On Thu, 7 Jun 2012 23:22:56 -0700 (PDT), Tommy Joe
> wrote:

>On Jun 7, 8:37*am, somebody > wrote:
>
>> One odd thing about it. *The electrical cord is only about 18 inches
>> long and comes out of the bottom near the front. *Why such a short
>> cord, and why is it near the front?
>
>
> Here come those complaints I was predicting. I have to admit I
>wonder the same thing with some appliances. I bought a blender for
>the first time in years about a month ago - $25 Oster, Walmart - works
>ok for what I need - but the cord is incredibly short. I'm living in
>an apartment building that went up in 1925, it's not like there's an
>outlet on every wall. But even within only a foot or two of a wall
>plug in the kitchen the wire just barely makes it to the outlet. I
>have seen this with other items. I am not making excuses for the
>people who manufacture these products, but I'm assuming there's got to
>be a reason why they make their plug wires so short. Maybe they're in
>cahoots with the extension-cord people.

For safety reasons they no longer want to encourage leaving countertop
appliances plugged in all the time. And don't use an extension cord,
especially with a toaster, or with any appliance in the kitchen (or
bathroom). They also don't want folks moving such appliances to the
edge of the counter, and certainly not near sinks; "they" meaning the
fire underwriters lab... especially important not to override
electrical safety features living in a nearly hundred year old
building, wiring can be very old and inadequate, and you may not have
GFI protected circuits. You shouldn't own a toaster oven, of all
household appliances the toaster oven is most likely to cause house
fires.