That time a customer brought in a toaster that smelled like burnt hair

This was at my old shop in Austin, maybe 8 years back. A guy walks in with a fancy four-slice toaster, says it keeps tripping his kitchen outlet. I pop it open and find a fried mouse nest packed right into the heating element area, complete with a few crispy former residents. The smell was something else, like a bad perm gone wrong. I had to completely strip it down and clean every part with isopropyl before I could even start on the actual short. Ever since then, I ask about any 'unusual smells' before I even plug a kitchen appliance in. What's the weirdest thing you've ever found inside a piece of gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

gonzalez.vera16h ago

Got a similar story with a gaming PC. Client complained about random shutdowns and a weird sweet smell. Opened it up to find a melted gummy bear stuck between the graphics card and the motherboard. Kid must have dropped it through a vent. The sugar caramelized from the heat, created a sticky short. Took forever to scrape off. Now I always ask if there are small kids or pets in the house.

oliver_fisher15h ago

Reminds me of pulling a vacuum apart for a friend. It just kept losing suction. Opened the dust canister to find a single, perfectly clean baby sock, jammed right in the hose bend. No idea how it got past the filters. The machine was basically just breathing in and out on that little sock for weeks.