What is the role of resistors in household appliances?

Answer 1

Probably the most common resistor in a household appliance is the resistive heating element. They appear in an electrical stove or range. The standard electric range and its oven have resistive heating elements in them. They're just "oversized" resistors that get really hot when we run current through them. Toasters have resistive heating elements, too. Most of the use nichrome in the form of wire or in little flat strips. Some have quartz heating elements, which have that resistive heating element inside quartz or fused silica glass. Coffee makers have resistive heating elements. Toaster ovens, too. Hair dryers and straightners? Yup. Anything that plugs in and is designed to get hot probably has a resistive heating element in it. There are actual resistors, like the electronic components, in all the electronic equipment in the house. All of it. They may be discreet components, or may be part of an integrated circuit. But they're there.