To counter the bad luck of a year 2023 which will have hit you again, between inflation, rotten weather and wars in the world, you thought you had found THE solution. A good raclette this Saturday evening, the comfort and antidepressant dish par excellence, filling the stomach and bringing back the smile.
But this seemingly perfect plan didn’t take into account another problem in your life. That damn raclette machine cable is always too short, like Kolo Muani’s shot in the World Cup final (speaking of depression). Who in this room has never had to pull out an extension cord? Position your raclette machine in an unlikely corner of the table? Put it on the floor, or rearrange your dining room to finally reach an electrical outlet? To believe that nothing – really nothing – in life can be simple, not even a potato covered in cheese and cold meats.
Marketing indifference
Failing to have the right to total happiness, we decided to at least obtain explanations. Why is this damn cable so sadly short, we’ve never complained about that of our vacuum cleaner or our iron? “But the goal of these, and one of their marketing arguments, is to be mobile and practical to move, where this is not the case with a raclette machine,” recalls François Levêque, professor of economics at Mines-ParisTech and who kindly agreed to respond to our survey. In short, the cable is vital for sale of a vacuum cleaner or an iron, not at all in the case of the raclette. “So you might as well save on the length of the cable,” says the professor.
Another big difference with devices with a cable as long as a giraffe’s neck, such as vacuum cleaners: with the exception of the most freaks of you, “we use a raclette machine much less. It is an object that is used three or four times a year, at a very specific period. We can therefore accommodate some logistical problems since these are rare moments,” continues François Levêque.
Size matters, but the size of the box rather than the cable
The rest of the year, the device dies in the back of a cupboard, in the dressing room or in the cellar and takes up an unnecessarily large space for its usefulness. According to a 2019 study by the Sociovision Institute for French Furniture, the French place raclette machines on the podium of objects they have the most difficulty storing (along with kitchen utensils such as pots and shoes, respectively top 1 and 2 in the ranking): 33% of us would have difficulty storing this object somewhere at home.
“With its seasonal use and its very specific function, the size of the raclette machine and the box are therefore arguments to take into account”, informs Amandine Louyrette, marketing manager for culinary preparation and small cooking products at Baker. For this, brands offer several alternatives. First option, multifunctional devices, which make raclette, grill, crepe at the same time, indicates the expert. Second option, reduced-size devices, either for two, or with a shorter cable.
Too long, too stupid
And then if a cable that is too short is indeed painful, a cable that is too long is just as painful – your headphones attest to this. As a result, “it is difficult to estimate the right size of a cable, and there is probably no ideal size,” recognizes François Levêque.
Amandine Louyrette extends the observation: it is better to have a cable that is too short than too long. “We can easily adapt to a cable that we consider too short, most homes have at least a power strip, an extension cord, an accessible socket, whereas a cable that is too long will inevitably lie around on the ground, take up space. You can get your feet caught in it, which quickly becomes dangerous with a heating device.”
What if this damn cable wasn’t that short?
Don’t worry, your cable is not 5 cm either. “A minimum size is imposed depending on the power of the device and the thickness of the cable. But there is no standard that sets a mandatory size,” indicates Amandine Louyrette. At Boulanger, and contrary to what we all felt when plugging in the device, the average cable of the raclette machine is similar to that of other kitchen appliances: 80 centimeters, more than the legal minimum .
So why this feeling of smallness? “Unlike the toaster and the microwave, which remain fixed in the kitchen on the worktop, next to sockets provided for this purpose, the raclette machine is located right in the middle of the table, which makes it “naturally moves away from the sockets,” explains Amandine Louyrette. Quite simply.
The fact remains that the brands have understood that there is often a size problem. “Our salespeople are responsible for asking consumers how they plan to install the raclette machine, and can offer to add a specific cable intended for this purpose to purchases, which allows the length to be extended up to two meters”, in order to to FINALLY reach that damn wall. So we weren’t totally crazy for asking the question.