Acceptable Hot plates for shabbat

Can u use this hot plate on Shabbat if I cover the knobs? Also, is there any other permissible way to heat food on Shabbat? Is the keep warm function acceptable on an oven? (https://www.shopyourway.com/m/kenmore-wg1302-portable-double-burner-hot-plate/393818793?sid=ism20150402x678904&forcedeeplink=false)

If the heat in the pot on the hot plate or in the oven on low temperature does not bring the food above 125 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can use it on Shabbat to warm food.

Is it a specific temperature or if the food can be handled directly from and eaten straight from the oven— is that ok?

If the food remains a lower temperature than 125 degrees Fahrenheit even if it stays in the oven a long time, then it’s ok.

If you can put the food straight into your mouth from the oven, then there’s no way that it’s above 125.

I thought hotplates were much hotter than 125 degrees?

Those aren’t good. Many have temperature controls.

I will check my hot plate to be sure. It said kosher for Shabbat on the box and I got it as a wedding gift years ago. Do you know any particular brands that you know are ok that you could recommend?

Kosher certification on a hot plate has little meaning in reference to the above discussion. Stick to the temperature of up to 125 degrees and you will be fine.

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Following up on this because it came up in another post:

Can you use a hot plate that gets very hot (over 125 degrees) if you put down a blech first. Such as a few sheets of tin foil or a sheet of metal.

On a hot plate, putting a few sheets of foil allows one to place cold, solid foods to warm up even if they do reach yad soledes bo.

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To clarify, “A few sheets of tin foil or a sheet of metal” as you stated do not have the same din.

A few sheets of tin foil is ok because the first acts as a blech, The second acts as a vessel on top of the blech. Following this logic a “sheet of metal” being only one item will not allow cold foods to be put on it.

@raCHDaL is a single sheet of foil or a single piece of metal (like a traditional blech) on top of a shabbat hot plate sufficient to warm up cold solid already cooked food if that food is in some kind of container? For example, a kugel in a baking dish.

No.
Allow me to elaborate. The hot plate is considered a fire and it is forbidden to place food or return food to the fire.
By putting a “Blech” (as we call it) you are accomplishing 2 things.

  1. You are lessening the heat of the fire.
  2. You are supplying a “heker” a recognizable separation, which effectuates that what you are doing does not look like the normal way of cooking.

Now with 1 blech it would be permissible to return the cooking food to the fire so long as it’s still in your hands and had not been placed on any other surface (for example- the counter) and all the other conditions.
But in the matter of a previously cooked dry food that you want to warm it is prohibited to place it on the Blech. Therefore the Sages allowed you to put it on the blech with an ADDITIONAL heker and so you must have two. Rav Abadi has ruled that an additional piece of silver foil may be added to the first to effectuate this second heker.
Now it is understandable why the foil pan or other container that the food was in is NOT an acceptable receptacle as it appears to be normal cooking. Only with a second foreign interference would it seem abnormal.
If by the same token you took an EMPTY foil pan and inverted it upside down on the Blech,
this too would be considered a strange way of cooking and it would be permissible to place the food or the pan from the fridge on it.

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Thank you! Now this all makes sense

BH. Hodu laHashem.