Toxic shock, of sorts, from our self-cleaning oven
When our new stove's instruction manual advised us to remove pet birds from the kitchen before using the oven's self-cleaning cycle because they might be harmed by the fumes, I should have known, but apparently, I was too dumb.
Dumb enough to be surprised when my chest starting tightening--I have asthma--minutes after we started the oven's self-cleaning process, and even more so when my eyes became irritated shortly thereafter.
Even with all the windows in the apartment opened and the fan turned on in the bedroom, where I was "hiding" because our bedroom is the room farthest from the kitchen, I still couldn't tolerate the fumes. Finally, my husband turned off the self-cleaning process and promised to run it the next morning, before he left to teach his class and while I was at the office.
I'm livid. The whole point in us buying a stove with a self-cleaning-oven feature was that we wanted to avoid using toxins to clean our oven. But apparently, the only thing that makes using the self-cleaning feature safer for cleaning an oven than using Easy Off is that no one will accidentally get toxic chemicals on his or her skin or in her/his eyes.
Meanwhile, back at someplace other than the ranch-house, yours truly spent last night in a hotel, lest I come home to find fume residue in our apartment. Talk about distractions, good luck trying to davven Shacharit (pray the Morning Service) while facing a mirror, which was in the only place where I could both sit (other than on the bed) and stand facing east--I had to be extra careful to keep my eyes on my siddur (prayer book) at all times, lest I end up with the odd feeling that I was worshipping myself instead of HaShem.
And last, but not least, just to add to the "fun," my cell phone is currently on the fritz. I'm hoping to be able to get it repaired during my lunch hour. What a way to spend a lunch hour.
But hey, there are still a few more days left in this week. With any luck, they'll be better than the last few.
Dumb enough to be surprised when my chest starting tightening--I have asthma--minutes after we started the oven's self-cleaning process, and even more so when my eyes became irritated shortly thereafter.
Even with all the windows in the apartment opened and the fan turned on in the bedroom, where I was "hiding" because our bedroom is the room farthest from the kitchen, I still couldn't tolerate the fumes. Finally, my husband turned off the self-cleaning process and promised to run it the next morning, before he left to teach his class and while I was at the office.
I'm livid. The whole point in us buying a stove with a self-cleaning-oven feature was that we wanted to avoid using toxins to clean our oven. But apparently, the only thing that makes using the self-cleaning feature safer for cleaning an oven than using Easy Off is that no one will accidentally get toxic chemicals on his or her skin or in her/his eyes.
Meanwhile, back at someplace other than the ranch-house, yours truly spent last night in a hotel, lest I come home to find fume residue in our apartment. Talk about distractions, good luck trying to davven Shacharit (pray the Morning Service) while facing a mirror, which was in the only place where I could both sit (other than on the bed) and stand facing east--I had to be extra careful to keep my eyes on my siddur (prayer book) at all times, lest I end up with the odd feeling that I was worshipping myself instead of HaShem.
And last, but not least, just to add to the "fun," my cell phone is currently on the fritz. I'm hoping to be able to get it repaired during my lunch hour. What a way to spend a lunch hour.
But hey, there are still a few more days left in this week. With any luck, they'll be better than the last few.
posted by Shira Salamone at 12:42 PM
6 Comments:
Sorry to hear this. I've never heard of a reaction this bad from a self-cleaning oven, though ME prefers not to be in the kitchen while it is running.
We used to run ours when we wanted to change the oven from dairy to meat or vice versa. If the oven was reasonably clean we would set the self clean to the minimum 3 hours and then abort the cycle after just over 1 hour.
It's probably my asthma that makes me so sensitive. I'm sorry to say that aborting after an hour wouldn't work for me, since I was already suffering from tightness in the chest within about 10 minutes.
Now that I know what to expect, I'll arrange in advance to stay with friends while my husband runs the self-cleaning cycle before Pesach.
Speaking of being dumb, I found out from the good folks at Verizon that the only thing wrong with my cell phone was that the battery had run out of power. *That* never occurred to me, either.
Here's a link for making your own non-toxic oven cleaner.
Cool! Thanks for that tip, Larry. It will help us keep the oven clean between self-cleanings, since I have no intention of poisoning the air in our apartment more than once a year.
Pesach Kasher v'Sameach.
Are these self-clean ovens really that good? I was considering getting one but I keep reading bad reports online about them... Everything from them breaking, omitting awful smells, to not being effective.
I currently use the big oven cleaning company called Expert Oven Cleaning here in Sheffield. I am unsure whether or not to go down the self-clean oven route??
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