Black magic oven?

August 3, 2006 9:35 AM

Why couldn't I cook anything last night? Electrical problems? Climate? Black magic?

This was one of the stranger things that's happened to me, and if I lived in a less advanced civilization I'd probably figure it was due to some sort of supernatural intervention, or something like that. I'm hoping the MeFite science community will help straighten things out.

At around 7:30 last night I decided to cook some dinner, so I set my oven to 400 and waited for it to preheat. It's a gas oven that seems to ignite the flame via some sort of heating element (not a spark or pilot light, apparently). The temperature is set via a digital input device and confirmed on an LCD screen, then current temperature is shown while it warms up.

I waited and waited for the "preheated" beep to sound, but it never did. After about 30 minutes I started getting worried and checked the current temp -- it was still at 100. I turned it off, opened all windows and the back door and stepped outside (figuring there was a gas leak and I just couldn't smell it). The smell of gas when I came back (clearing my palatte, I guess) was present, but not that strong. It smelled just like if the oven had been on but set to a low temp and empty.

I thought maybe it just had an error lighting so I decided to try again. This time the temp got to 115 after about 20 minutes but never moved after that. This is where it gets weird.

I figured I just had a broken oven so I decided to try using the microwave instead. I put in a frozen pot pie and set it to 12:30, which is its normal cooking time. After this time (and a 5 minute additional cooking period as stated on the box) I took it out and found that it was still cold. I figured the 5 minute sitting time was just too long in air conditioning (even though it was never too long in the depths of winter in an unheated apartment) so I put it back in for 5 more minutes, making sure to manually set the device to high. It came out still cold, even the box. 5 more minutes. Still cold. I decided to turn off my air conditioner, thinking that it might somehow be draining power (is this even possible?) and put the thing in for 10 more minutes. It came out shooting steam -- very, very hot. Finally.

I decided to try the oven again but it still wasn't heating up after 20 minutes.

Any ideas on what might be the problem? Could electrical drain due to too many devices cripple my microwave like that? Could it disable the oven?

The range of the oven worked fine (lit by a spark), if that matters at all, and so did the broil setting (lit by heating element similar to bake). I was stumped and very frustrated.

posted by ducksauce to technology (10 comments total)

You'd know the smell of gas if it were in the house - it doesn't smell like an open oven, it smells like rotting eggs. This is by design, of course, as the sulfur smell is added to the natural gas. You probably have a broken thermostat in your oven, since it believes it's warming up, but never goes all the way.

As for your microwave, it's very difficult to heat a frozen block of anything in a microwave, because microwaves work by exciting liquid water molecules.
posted by odinsdream at 10:04 AM on August 3, 2006

Brownout? Sometimes when power consumption is too high you get a voltage depression. Could a voltage drop be enough to keep the stove from lighting and cause the microwave to not... microwave? I dunno. Maybe.
posted by GuyZero at 10:05 AM on August 3, 2006

It seems to me they're two unrelated issues which just happened to occur to you at the same time.

What's wrong with your oven, I don't know. But it's in the nature of microwave ovens that they heat things rather unevenly--to the point that if I started with a frozen entree and tried to heat it without any stirring, parts would still be frozen at the same time that other parts are hot enough to burn my tongue. Thus, most frozen dinners include in their microwave cooking instructions a direction to stir at least once in the middle of cooking. Of course, you can't exactly do this with a pot pie as there's a nice crust over the top.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:12 AM on August 3, 2006

Are you absolutely sure your oven is gas? Some nicer stoves have gas ranges and electric ovens (electric is supposedly better for baking.)

If you are in a heat-wave place right now, supposedly the power grid is getting a workout.
posted by _sirmissalot_ at 10:22 AM on August 3, 2006

I am in a heat wave place (heat index is 115, I think), but I noticed that the other electrical things in my home did not seem to be affected (lights did not dim, etc.), but that might just be misperception on my part.

The broiler is definitely gas in my oven as I've watched it ignite before. I've never seen the baking part lit, but as I can smell and hear the gas when I turn it on I've always assumed that it was gas.

The thing about the microwave, is that these pot pies are one of my favorite frozen foods and I must have cooked over 100 of them. I've got it down to a science and I've never had one come out cold before, let alone still half frozen.

I'm really hoping it's the voltage depression GuyZero mentioned. Would a microwave put out less power with less voltage, like a light bulb would? I always thought it would just not work at all.
posted by ducksauce at 11:20 AM on August 3, 2006

The gas oven has a bar that heats up, glows red, and ignites the gas. The gas will not go on fully if the igniter bar is not working. This is to replace pilot lights, and to keep you from killing yourself by sticking your head in the oven. Test the oven to see if it will come on fully. You can see the glow of the ignition bar when it's lighting.

A pot pie can be cooked in a microwave, and AC shouldn't affect it significantly. Test the microwave with a cup of water.

Your electronic appliance karma apparently requires re-calibration; consult a professional.
posted by theora55 at 12:30 PM on August 3, 2006

Just throwing my two cents in that ever since the heat wave I have had considerable difficulties heating things in the microwave. I do just as you do, and find that it's still ice cold after 5 or 10 minutes. Then, BOOM, it's fried when it comes out the third time. Everyone thought I was crazy because apparently sometimes the microwave works perfectly and other times I have to do it multiple times. I actually thought my microwave was broke there for a while, however, I found that I have no problems microwaving at night when the heat has dropped. I'm convinced it has something to do with the heat because i've never had problems before.
posted by Ugh at 4:54 PM on August 3, 2006

Thanks for your post, Ugh. Misery loves company. =)

theora55, the bar did come on, and was heated to an orange glow, but I don't know if it became hot enough to ignite the gas or not. One of my theories was that the 115 degree oven temperature was just from the heat of the glowing bar and that the gas itself either did not ignite or never came on strong enough.
posted by ducksauce at 8:19 AM on August 4, 2006

as the sulfur smell

It's actually butyl mercaptan, and IME, it's quite distinguishable from sulphur -- it was chosen to smell like nothing else.
posted by baylink at 3:48 PM on August 4, 2006

I stand corrected baylink.
posted by odinsdream at 12:09 PM on August 7, 2006