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Why does my oven smell like burning plastic?


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Last night I baked a pizza (on a pizza stone) and the inside of my oven was smoking a little and smelled like burning plastic. So, I thought maybe the smoke came from drips from the pizza...but no idea on the plastic smell. Then today, I preheated it to bake bread - there was a small amt of smoke and I figured it was coming from the pizza stone...but the awful burned plastic smell was there the whole time the bread baked. So, tonight, I figured I should probably clean the thing (since I've only really done it once in 5 years and maybe I'm just a big pig and the filth is smoking and smelling bad :blushing:), so I took out the pizza stone and water tray and racks, started the oven to self clean, and now my house smells like burning plastic again!

 

My oven is about 5 years old. It is electric. It is an Amana. There is no plastic anywhere inside the oven, just a few charred chunks of whatever that I picked out. Am I going to start my house on fire while this thing is cleaning for the next 3 hours? Has anyone had this happen? What's going on?

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Is there something behind or under it? Something like a toy or ball that may have a low melting point? Does your oven have a vent onto the stove top? Is there anything stuck on there like some plastic bag residue?

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No plastic inside. I just checked with a flash light and the only thing under there is a dice and a crazy amount of dust and cat hair (I can't believe I'm saying this out loud! but for the record, I *did* just clean under it about 6 weeks ago.). Even though it's on clean mode, it's not hot at all underneath. I don't want to pull it out from the wall right now because I broke the lock on it, so the door isn't secure and I don't want to start myself on fire.

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No plastic inside. I just checked with a flash light and the only thing under there is a dice and a crazy amount of dust and cat hair (I can't believe I'm saying this out loud! but for the record, I *did* just clean under it about 6 weeks ago.). Even though it's on clean mode, it's not hot at all underneath. I don't want to pull it out from the wall right now because I broke the lock on it, so the door isn't secure and I don't want to start myself on fire.

 

:lol::lol::lol: good idea!

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What do you use to clean the stone?

 

If I use regular dish soap, it smells nasty and doesn't work as well either.

 

Instead I use extremely hot water and vinegar when it needs a cleaning.

 

But most of the time?

 

Season with olive oil and it scrapes clean. If it's just bread or cookies, I scrape under hot water and hand dry.

 

I treat my cooking stones like cast iron for the most part.

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I have had the same problem when I use my pizza stone. Every time I use it I have to open windows in the kitchen so that the smell is not trapped. There is no plastic in the oven, the stone is cleaned after every use...I'm baffled.

 

It is my pizza stone!!

 

I cleaned the oven last night. I wiped the stone off with just a wet cloth (it's the only way I've ever done it, but it is rare I do anything than tap the crumbs off into the sink). The stone is not new. Anyway, tonight I only smelled the burning plastic odor when I opened the door, so it was milder, and then it dissipated with the roasting and broiling.

 

I have to guess there was either something on the bottom of a pan I placed on the stone at some point or someone has been doing strange things in my oven with plastic :001_huh:.

 

Thank goodness it wasn't that my oven was about to short out and start on fire.

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I have to guess there was either something on the bottom of a pan I placed on the stone at some point or someone has been doing strange things in my oven with plastic :001_huh:.

At least you didn't put your hot pad/pot holder/trivet in the oven along with your pizza stone. I've done that. Had a roast cooking in a deep dish stone baker, pulled it out to check (put it on a couple of wooden trivets on the stove top), put it back in to cook longer. Didn't notice one of the trivets had stuck to the bottom of the pan until I smelled something. I rescued it in time--it just has some nice grill marks on it from the oven rack.

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At least you didn't put your hot pad/pot holder/trivet in the oven along with your pizza stone.

 

I wonder if that's not what happened, actually. I've been trying to puzzle this out since yesterday afternoon. My hotpads have rubber on the bottom (in a mitt style), and dh was cooking in there recently... Those mitts slip off the hands pretty easily when the rubber grips something, something like the pizza stone I never take out of there...

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I wonder if that's not what happened, actually. I've been trying to puzzle this out since yesterday afternoon. My hotpads have rubber on the bottom (in a mitt style), and dh was cooking in there recently... Those mitts slip off the hands pretty easily when the rubber grips something, something like the pizza stone I never take out of there...

Are there burn marks on any of the mitts?

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