Stinky Self Cleaning Oven

[ladyinred]

Okay, we got a new oven in July and it has a "self cleaning" feature. I had an idea that this might be smelly because it recommends doing it only with open windows so I waited until a warm (ish) day to try it out.

My house now reaks! I have almost all of the windows open plus the overhead fan on the stove and I don't know what else to do. I tried using some of my cleaning stuff (has some EO's in it) in the kitchen just to try to cover the smell a bit by cleaning but no luck so far. I have one smelly candle going but I don't want to use too many because I've been reading about the evils of smelly candles :

Help please! My Dbf is supposed to be cooking me a romantic dinner tonight and having a smelly house will not help set the mood!

PS
Never ever using the self cleaning feature again. Will get down and dirty and clean it myself after this.

[Hippie Mama in MI]

Baking soda will get rid of unwanted odors. For immediate removal of the odors, I would spread a cup of b/s directly into the oven, let sit for an hour or so to absorb odors. Then get in there with a bowl of warm water and rag, and scrub the baking soda around inside the oven (the way you would use Comet to scrub a tub). Rinse well at the end, by wiping with clean warm water.

This method works to clean a dirty oven, whether it is stinky or not.

PS, If the smell is still strong after this method, I would wipe down my entire kitchen with lemon juice and/or vinegar. And it can't hurt to put a dish of orange/lemon peels inside the cold oven for extra good-smell karma.

[ladyinred]

The oven isn't stinky, it's the house that reeks. I've been cleaning with my homemade cleaning stuff (vinegar, lemon juice, water and a few drops of Dr. Bromner's which has EO's in it) and that doesn't seem to be making any difference. Have to close the windows cuz it's getting cold. Help!

[amnda527]

Just turn the oven off. You can end the self-cleaning thing early. It doesn't solve the problem of your currently stinky house, but at least you can stop it from getting worse.

[ladyinred]

Originally Posted by amnda527

Just turn the oven off. You can end the self-cleaning thing early. It doesn't solve the problem of your currently stinky house, but at least you can stop it from getting worse.

I wish I had turned it off early. It was on the "short" cycle, two hours. House still smells bad. Had trouble sleeping last night because of it. Keep opening windows and hoping it will help till I get to cold and then shut them again but it seems like I can't get rid of the smell.

[cristeen]

You say it's stinky... what's it stink of? Burned food? does it smell like charcoal? melted plastic? what? I would continue burning a candle. It doesn't need to be scented, the flame itself helps.

And be very careful of using any cleaner in a self-cleaning oven. If you're renting or if you ever sell and the next person runs the cleaning cycle, any residues left from what you did can cause some serious damage. That's why all cleaners sold for ovens say specifically "not for use on self-cleaning ovens".

Open the windows and doors, run a fan, burn some candles. Put a pan of water to simmer on the stove with a couple cinnamon sticks in it. Put some warm clothes on and crawl under a blanket if you have to.

[ashesofyou]

Ugh. I had this issue with an oven once.... it was the first time the self cleaning cycle had been run, and it seems like I was burning the paint off of the inside of the oven or something! It was HORRIBLE. I did the self clean again a week or so later to see if it would still be as bad. It wasn't AS bad. It took four of the 5 hour cleaning cycles to be completely done with the odor.

And I know what you mean. It's a chemical plant smell, that sticks in your nose. DO NOT COOK IN IT while it still smells the same way. Your food will taste like the odor.

And don't even make me tell the story behind how I know that last little tidbit...

[ladyinred]

Originally Posted by cristeen

You say it's stinky... what's it stink of? Burned food? does it smell like charcoal? melted plastic? what? I would continue burning a candle. It doesn't need to be scented, the flame itself helps.

And be very careful of using any cleaner in a self-cleaning oven. If you're renting or if you ever sell and the next person runs the cleaning cycle, any residues left from what you did can cause some serious damage. That's why all cleaners sold for ovens say specifically "not for use on self-cleaning ovens".

Open the windows and doors, run a fan, burn some candles. Put a pan of water to simmer on the stove with a couple cinnamon sticks in it. Put some warm clothes on and crawl under a blanket if you have to.

It smells, well, it's hard to describe really, like burning chemicals and burnt grease and really really horrid. Luckily it seems to have dissipated. I can't smell it today but I also have a stuffed up nose so it could still be around. We didn't use any cleaner on it, I think it's because it's a new oven.

Originally Posted by ashesofyou

Ugh. I had this issue with an oven once.... it was the first time the self cleaning cycle had been run, and it seems like I was burning the paint off of the inside of the oven or something! It was HORRIBLE. I did the self clean again a week or so later to see if it would still be as bad. It wasn't AS bad. It took four of the 5 hour cleaning cycles to be completely done with the odor.

And I know what you mean. It's a chemical plant smell, that sticks in your nose. DO NOT COOK IN IT while it still smells the same way. Your food will taste like the odor.

And don't even make me tell the story behind how I know that last little tidbit...

Yeah, it was so terrible! I don't think I'll be using it again. Since it's our oven and our house I think I'll stick to just using baking soda and vinegar from now on. I can't go through that again.

[cristeen]

If it was the very first time it had ever been run, then you were actually burning off the factory finish, hence the strong chemical smell.

If you stick to cleaning it with baking soda and vinegar, that shouldn't cause any problems. It's the residue from commercial cleaners that can cause a problem. Personally I'm too lazy to clean the oven, so I run the self-cleaning cycle about once a year. After the first time, the smell is bad for about an hour, but it's the bad of burnt food rather than the bad of nasty chemicals. And it dissipates quickly. My oven is cooling from it's cycle right now and there's no smell left. YMMV, though.