PSA: Check your oven racks before you preheat

So I got a new to me oven last week, a used GE from a guy on Craigslist. Fired it up to bake a batch of sourdough boules, set it to 475 degrees. Threw my Dutch oven in there to preheat like always. About 20 minutes later I smell smoke, open the door, and the top rack had slid down and was sitting right on top of the element. Melted a plastic handle off one of my pans and filled the whole kitchen with nasty burnt plastic smell. Had to take everything apart and scrub for an hour. Turns out the little plastic stops on the rack slides were worn down. Popped them out and replaced with some metal clips from the hardware store for like 3 bucks. Has anyone else had racks slip mid bake? How do you keep them from moving around?

3 comments

3 Comments

patriciacarr5d ago

Oh man, @butler.abby, you said it. My buddy Steve had a rack slip in his oven while he was roasting a chicken, and the whole bird tilted and dumped all the juices onto the heating element. Took him forever to get the smoke smell out of his apartment.

butler.abby5d ago

It's always the little cheap parts that forget to exist until they break, lol.

-1

taylorlewis4d ago

Oh man, @butler.abby, that's the truth. I had a tiny plastic clip on my toaster that snapped one morning and the whole lever just flopped down, toast got stuck, and I almost set off the smoke alarm fighting with a butter knife to dig it out.