Once, when I was younger I was having a small dinner for a few friends and didn't have time to wash all of my storage containers, so I stuffed them into the oven out of sight. The dinner was a success and everyone was happy with the spaghetti and salad.
A week or two later I wanted to bake a casserole and turned on the oven and set it to 350 degrees F. Well, as a little time went on I smelled something strange and saw a little smoke coming from the oven. Well, you can guess what happened. Luckily, I worked for a pizza place and had a large pizza pan underneath all of the plastic.
To this day, forty years later I have this really colorful plastic platter to remind me to check the oven first.
By cecile marie buteau from Oroville, CA
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For a quick cleanup in the kitchen, when unexpected company is coming or I just need the space, I rinse my dishes and place them in a pan and put them in the oven out of sight. However when I do this, I either put a piece of tape over the oven control knob or pull the knob off.
I agree with you. Storing anything in the oven can be dangerous and you need to take it out ASAP.
I keep my Tupperware lids in my oven in a large bowl. I've never forgotten to take them out, however, one time a tiny one fell out and I failed to see it when I turned the oven on. Yes, it melted. It gave off these horrible fumes that made our eyes tear and practically choked us. We had to leave the house and open all the windows and doors to air the house out. It was extremely difficult to scrape the melted plastic off the oven floor.
To make matters worse, after we thought we'd gotten all the plastic off, I decided to use the oven's self-cleaning feature to remove any remaining residue. We had all the fumes and smell again to contend with. It only has to happen once--I've never forgotten to double check and even feel with my hand to make sure nothing is hiding out in the corners or in the back.
Very good tip to not store plastics in an oven because even if you don't forget the plastics are in the oven there have been situations where stoves with electronic starters have been turned on by the radio waves from a ringing cell phone. What if your cell phone rang just before you left your home and you didn't notice the oven was on? Yes, the occurrence is rare but the fact that it does happen is reason enough for me to not risk it.
Usually having a tiny kitchen I often store things in the oven. But after close to 50 years I have myself trained to always check the oven before I start it. Checking it first is as second nature to me as brushing my teeth in the morning.
Whew! Thanks for this timely tip. I've never stored plastic containers in the oven, but sometimes have stored skillets with plastic handles in there.
It's also become second nature for me to check the oven before turning it on, and I remind hubby and his son to do the same in order to avoid disaster.
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