Your oven can lie and start a fire!

vickie gee · Jan 4, 2014

Last month I really had a scare. I used my oven in the evening, turned it off and went to bed. It got really cold that night. Once during the night I woke up wondering why the heat had not come on all night long. I sleep with my bedroom closed. When I got up in the morning and opened my bedroom door to go to the kitchen for my coffee it felt like I had stepped into a sauna. The oven, although turned off was heating. It was sooooooo hot the oven door handle was almost too hot to touch and the dish towel that was hanging on the door handle was even hot! Apparently it was heating my house to the point that my central heat never cut on. I opened the oven door to see that the back corner of the lower heating element was red hot. I turned the oven on, off, on, off repeatedly but the heat would not stop. In panic mode I began looking for the electric plug to unplug. Bummer. It runs behind the dishwasher. More panic. I almost called the fire department. Then it hit me....breaker box! I found the breaker marked stove and flipped it! Called an appliance repairman who told me to leave the power off and I cooked only with microwave, crockpot, and electric grill until he could get there the following week. Meanwhile, I did some online research and found out that it is not uncommon for an oven to do that. Kenmores especially. Mine is a GE, but any of them can. If not fixed it will lead to an oven fire and often accelerate to house fire. The repairman said I was lucky it did not destroy all the controls at the top. A new heating element and a $220 service call I am back cooking. There is no telling how many house fires have happened that the owner thought they left the oven or stove on and had to live with the guilt of it.

Performancemini · Jan 4, 2014

My Gosh! Talk about de ja vu or such! We just had the same type of thing happen! Ours was the upper coil. I had thought the oven smelled a little too hot the last time or two I had used it. But yesterday I had preheated it to make cookies and was just rolling and cutting the cookies out when the oven's alarm or signal or whatever went beep, beep, beep. I looked over and it read some letters and numbers. I punched it off and got the manual which said 'call service technician IMMEDIATELY'. Right, they put me on hold. After 10 minutes and the stove still smelling real funky, I hung up and called the non-emergency fire dept. number. I bundled up and crutched out to the (unattached) garage with the dog. (put the dog in the car). The firemen went in and shut off the breaker for that part of the house. They checked the stove and said the coil wasn't shutting off. Leave it unplugged and call a technician and maybe prepare to replace the stove. Same as you. Well, the tech call was 85.95 and the rebuilt part would have been $330.00, so we decided to get a new stove. That stove was almost 14 years old-a Kenmore. But yes, we bought another Kenmore (today). I DEFINITELY will be getting the yearly check-up on it. But after reading your experience, I know I am going to be really really paranoid now. (Just like I am with our wood stove). Would a fire detector have helped in there for just the heat? Or would it not go off unless there was an actual fire? Anybody????

Marsha Cassada · Jan 5, 2014

I was telling my husband about this and he reminded me of smooth cooktops that did that. Anytime there is electronics, I suppose that kind of thing can happen.

We had a Grand Prix back in the day and the cruise control went out. It accelerated out of control. Do not know how fast it would have gone, but it was like a sci fi thing. I was into speed in those days, and I probably let it get up to 110 before I got nervous enough and clicked it off. Luckily it DID go off! Some glitch in the wiring harness. Instead of spending to repair, my husband disabled it.

vickie gee · Jan 5, 2014

If we ever build dream home it will have a gas stove. Since my dream is to move back to the mountains and cooler temps than what we have here I want both gas and electric choices in my home. I miss getting to warm up to a nice gas wall heater. I also heard recently that gas stoves are better for canning. Anyway, I have decided that people that have electric ovens would be wise to turn the power off if they are going to be out of town for more than a couple of days.

Performance, the fire alarm did not help in my situation. My wake up alarm had gone off (the usual 3:35 a.m.) and for the first time ever I did not jump up or hit the snooze button for buzzer. I accidentally hit snooze or radio, not sure how to even do that in the dark. My bones were aching and I was dreading getting up so I decided to catch a few more winks. When the radio came on it was playing a song I had never heard. Some elderly lady was singing about counting your blessings and doing whatever you need to do each day. I took that as a sign to get my whining self out of bed. I really think the heat in the oven was near fire stage and can only imagine what would have happened had I stayed in bed. Just a few nights before my boss's mother's home burned. The grown grandson was cooking chicken after his granny went to sleep and he fell asleep in the living room. The house caught on fire. He died. Granny got out barely without physical injuries. It was awful.

Marsha, I used to have an '81 Toyota Celica that the cruise control would stick on and the accelerator would go pedal to the metal. It was scary. What was even scarier was that it always did it right in front of the funeral home. I am serious as a heart attack. I got where I knew that I would have to turn the key off and pull over. I did it in random places, but always in front of the funeral home. I never knew if it was the grade of the highway or if my guardian angel has a sense of humor.

JAX · Jan 5, 2014

I had a Pontiac Firebird that liked to take off on its own as well. Very scary about the stoves...

jacks'thunder · Jan 6, 2014

We had a Pontiac Grand Prix( that was in the late 90's early 2000's) that the electrical system was screwy also. We would come out of the store or house and the trunk would be open. This happened every night, random times of the day, driving down the road! The locks would randomly go haywire and just click up and down very rapidly. Sometimes it would not let you out of the car. And the heat would just go full blast when ever it wanted unless it was in the full off position, heat and fan.

We have an electric stove and oven(two separate pieces) and so do my in-laws. Thanks for the warning, I'll definitely spread the word.