*Nearly* catastrophic oven fail.

I don’t have all the details yet, but according to wife:

She’s cooking a meatloaf in the oven when she hears a “crackling” sound coming from the kitchen.

She opens the door to the stove, and the coil is kicking off sparks. The sparks are traveling down the coil like a fuse. She shuts the oven off and blasts it with the fire extinguisher. 

The thing is 18 years old (purchased when we built the house.) Is there any point in contacting the manufacturer and saying “Hey, this thing could’ve burned my house down” or just chalk it up as “Wow, that could’ve been way worse” and grab a new one tomorrow?

Just get a new one. Probably just needs a new heating element, though.

Ours did that a couple years ago.  It had a couple 1/2 inch gaps in the coil and was arcing across, which was the crackling we heard and glow we saw from under the coil cover.  Replaced the coil for about $20 and kept using it.  Apparently, it's a FAIRLY routine event according to everything I found, and it was a pretty easy fix.  Pretty scary, though.  

It is scary when the element burns, but turning off the breaker will stop the fire almost every time.   Also, kazoospec is right, they are pretty easy to replace.

Yeah, now that it’s caked in fire-extinguisher shmang it’s new oven time. We replaced the dishwasher & fridge recently, so it’s been the elephant in the kitchen anyway.

Breaker is in the basement. I dunno if I’d have busted out the fire extinguisher, but I’m proud of mama for going the “when in doubt” route.

Several years ago had a casserole in the lower oven of our double oven. All of sudden I see a very bright flickering light inside the oven. Very bright through the dark oven door window. Open the oven door and I see a decent sized large flame shooting out from beneath the burner shroud-it’s a gas oven. For me this was an oh s-it moment. I quickly turned the oven off then ran down and turned gas line off. It still flickered for a bit before it stopped altogether.

After removing the cover that shrouds the burner element, I found a bunch of shredded cloth material that mice had built up into a small home. Cleaned it out good and back in use no further issues.

And those darn sneaky mice were dealt with quickly.

In reply to poopshovel again :

Good berkeleying luck man. Took me the better part of a month finding an oven I wanted, that cost less than my car, and actually worked when delivered. 

Scrub the old one out, good job for a kid if you have any, put a new element in, and then start shopping. 

RevRico said:

In reply to poopshovel again :

Good berkeleying luck man. Took me the better part of a month finding an oven I wanted, that cost less than my car, and actually worked when delivered. 

Scrub the old one out, good job for a kid if you have any, put a new element in, and then start shopping. 

In fairness, on this forum “cost less than my car” doesn’t inherently mean a whole lot. 

That's a shame. Flame broiled meatloaf is the best.

We had the coil fail on the 40+ year old stove that came with our house. A quick surf on craigslist and we had a newish stove that was not avocado colored. 

Not Avacado? You Some kinda Hippie activist, Get In line and act right, Put Those plastic covers back on the couch Too!

The inside really isn’t that bad. Just a quick “burst” from the extinguisher.

Might just replace the element as we plan on selling the house this year. Matching appliances would be nice, but I’m guessing that’s $600 we wouldn’t get back when we sell.

Our oven heating element went out a few years ago.  Thanksgiving morning.

Having alternative cooking means - gas grill, microwave, and a sister with an oven a couple of miles away - saved the day.

Replacing the element was easy and cheap.

Yup.  Surprised me too.  Our electric oven/range was about 16 years old. Oven element opened a 1/4" gap and the resulting arc looked like someone was welding in my oven.  Crazy part was that pushing "OFF" on the electronic oven control panel had absolutely NO effect.  Probably set a land-speed record sprinting to the garage area to switch off the breaker.  Glad I was there to address it when it happened.

Ordered a new element online.  Few dollars and an easy install later, it's good as new.

Don't forget to replace or recharge the fire extinguisher. Even if the gauge says it's full, they're a one and done kind of deal.

In reply to dculberson :

Good call! Thank you!

I unplugged it after the “incident” but it just occurred to me Mrs. Poop was using the range this morning and likely left it plugged in :/ Cause for concern, or don’t sweat it?

As long as the oven is not turned on, I wouldn't sweat it. 

Propane oven version:

Christmas 2011. 15 people sitting within 10' of this. 2 more standing next to it. Bar stools shot across the room. No blood. Lots of screaming.

In reply to Sparkydog :

You sure know how to throw a party!

Yeah, my oven pulled a "Mission Impossible" fuse scene in my old condo. While it was sparking, I calmly called my dad and explained the situation as the sparks wound their way around the oven. I just pulled the plug out of the wall and the sparks stopped. New heating element later and I was back in business.

According to the repair guy, if you use oven cleaner in a self-cleaning oven, the heating element is more likely to fail in this fashion.

Note that dryers are a danger as well -- we narrowly avoided a catastrophe when my wife happened to go down in the basement and noticed that our dryer was on fire.  We learned that lint that accumulates in the chassis and exhaust chute is highly flammable and a common source of house fires.  Now we have a smoker detector over the laundry area.

1988RedT2 said:

In reply to Sparkydog :

You sure know how to throw a party!

It's not a party unless you have to redo the kitchen afterwards! 

My favorite is the clogs.

Well, I took this thread as a wake-up call and just ordered a new element for the shop oven.  It runs unattended overnight when I cook out desiccant ("Do Not Eats.")  I've been nursing it along with some wedges to keep it up off the oven floor and decided Mrs. Poop's experience would not be a good thing to happen.  $26 on the amazones.  So, Thanks Poopie!