I had a close call tonight. The burners on my apartment stove smoke for a little while every single time I turn them on.. it's so weird. I have lived in a lot of houses, had lots of stoves and have never had this problem. Tonight I put on a pot of water to cook corn on the cob.. the burner started smoking so I turned on the hood fan as always. It seemed to be smokier than usual so I went to put the cats in a room and open the front door. By the time I got back to the kitchen my stove was on fire. I was by some miracle able to blow it out.. I don't know how.. I nearly ran for the extinguisher (which my boyfriend bought for me when I moved in here) but I am so relieved that I didn't need it. It was a really difficult day for me. The fire was awful enough.. but if I'd had to ruin my dinner, and clean up all that foam it would have been horrid. As it was, I had to empty the pot, scrub it thoroughly to get the soot off, then I removed all of the burners. Cleaned them and the pans. I was finally able to cautiously get my corn back on.
I am grateful, it could have been SO much worse!
Kitty! That is so dangerous! That stove has to be replaced. What can be done about it? Will your landlord cooperate?
In the meantime, do you need to borrow my sig background?
Kitty what a scare! Thank goodness you got it under control before something awful happened! And you managed to save dinner too, good work
Nice to see your b/f is looking after you by getting you that extinguisher
Oh my gosh, Kitty !!! How frightening ! I agree....you MUST call your landlord today and DEMAND that the stove be replaced. This could kill you and your family.
I could see the burners smoking if there was residual food on them. But, I'm sure that's not the case. Which means that stove is defective and PLEASE promise you won't use it until your landlord has done something !!
Home fires scare the bejesus out of me. You have no idea. One of my lifes biggest nightmares. I'm frightened for you now....
I agree with everyone else. It sounds like a defective stove and next time the consequences could be more dire. I would definitely contact the landlord. Just glad this time you were able to get it out.
Now that I'm over the shock of what might have happened, I've done some thinking and I believe I know what is going on with the stove. There is a platform under the cooktop that is meant to keep spills from sitting on the cooktop or going down into the oven. Some stoves have an easy access and the top just lifts like a car hood. Some have to be dismantled with a screwdriver. They SHOULD be cleaned every year, or after a big spill. There is no telling how many years that stove has been there and I doubt anyone cleaning between tenants has ever bothered to clean under the cooktop. Unless you watch it happen or, in your case, a fire actually starts, you wouldn't have any idea there was anything under there. Your landlord has been very negligent in protecting your safety and their property. It was likely that the tenant before you spilled grease into a stove eye. Otherwise, there would have been an incident before now. You said it smoked from the time you moved in. That makes it more likely it was the tenant before you. They could easily have turned off the stove, then spilled grease when removing a pan, never realizing the spill stays there. Please contact your landlord and tell them they need to get someone in there to clean under that cooktop. I think a good cleaning will negate the necessity for replacing the stove and that makes it easier for you and less expensive for the landlord.
Wow Janilee - it's obvious you have lots of time to think right now (and that was a good thought!)......we're going to have to put you on to solving some other problems while you have some thinking time on your hands!
Firstly, thank you all for your concern! Jan, I can get at the bottom by removing the pan and coils. I did that after the fire. There were crumbs, and some egg yolk that my daughter had spilled but other than that it was clean. It's weird, it's the actual coils that put off some smoke each time. I have watched them. Like there is a residue of some kind? I have to have the asst, mgr over anyway for something else, I'll show her everything. It's been that kind of week unfortunately.. this morning I broke a glass all over my dishwasher full of clean dishes. UGH, hate it when that happens!
(05-13-2010 02:30 PM)KittyGlitter Wrote: [ -> ]Firstly, thank you all for your concern! Jan, I can get at the bottom by removing the pan and coils. I did that after the fire. There were crumbs, and some egg yolk that my daughter had spilled but other than that it was clean. It's weird, it's the actual coils that put off some smoke each time. I have watched them. Like there is a residue of some kind? I have to have the asst, mgr over anyway for something else, I'll show her everything. It's been that kind of week unfortunately.. this morning I broke a glass all over my dishwasher full of clean dishes. UGH, hate it when that happens!
Dang, Kitty! You need a kitichen witch and a trip through with some sage. The kitchen spirits are giving you a hard time.
Definitely get a new stove in there! That's one of the only beauties of renting, the landlord is responsible for making it safe and habitable for you! I've been really lucky at the place I'm at so far, very courteous landlord who responds really quickly to any problem we've had, and none of ours have been safety hazards!
P.S. Love the siggy Janilee!