Self-clean electric oven - holy smoke!

I have to admit that I forget to clean my oven by pushing a few buttons. It's usually too hot to do but now that the cold weather has set in ....

So ....Sunday morning I decided to do it. It's a Jennair duel-fuel so the ovens (2 of them) are electric and the cooktop is gas. Tried to clean the top oven (size of a very large toaster oven) and the smoke that was pouring out of it (along the door) was so bad I had to turn it off after about 30 minutes. It continued to billow smoke for another half hour or so. It was acrid! Opened windows, turned on the fans (snowing outside) and finally covered it with lots of towels to stop it from spreading more than it was. The whole house smells like charred wood now. We baked some brownies trying to replace the smell (a little better).

I have self-cleaned before but only on the short cycle. This time I set it to the 'heavy' cycle (about 4 hours).

I spent this morning washing down cabinets, washing every bit of cloth that smelled like smoke, cleaning the top and sides of the stove (even the burners smelled bad - probably because of the towels). So much for saving some work with a self-clean feature.

Anyone else have this problem? I used to have a gas self-clean but it nearly gassed us out of the house each time I tried it so got rid of that one.

Except for this problem, I love this stove/oven. I can't stand to cook with electric on a stove but I prefer the electric oven (because of the self-clean feature!). The bottom large oven has convection roast and convection bake features, can be used as a dehydrator and also has a setting for having things rise in it. Also has a delay cook feature.

I'm assuming you turned on the exhaust fan above the stove? If that didn't keep the smoke exhausted, you need a better range hood or venting. What you describe is dangerous. You may want to manually clean around the electric elements before you do this again. We aren't the most prompt about doing the self clean cycle on our dual-fuel Viking either, and when we did it last it was pretty smelly, too, but not as bad as you experienced. The Viking's exhaust fans run anytime the temp inside the range hood gets above a certain (unknown) point in case the dummy operator (me) forgets.

Jim Ricks

The last time I had smoke billowing out of the oven during self-cleaning is when I put the BBQ grill cast iron grates in the oven. Those things were ladden with grease so at the high cleaning temp all the grease turned into heavy smoke.

It sounds like your oven was layered with grease.

This sounds extreme even for a very dirty oven--and your oven doesn't sound like it was very dirty at all. We don't use the self-clean feature on the oven more than three times a year, and we don't have smoke billowing out when we do! Can you call the manufacturer and discuss?

I can't help with the oven cleaning, but can help with the smell. I have a lampe berger that I burn to eliminate odors. It will take the cooking smell of strong garlic out of a kitchen in 20 to 30 minutes. I absolutely love it. They make them in all different styles. I also make my own fragrence as the fragrences are way too expensive and you can go through them quickly if you burn them alot. The lampes purify the air and were first used in hospital wards. Here's a link: http://www.lampeberger.us/the-products

You should give it a try. They are way safer than burning candles and much more efficient. I think it will help you with the smell. Lots of different styles/price ranges for sale on ebay.

If you have a smoke detector and had to turn it off during this self-cleaning episode, remember to turn it back on.

As an ironic aside.... 5 fire engines rolled by my house and halfway up the hill to our neighbor 6 houses away tonight. Two ambulances and 4 cop cars. Being the curious neighbor that I am, I wandered up the hill to learn that our neighbors had set their oven to auto-clean and the smoke that was produced alerted ADT (Monitored Alarm System) that there was a fire in the house. I was overwhelmed by the quick response and the all out assualt of every branch of public safety. I might need to look into the ADT system!

Thanks!

Thanks for this product info. I've looked into them and am thinking of getting one to try. Just can't decide on which fragrance to go with. May look up some aromatherapy info and go with that as a guide.

I'm wondering if this would be useful to take on trips to de-stink a smoked up room? Hmmm. Looks very portable.

I had a little trouble getting into the website but finally got on. Also looked on ebay. Quite the following!

Most of the smoky smell is gone - just a whiff here and there as I move around. I am so glad I covered the stove with the towels and blankets to stop the smoke from swirling around. Those towels smelled oh-so-bad - I threw them outside to air out before I washed them. The oven still needs cleaning but I may use the lower setting a few times instead of the high setting once. Will cover the stove (maybe put something around it and let it vent out the window like tenting a house for a fumigation) to reduce the smoke from traveling too far. The 'cord-seal' (looks like a braided cord) looks pretty smashed up so that may be the problem. I searched on the internet for this problem and there is very little info. I'll also contact Jennair people about this and see what they have to say. I'm out of warranty though.

JoeWilly said:

I can't help with the oven cleaning, but can help with the smell. I have a lampe berger that I burn to eliminate odors. It will take the cooking smell of strong garlic out of a kitchen in 20 to 30 minutes. I absolutely love it. They make them in all different styles. I also make my own fragrence as the fragrences are way too expensive and you can go through them quickly if you burn them alot. The lampes purify the air and were first used in hospital wards. Here's a link: http://www.lampeberger.us/the-products

You should give it a try. They are way safer than burning candles and much more efficient. I think it will help you with the smell. Lots of different styles/price ranges for sale on ebay.

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