Posted on 01/08/2014 12:26:39 PM PST by Little Bill
Suffering from zero weather conditions, lack of activity, and boredom, I decided to use the self cleaning feature on my gas range.
Now, my mother wasted a lot of money educating me in various fields that involved burning things, and people actually paid me a lot of money to help them do it correctly.
So I removed the internals of my oven and pushed the button marked CLEAN.
So I sat back and grabbed a brew to help me get through the cleaning time.
After the stove warmed up the smoke came billowing out, lots of smoke. So I opened all the windows and most of the doors, even broke out a couple of fans, to get rid of the acrid smoke.
The temperature of the house went down to meet the 10 degrees out side when the smoke finally went away.
I learned a lesson from this experiment, never hit the clean button buy a new stove.
And, kids, never put a model car into a slightly warm oven to dry the paint if your mom is about to make a cake..
Would you expect her to warn you of the dangers of driving a car that sat in your yard for 5 years? Would she have to? Would there be some basic steps you could take to ensure a safe ride?
But, I get the humor...and can laugh...because I have been there myself.
I got our “used” stove to use for curing powder coat paint. My wife was cunning at getting new kitchen stuff, LOL.
We have a very high output oven - gas - and make really great pizza several times a week.
The oven, with a large pizza stone in it, preheats at 500F for almost an hour.
We don’t have much buildup of ook in there.
Our old oven - we did the self-clean thing - - - once.
Or is it, 5 years later, I am too lazy to find the original user manual?
Hey, he's a guy. A. He's not going to read the directions. B. Even if he did, he's not going to follow them. C. He's got a better way of doing it anyway.;)
It's what makes all men unique and demonstrate ingenuity . It also occasionally drives their women crazy.;p
Up here in the Semi Free State of NH we Broil our Steaks on the front porch even in the midst of winter or pan fry them in olive oil and butter and serve with fried Onions and Mushrooms and a side.
My oven has a ‘lock’ setting that has to be engaged before the self clean should proceed. Tried it once w/o the lock on. Smoked up the house pretty darned good. Next time with lock, no smoke.
YMMV.
Funny, but that was the first thing I thought of while reading the post. My mother in law almost had a heart attack when she opened my oven and found the cylinder head for the racing bike I was building. I wasn't cooking it, but the shelf space was needed.
You know how it is.
One time my wife-to-be came over and saw eight big-block pistons in the dishwasher. She said once we live together, no more car parts in the dishwasher!
My OOK comes from baking Breads with a high butter content along with the fats from the meats. My breakfast is a Modified Casa Teillo heart attack food.
Do you broil them on the front porch in the grill? I had suggested pan frying, which was vetoed. The fried onions and mushrooms sound delicious.
I think I was in NH once, many years ago, maybe early 90s? We went on a bus trip from MA with a company group, to a restaurant/event place up on a hillside. They served up a nice feast of whole lobsters. YUM
You have to be sure to use an oven cleaner made for self-cleaning stoves. It will say so on the container. I have used them when my cleaning element failed, then later, used the self-clean function with no problem.
However, if a self-cleaning oven is cleaned on the 2-hr cycle (as compared to the 3-hr cycle), once every few weeks or after broiling meat or doing a long cook time on something, there is no problem. It is advised to scrape off large amounts of spilled food, first.
I have had smoke once or twice, mainly when ignoring the *scrape first* rule. Otherwise, I have had a self-cleaning oven for decades and the only problem is that once or twice in the lifetime of the stove, the bottom element, which is the one engaged in cleaning, has failed. Once, I had one burn through. Likely, there was a food deposit on it. Replacements are around $35 and the installation is easy.
Personally, I love them.
My sister judges a woman on the cleanliness of her bathroom. I find this amazing because when we were growing up she was the biggest slob in the house.
Not that my bathrooms are what I consider to be clean enough, so no one would call me an expert on that.... but years ago a young neighbor girl was over at our house, seemed to be “in trouble” for not doing a good job cleaning the bathroom, which was her weekly chore or chore for that day. I think she was about 12? So I told her that she should make it look like what you would expect a “clean bathroom” to look like in a motel/hotel. She seemed to find that advice to be useful.
(Now she’s a prostitute and pole dancer in Houston, so seemingly my good influence on her was limited.)
Fry the steaks in a mixture of butter and olive oil to desired doness Serve Onion mixture over the steaks with a salad and a side.
I left DH and DS#1 in charge of firing up the self-cleaning oven recently.
Came home to a house full of smoke and fire-extinguisher powder all over the kitchen. We are still finding some of the powder. Apparently some recently repaired wiring was repaired with some cheap tape, started smoking and DS#1 went into action.
That said, we have no idea what kind of disaster might have transpired if he was not there. Since the oven was nuked, I got a new range out of the deal.
BAH! Don’t listen to any of these do-gooders!
Look what you got for very little:
1. Your oven is clean.
2. You had an adventure.
3. You drank while doing it.
4. You made it a quasi-outdoor experience.
I clean mine every quarter or so, so I won’t have nearly as much fun as you did, but you’ve inspired me to hit the ‘auto-destruct’ button on mine once again.
Good for you !!!
Goes to prove that buying a new stove is more cost effective.
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