It melted.

December 17, 2007 7:18 AM

SOMEBODY in my household made a sandwich and left the empty bread wrapper draped over an electric burner on my stove. Which is now melted onto the coil. What is the easiest way to clean this off???
posted by konolia to home & garden (12 comments total)

As bad as it'll stink, I'd put that sucker on high and burn it off.

Probably should run the vent fan on high and try not to breathe the fumes.
posted by grumpy at 7:23 AM on December 17, 2007

You can probably purchase a replacement coil. On some stoves it's a simple matter of unplugging the damaged coil and plugging in a new one.
posted by man on the run at 7:25 AM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

In the interest of not inhaling any potentially bad fumes, I would replace the element and the reflector, too, if it has any plastic melted to it. Other suggestions via Google.
posted by bonobo at 7:26 AM on December 17, 2007

Burning it off sounds like a really bad idea. You might be able to put some aluminum foil below the coil, and melt it off, catching the melted plastic on the foil, and then throwing it all away.

I would get a new coil, personally.
posted by knave at 7:26 AM on December 17, 2007

Something similar happened to me the other day. Usually you can pull each burner right out of the socket. I put the burner in ice cold water to make the plastic brittle and it scrubbed off very nicely with steel wool. You could go the other direction and burn the mess totally off with heat but you risk letting a lot of toxic fumes into the air.
posted by Xurando at 7:28 AM on December 17, 2007

We did this to the oven one time, which is less mess than a coiled burner. We put certain parts in our freezer for a day or so. It was much easier to pick off. So, if the burner detaches, I'd try plopping it in the freezer as-is. If that doesn't ease things up, I'd find a replacement.
posted by ick at 7:40 AM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

From personal experience: it won't melt off. It'll leave a plastic sheen and residue that'll stink to high heaven for a long time after, and those fumes really are incredibly bad for you.

Let it cool and scrub it off. It's probably best to use some Barkeeper's Friend, or even some Ajax, and a green scrubbie.
posted by koeselitz at 7:42 AM on December 17, 2007

The easiest way? Make whoever did it clean it. :-)

Alternately, seconding Xurando's suggestion of letting it freeze and chipping it off.

on preview, ick is on the same thought too.
posted by John Kenneth Fisher at 7:45 AM on December 17, 2007

Per ick, I just popped the whole thing into the freezer (I managed to peel some of it off as it had hardened somewhat to begin with.)


Thanks for reminding me about fumes, folks. My first instinct, indeed, was to fire that burner up.

The easiest way? Make whoever did it clean it. :-)

In this case, would more than likely make MORE work. *sigh*.

(But he's cute so I'll keep him. )
posted by konolia at 7:49 AM on December 17, 2007 [1 favorite]

koeselitz writes "it won't melt off. It'll leave a plastic sheen and residue that'll stink to high heaven for a long time after, and those fumes really are incredibly bad for you."

It won't burn off completely, whether the fumes are bad for you would depend on the plastic but better to be cautious. Professionally we'd just replace the burner; However we never got them when the plastic had just melted so the freeze-chip technique could work.
posted by Mitheral at 8:52 AM on December 17, 2007

A razor blade scraper or X-acto knife will get off 98%. Finish with fine steel wool.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:43 AM on December 17, 2007

Living with some students in the house, this has happened a couple of times with various plastic items. However, I often don't find out about it until the plastic residue is burning off the coil and the kitchen is starting to fill with noxious fumes. What I have found to be effective (though some may disagree) is to open all the windows in the kitchen, close all the doors leading to other parts of the house, get the electric fans in the house in the kitchen on high and crank up the burner to toast it off.

Another idea, no idea if this will work, but if you're going to end up tossing it out, maybe try firing up the BBQ and dump it in there with the burners on full blast?
posted by perpetualstroll at 11:54 PM on December 17, 2007