my oven
haven't been able to use my oven because it stinks when you turn it on. If you remember, I had a mouse problem in my kitchen a while back. I seem to have licked that--I cleaned and organized my whole kitchen, including hiring people to do the heavy cleaning--including inside and outside the oven, moving the oven to clean behind, etc.
But my oven still smells. So, I was going to use the self-cleaning function. I figured out how to do it, but --- after ten minutes, the oven started smoking from the top burners. A lot.
Is this normal? Did I mention I'm afraid of fire? The self-cleaning thing is like a 1000 degrees in there. The idea of my oven about to burst into flames freaks me totally out. I don't have a fire extinguisher ('tho I should get one).
I'm afraid there's something stuck in the underside--like dead mice bodies, or more likely old refrigerator insulation material--but I can't very well flip the thing over. What are my options? Should I just leave it on and hope the smoke eventually burns off? Should I call my apt. maintenance for help?
I have no idea how US ovens compare with UK ones but my oven always (ALWAYS) gives off smoke and smells from the top burners the next time I use it after I've been roasting potatoes in it.
For me, roasting potatoes involves a Very Hot Oven and putting the potatoes in a tray of hot fat (which spits all the time) on the top shelf of the oven, thus guaranteeing that the top burners are covered in sprayed spat fat.
I figure this has to be burnt off, and that happens the next time I use the [oven-located, top-burner] grill thingy in my oven.
I try to remember to shut the door between the oven and teh smoke detector.
My recommendations are:
1 buy a fire extinguisher
2 remain in the kitchen for the duration of the smell from the oven; prolly ten minutes max ...
:)
Will your apt. maintenance replace your oven if it's "broken"?
Yes, I think it's supposed to do that when you use the self-cleaning feature.
Wikipedia is of no help here. It says it may admit smoke, and then says it really shouldn't.
Of course this may have to do with the age of the oven, as well.
wisegeek says you'll get smoke.
You gotta trust somebody named "wisegeek," right?
Mine smokes a bit when I clean it, but I don't clean it very often... years go by....
If it was just cleaned inside and out and still stink when you turn it on something doesn't sound right.
Will your apt. maintenance replace your oven if it's "broken"?
er . .. possibly. but they just replaced my refrigerator, which was far more broken. After several years of begging.
I get that it's supposed to smoke. It just scares me. I think I might get a fire extinguisher, for my own peace of mind, and try again with the super-duper self cleaning function.
You should have a fire extinguisher -at least one. and make sure you know how to use it and are not afraid of it. It's not just for breaking a window so you can escape
you're absolutely right. I probably should also have one of those emergency ladders. My bedroom is a second floor loft.
[SIZE="1"]and I probably should put the batteries in my smoke alarm. oops.[/SIZE]
I've used a fire extinguisher before. Was damn glad to have it, but it was barely large enough. After that situation (I was a teenager) my dad bought three industrial sized fire extinguishers for our house. One for each floor.
We've got two small ones in my house now. I sometimes think of getting a couple more. They are a little expensive, but when you need one, you'd gladly pay $50K to have one right at that moment.
We have three -one upstairs, one downstairs -both centrally located and attached to the walls, and one loose at the top of the basement stairs that we take in the car on roadtrips.
Smoke alarm batteries.... well, would it wake you?
beest is the safety officer at work (and did his fire extinguisher annual practice thingie just this week) and says that they only last for a few seconds and you need to use them correctly, so you should practice.
repeat fire extinguisher customer here.
Jeebus!
Afraid of fire? What are you afraid of? Insulting it? Hurting it? GO GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Then... light a fire in the parking lot. Set a cheap trash can of papers on fire. Let it burn for a minute. Then spend your fire extinguisher and put it out. Practice on that tiny fire in the parking lot. Burn your $15-20 or whatever it costs and see, no, do learn, experience your ability to control a small fire.
Then go get another one or three and put them in conspicuous places in your house.
Check your warming eye. You might have had food or grease spill through it to the top of your oven. When the top of the oven heats, it begins to burn the spillage
Is that anything like a brown eye?
FWIW, Many ovens with a cooktop utilize the back left burner as a vent.
repeat fire extinguisher customer here.
Jeebus!
Afraid of fire? What are you afraid of? Insulting it? Hurting it? GO GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Then... light a fire in the parking lot. Set a cheap trash can of papers on fire. Let it burn for a minute. Then spend your fire extinguisher and put it out. Practice on that tiny fire in the parking lot. Burn your $15-20 or whatever it costs and see, no, do learn, experience your ability to control a small fire.
Then go get another one or three and put them in conspicuous places in your house.
Excellent advice, BigV!
Afraid of fire or leaving your door unlocked, or the light on after you leave for work? Do as my sis-in-law and take a picture on your phone, each morning, of everything you turn off, unplug, lock, ect. So when you flip out later in the day, "OMG did I turn off the gas heater!???" Pull out your phone and take a look.
When my sis-in-law showed me her "method" the other night, and I nearly died laughing. I thought I would never meet someone more paranoid than my mother...I was wrong. I love that girl though, she is very amusing.
Anyway, my bit of thread drift is done.
How does she establish that the pictures are today's pictures, not yesterdays?
How does she establish that the pictures are today's pictures, not yesterdays?
She takes the pictures showing her panties, so she can check one against the other later.
Seriously, Cloud. My Mum is terrified of fire, but that at least means we're well prepared, Two smoke alarms (one on each floor) and one fire extinguisher. All of us know our escape route from upstairs (although I question whether I would be able to get out of the same windowframe we practised on when I was 16! The key is always kept in the back door overnight, to make it easier to get out in the dark/ smoke.
It's a bit OCD, but as Glatt says, the planning would be worth all the money in the world if it saved a life.
She takes the pictures showing her panties, so she can check one against the other later..
sounds like my kind of girl ;)
Is the cooker free-standing so you could tilt it up and see if there's anything underneath?
FWIW, Many ovens with a cooktop utilize the back left burner as a vent.
ours is back right
then its as unique as you are monster :D
repeat fire extinguisher customer here.
Jeebus!
Afraid of fire? What are you afraid of? Insulting it? Hurting it? GO GET A FIRE EXTINGUISHER. Then... light a fire in the parking lot. Set a cheap trash can of papers on fire. Let it burn for a minute. Then spend your fire extinguisher and put it out. Practice on that tiny fire in the parking lot. Burn your $15-20 or whatever it costs and see, no, do learn, experience your ability to control a small fire.
Then go get another one or three and put them in conspicuous places in your house.
Yea, we have three fire exstinguishers in our house. One under the kitchen sink, a larger one in the garage, a small one mounted on the wall in the utility room. In the last two houses we have lived in a fire exstinguisher has been used to put out small stove fires twice. A cheap investment that has payed off in our house.
ours is back right
Well yeah...you're British. :)
I had the mouse problem a few years back. After several futile attempts, ( including taking the damn thing completely apart, cleaning, reassembling) and several cycles off self clean, I still had a faint smell of hot mouse musk/piss/droppings/scorched flesh/yuk, etc. I finally gave up and bought a new stove.
My husband once had to clean dead possum out of the back of our clothes dryer, yuck! The smell affected our clothes for about a week before it went away. On the topic of ovens, ours is gas, and the oven fills with gas before the pilot lights it, scary.
My old oven used to always get fat splashes on the element which meant it almost always smoked and smelled bad when it was first turned on. Thank goodness we have a bigger oven now and that's not such an issue.
The only advice I'd have is to simply leave it turned on high until the smoke and smell stops and ventilate the house while you do so.
The left rear burner is probably the oven vent. There may be residue from the cleaning product your hired help used on the oven. Mine(GE) is specific about what cleaning products to use and not use. Not likely to burst into flames but I'd open the windows and try not to breath the smoke.
The mice probably built all sorts of lovely nests in your oven's insulation... I have a friend who recently had this problem with rats. Turns out you can open the whole thing up from the top and replace the insulation... otherwise, you may never be able to get rid of the stink.
Turns out you can open the whole thing up from the top and replace the insulation
This actually varies by oven. Some are poorly designed and hard to service. My current Maytag, for example. Not one of the panels can simply be removed. You have to remove all sorts of bolted on crap before you can get to the panels.
You should have a fire extinguisher -at least one. and make sure you know how to use it and are not afraid of it. It's not just for breaking a window so you can escape
Thanks for the reminder, Mons -- that had slipped my mind!
*Writes note to self to get three fire extinguishers for new house.*
This actually varies by oven. Some are poorly designed and hard to service. My current Maytag, for example. Not one of the panels can simply be removed. You have to remove all sorts of bolted on crap before you can get to the panels.
Lame!
Lame!
Oh, no, glatt's pretty clever.
I think he was saying the oven is lame if you have to go through all of that just to get to the panels.
I was actually pretty impressed at how hard it was to service my oven. To take the side panels off you have to remove like 4 things on each side. But to remove each of those 4 things, you have to remove another 4 things. Each component I looked at was set up in a similar way. It's like an Escher staircase. But a complicated one.
Anyway, I decided the squeaky springs pulling up the door are funny and not super annoying.
I think HungLikeJesus was making a joke. ;)
But there is insulation on both sides. And it is a bitch to get to it. I'll never forget my battle w/it. Horrific. Like I said, I just bought a new one. This one has no openings anywhere anything can go thru. The folks at the appliance store thought I was nutso. I was looking at the back and bottom of the range more than I cared about the range itsself.
And this one is a smooth top, too. Which I recommend. Nothing can get inside from the top either.
not really an option for me, so I hope whatever is making the smell will burn off.
want you guys to know I got a fire extinguisher and am now cleaning my oven. It stopped smoking after about 1/2 hour.
hope it takes care of the problem--we'll see
excellent! that should be a good start. Does it still smell at all?
Can we trade our ball gags for nose clips?
Good luck.
it still smells, but it doesn't seem as bad. We'll see what happens after I'm done.
um . . . ball gags?
cellar history.
old tag line: "That's it! Ball gags for everyone!"
Anyone else remember it?
I don't. But I wondered why we had to choose between the two; can't we keep the ball gags and ADD nose plugs? Oh, yeah...I guess breathing is a factor.
cellar history.
old tag line: "That's it! Ball gags for everyone!"
Anyone else remember it?
It wasn't a tagline, it was
the user title of Troubleshooter.
[size=1]No, I have no fucking idea why I remember that. This is why there's no space in my head for anything useful.[/size]
Damn Clod - now that shit right there is impressive!
That is impressive. I remember the phrase from here very well, but not where it came from or who used it.
BTW: Successfully completed the oven cleaning without fire. Haven't actually tried to cook something, though.
congratulations.
Now a progress report on your fire extinguisher status please.