Lower Oven Smoking

[triboyrob]

We moved into a new house about 2 weeks ago. The house came with a GE JGB918SEL3SS Gas range with a double oven. The main (upper oven) is heated with gas and we have used it a few times since we moved in. Last night I turned on the lower oven (electric heat) for the first time. About 3-4 minutes after it being on I noticed an odd burning smell. I went over to the oven and opened the lower oven but saw nothing odd. I then opened the upper oven (which was not on) and visible smoke came rolling out of it.

I turned off the lower oven and let the smoke clear and then turned the lower oven back on and the same thing happened. I've not turned it back on sense. The smoke smelled a bit plastic like to me but I'm not 100% sure it was plastic. Should I be concerned (service call) or is something just burning off since the oven is new?

Thank you.

[Repair-man]

The installers may have left a small piece of styrofoam under an element, or some plastic wrap on the rack. Either one will smoke and stink.

Normally all electric ovens give off visible smoke when first fired up due to the factory coating put inside the cavity for anti-corrosion purposes. The User Guide even mentions that smoke is normal the first time and I recommend that you run any new oven in Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes to bake off the cavity coating and burn in the elements. GE would have you speed up the process by running a 3-hour self-clean cycle, but that is an extraordinary waste of power.

[triboyrob]

Thank you for the quick reply. I poked around the best I could apart from taking out any screws and I didn't see any packing materials left anywhere. I went ahead and cranked it up to 450 and let it run for 20 mins. At the end of 20 minutes the smoke was getting pretty thick so I shut if off. I'm going to go ahead and call in GE to take a look at it today. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not but while I was poking around I found several screws laying under the bottom of the lower oven pan. I removed them but maybe they went to something important.

[AJ]

I'm going to go ahead and call in GE to take a look at it today.

Please let us know what they find.

[triboyrob]

okay they are coming on Wed. I'll be glad to report back on what they find.

[AJ]

So what did the GE technician find with the oven?