- Brand new ovens sometimes emit a distinct burning smell when you first turn them on. This is a result of a protective coating on the heating element. It should last only the first or second time you use the oven, then disappear.
- As you cook food in the oven, things can bubble over or drip onto the heating elements or the floor of the oven. If you don't wipe this up immediately after use, it still will be there the next time you use your oven and it will start to burn over time. The same is true of grease, which can be harder to see. Your oven may look clean, but any layer of grease on the inside can burn as the oven heats up.
- Food or grease does not have to be present inside the oven to produce a bad odor. Sometimes, food and grease have dripped onto and underneath the drip pans. When you heat your oven to a high temperature, these can also heat up.
- Though food and grease are your most likely culprits, occasionally a small animal, such as a rodent, dies behind or under your oven. This may produce a somewhat constant smell, but it will get worse as the oven heats up and starts to heat the animal's remains.
- Most electric ovens have a self-cleaning option. This heats the oven to very high temperatures -- over 750 degrees F. As it heats, the food and grease inside the oven will burn off, creating a very bad smell. The smell is amplified if you haven't cleaned the oven in a long time. If your oven has this feature, it generally is not advisable to clean it with commercial oven cleaners. However, if you do use these cleaners, they also can leave a residue inside the oven that produces a strong odor as it heats up.
New Oven Smell
Food Droppings and Grease
The Stove Top
Dead Animals
Cleaning
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