Consumer user interfaces

I've been using Nesco roaster/ovens for a while now.  Both a 6 quart (pot roast sized) and an 18 quart (turkey sized).  They heat up the kitchen less and are presumably a little more efficient than the old Kenmore range (which is also electric).  

The small Nesco was bought in the 90s, made solidly in Wisconsin.  The big Nesco is newer by a couple decades and imported, not made as solidly but it has one nice feature: a neon bulb which lights when the heating coils are ON.  This must have been fairly inexpensive, basically just add a neon bulb in parallel with the heating coils - when the thermostat goes on so does the neon.

the neon bulb is behind the slot just below 200

But the small Nesco would require the user to stand around and hear the thermostat click off (not sure if it's loud enough to hear).  Otherwise you'd have to just let it preheat the recommended number of minutes and then shove in the food.

no neon on the smaller Nesco

There must be an easy way to add a heater indicator to the small Nesco but I haven't found it yet.  Drilling a hole in the side and adding a neon bulb is probably do-able but more work than I'd want to undertake, especially since after buttoning it up the roaster might not work !  Maybe a current transformer could be added to the cord but then an external box would be needed, maybe with electronics ?  Again, too much trouble.

I'll probably just keep sticking in the probe of my kitchen thermometer and use that readout to know when temperature has been reached.  Of course just as soon as the lid is lifted the hot air whooshes out so it probably doesn't matter all that much anyway.

Still, a little neon bulb can be very handy !

Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm