high school band we would poke holes in the asbestos pipe covers with our drumsticks in the band room.
 
Just to get back to the main topic. We have two as well we use with our gas stove. One is the mesh with the handle and the other is coated metal. We use them on the smallest burner to slow things down even more with our Cuisinart commercial cookware. I like the one with the wood handle since it is easier to move around.
 
I have never used a heat diffuser, although I remember my mom always having one.

As a happenstance, my wife is running late and asked me to heat up a pot of meatballs and sauce and start the pasta water to boil when I got home, so I figured why not try it?

I went downstairs to my mom’s apartment and asked to borrow hers.

It’s funny I never thought to use one, since the large burners on our gas stove have a tendency to burn food even at the lowest setting.

Here is a photo of my moms for reference.

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