In which Consumer Reports employees harm themselves or their real estate with consumer products, part 2. In this episode, a CR staffer's son uses the stove's self-cleaning feature without removing a plastic cutting board from inside the oven. Yes, the fire department was involved. They had to pull the range out of the kitchen and leave it to cool in the driveway. Awkward. [Consumer Reports]
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Comments:
checking the oven before turning it on seems like a no-brainer. You can hardly blame the consumer products for doing something so stupid.
Also, reminds me of the Macbook pro in the oven: [www.neatorama.com]
um, who leaves stuff in an oven!? I mean if its something that was baking and you leave it in to cool, ok, but something that should never be in an oven? Never a good idea.
@Rabbi Dave: More accurately, who leaves PLASTIC stuff in the oven? Just leaving something in there I can understand, if it's metal and you have no room. I know people who keep roasting pans in the oven, but PLASTIC should never be in the oven.
@Rabbi Dave: It could be one of those "Safe to 450 degrees" things...
When ovens go to cleaning mode, they typically heat up to 800-1000 degrees or hotter.
Natural selection at work... ;o) Some people aren't capable of seeing trouble coming and no matter how educated they are, they think they are above the rules. Like the I guy I once worked with who cut the same thumb off the exact same way TWICE from misusing a bandsaw...after everyone in the shop had warned him and warned him. The first time they were able to reattach it; I didn't hear what happened the second time because he was fired before the ambulance arrived (finally!). I did wood working for a living for three years and don't even have a scar to show for it. ;o)
I hate being on ladders; they never feel secure and I always feel like I'm going to fall off, so I'm ultra paranoid. I climb on all fours as a consequence, so standing the ladder at too steep of an angle is not more convenient. I've never had a ladder slide out from under me, but I did have an extension ladder break and leave me stuck on a roof until a neighbor saw me and brought another ladder.
Storing things in an oven - OMG is that a bad idea. I've had some really tiny kitchens and the temptation was there, but I will never forget the time my mother nearly set the house on fire that way (she had stored plastic picnic ware in there and forgotten about it). Knowing that I, too, will forget about anything I've put in there, I just don't do it. Even so, I peek in the oven every time before I turn it on, because I'll occasionally forget a piece of aluminum foil in there and if there is any food residue on the foil, it will stink up the house as it scorches.
Have you ever seen a Manhattan apartment kitchen? You hear about this all the time.
Minimal cabinet space + numerous take out menus + 1 person getting inspired to cook - double checking what was stored in the oven = call the NYFD
Bonus points if cooking was to impress a date
I did this - but thankfully not with the self cleaning option!
I was baking a cake for my office and I bought one of those disposable aluminum tins with the plastic top. (no, I wasn't THAT DUMB).
It came with two, and to save counterspace I put the extra one in the oven after the first cake was done and eaten.
About a week later, I preheat the oven (only to like 300some) for some dinner and the plastic melts and catches on fire. Needless to say I was freaked out. And even more pissed at the landlord for having 2 FIRE EXTINGUISHERS, both of which were expired!
Oh yes, and one of my friends decided to LEAVE HER HOMEWORK ON TOP OF HER OVEN while she baked cookies. She regretted that...
@Ninja007: "checking the oven before turning it on seems like a no-brainer."
I used to think so, and then I got married. :P
@Oranges w/ Cheese: My husband is always leaving things balanced precariously on the divider between the two halves of the sink, no matter how many times I ask him not to. It's not like we don't have counter space. He also leaves knives pointing out into the air off the edge of the counter so the blade doesn't touch the counter and get either it or the counter (not sure which) dirty. He also leaves pot handles pointing off the stove into the walking area for faster and easier grabbing.
I have a feeling having a toddler's going to be an education for him. Since ME repeatedly stabbing and burning myself with his various kitchen habits hasn't made a difference yet! (Nor, for that matter, has burning himself repeatedly changed anything!)
I remember back when I lived in West Palm Beach, Florida, there was a home improvement store (Home Depot I think) clerk who wanted to show a co-worker that [insert reference to forgotten flammable liquid here] wouldn't burn if you took a match to a puddle of it on the concrete floor.
It burned. And so did the store. To the ground.
I tried using the self cleaning feature on an oven once. I will never do it again. I thought the thing was going to spontaneously combust. The outside was way to hot to be safe. Then we could not get the door open for hours after it was done. Nope. Scrubbing gagging on oven cleaner fumes and getting a backache is preferable to possibly setting the house on fire.
@bohemian:
I don't think you're supposed to be able to open the door until it cools down past a certain point. Then again, I'm not known for my domestic skills, so I could be wrong. ;)
I once had a cast iron skillet in the oven with the self cleaning feature on. No, I did it on purpose. The seasoning was messed up and I had sanded some rust off and I wanted a good fresh start.
My mom almost killed me, though because of the smell.
Now that's the kind of home economics coursework I could have gotten into as a kid. Dangling the chance to personally meet every one of the firemen stationed nearby would make even the most macho boy reconsider helping Mom in the kitchen.
Tho, I guess it's a good thing Consumer Reports doesn't contract out to the Department of Defense...
Remember, don't store your guns/ammo in the oven, either.
@bohemian: Yeah, it gets to be about 800 degrees in there. If you're really really worried get a surface thermometer (the IR kind).
So long as the thing doesn't go over 451 F and isn't touching any wood or paper surfaces directly there won't be any spontaneous combustion.
After all, that's how the self-clean works. It burns all the stuff up on the inside to ash so it just falls off. I freaked out about it too, but you WOULD set your house on fire if you opened an 800 degree oven in the middle of the cycle, not to mention, yourself.
@battra92: We did that with our ceramic pizza stone. My whole life it'd been grungy and oily. It came out squeaky clean.
I was all ready to get on my high horse about leaving things in ovens (SRSLY, who does that?) until I remembered hiding dirty dishes when my grandma came over once.
Glass house dwellers, do your dishes.
@ManiacDan: Isn't that what the huge drawer at the bottom of your oven is for?
Yeah plastic is just weird unless it is one of those silicon things I've seen recently like Zig says below.
@Eyebrows McGee:
Reminds me of a story of one of my childhood friends. Her dad had a tradition of hiding their Easter baskets every year. He got the bright idea to hide them in the oven one year, but neglected to tell his wife. Of course, she turned on the oven and - well, you can imagine the childrens' horror at finding melted chocolate bunny everywhere.
@balthisar: My grandmother used to store chips and pretzels in the oven.
It made for some interesting pizza-heating experiences.
@Rabbi Dave:
>Isn't that what the huge drawer at the bottom of your oven is for?
You best me joking, son.
@battra92: I did something similar, but in my case I left a pot with a small bit of grease on top of the stove and left the burner on (I was making tea).
Surprisingly, the grease evaporating and smelling wasn't as bad as the bizarre metallic odor that took like a year to leave.
@concordia: The Rabbi may be joking, but he probably has an electric oven, like mine - the big drawer at the bottom is, in fact, a big drawer, and not a broiler.
@B: I'd consider it, but can't squeeze them in between all those damned 5-gal plastic gasoline jugs.
@xsmasher: I grew up in houses with electric ovens, and when I moved into a new apartment, I was so confused when I went to store my pans in that drawer and found some kind of weird second oven there instead.(I'd gladly give up the broiler for more storage space, my kitchen is tiny.)
My mother in-law never uses her ovens, so she uses them as large cupboards for her plastic tupperware stuff. This is fine...except one time while they were on a trip, the stove somehow short-circuited and was on very very low even though the dials were set to Off. My wife and I fortunately had gone to the house to collect their mail, and check on their plants when we noticed a faint plasticy odor in the house. Never did find out what had happened to the ovens. We eventually just had their circuit shut off so this wouldn't be a problem anymore.
@MyPetFly:
Wow. Was there an article about that? You should submit that story to failblog.org. Epic fail!
@Oranges w/ Cheese:
So long as the thing doesn't go over 451 F and isn't touching any wood or paper surfaces directly there won't be any spontaneous combustion.
Um, most stoves are built into a wooden cabinet, or are nestled in between wood counters, not to mention the framing of the walls behind them is made of...wood. I can understand the inside getting really hot and all that, but the outside of the oven shouldn't get hot enough to cause a fire. If that's the case then do we need to start creating enclosures for the stove out of that material the space shuttle heat resistant tiles use?
I'll have to let my wife know I could have done that instead of ruining 5 ea. $1.00 avocados that I had no idea she was storing in our oven.