Oven Smells Like Gas or Burning? What Is Normal and What Is Not

If your oven is electric, it does not burn gas, so a smell that seems like gas is almost always something heating up: food residue and grease, the protective coatings on a new oven, or soil burning off during self-clean. Those are normal and fade with cleaning or a burn-off. A burning smell with sparks, or a smell of hot plastic or wiring, is not normal: turn the oven off, switch off its breaker and call for service.

Quick answer

Electric oven smells like gas when preheating

An electric range has no gas line, no burner and no igniter, so there is no gas to smell. What people describe as a gas-like smell while an electric oven preheats is usually grease and food residue heating up on the oven floor, the walls or the element. Whirlpool notes that heavily soiled ovens can produce odors or smoke.

Before you assume a fault, check whether you have any gas appliance in the house at all: a gas water heater, furnace, dryer or fireplace. If you do and the smell is strong, follow the safety steps at the top of this page, because the source may not be the oven.

New oven smell

A new oven has a smell of its own. Whirlpool says a small amount of smoke or odor is normal the first few times you use a new range or oven, caused by heating new parts, insulating materials, a protective oil coating from manufacturing and shipping tape, and that it is not harmful.

To burn it off, first remove all the packaging and tape from inside the oven. Then run it empty:

• Whirlpool: Bake at 350°F for 60 minutes, and repeat once or twice if the smell persists. Wipe the inside with a damp cloth once it cools.
• GE: on Steam Clean or standard-clean ovens, Bake at 500°F for 45 minutes. On self-clean ovens, GE suggests running Self Clean for at least 3 hours.

Open a window and run the hood fan while it burns off, and do not cook food until the smell is gone, since Whirlpool notes the odor can carry into the taste of food.

If you keep pet birds, move them to another well-ventilated room first. Some birds are extremely sensitive to oven fumes, a warning GE and Whirlpool both give.

Food residue, spills and foil

Most burning smells from a working electric oven come from something on the oven floor or element: a boil-over from last week, grease from roasting, a sugar spill that carbonizes every time you preheat. Let the oven cool fully, then clean it.

Foil causes its own odor problems. Whirlpool says not to line the oven bottom with any type of foil or liner, and not to cover a whole rack with foil, because air must move freely and foil can trap debris that causes odors.

If you want to catch drips, put a piece of foil on the rack below the dish instead, only slightly larger than the dish and with the edges turned up.

If the smell is new and you have not spilled anything, look under the oven too. The storage drawer of a range sits right below the oven floor, and anything plastic stored there can soften and smell when the oven runs hot.

Self-clean smoke and odor

Self-clean burns food soil to ash at very high temperatures, so a strong smell and some light smoke during the cycle are expected, especially in an oven that has not been cleaned in a while. To keep it manageable:

• Wipe out loose grease and food first; the more soil inside, the more smoke.
• Take everything out of the oven before you start; GE says to make sure the oven is empty.
• Turn on the hood fan and open a window.
• Move pet birds to another well-ventilated room. GE recommends this for the self-clean cycle of any oven.

Our guide to oven door locked after self-clean covers the rest of self-clean safety, including what to do when the door stays locked.

A failing element: burning smell with sparks

Electric bake and broil elements usually fail quietly: the coil inside breaks and the oven simply stops heating. Less often, GE explains, an element shorts against its outer metal sheath, which ruptures it with a brief burst of sparks. The breaker may trip, or the element may stop working with a burning smell left behind.

If you saw a flash or sparks, switch off the oven's breaker. GE recommends not using the oven once the bake or broil element has failed. With the oven cool and the power off, look at the elements: a blister, a split or a burned spot confirms it. A new element is a routine repair, and a technician can replace the failed oven element and check the wiring and terminals it connects to, since a short can scorch those too.

Burning plastic or electrical smell

A sharp smell of hot plastic, rubber or wiring is a different warning. First rule out the simple causes: a plastic utensil, a pan handle, a cutting board or packaging left inside the oven, in the storage drawer or on the cooktop above an oven vent.

If you cannot find a melting item, stop using the oven:

1. Turn the oven and cooktop off.
2. Switch off the range's breaker.
3. Do not restart the oven to see if the smell comes back.
4. Call for service.

An electrical smell can come from an overheating wire, a loose connection where the power supply meets the range, or a failing control or relay. Those are 240-volt parts and not something to troubleshoot yourself. If you see smoke coming from behind the range or from the outlet, or the smell is getting stronger, get everyone out and call 911.

Gas ovens: what is normal and what is not

We repair gas ovens and ranges. If your oven is gas, here is what the smell can mean and what to do about it.

GE says that when a gas oven first lights, burning gas gives off an unusual odor that goes away within a few minutes as the oven heats, but that it is not normal to smell unburned gas in your home.

Natural gas is odorized so leaks can be noticed, which is where the rotten egg smell comes from. The federal pipeline safety agency, PHMSA, gives these emergency steps:

• Leave the area.
• Do not turn light switches on or off, and do not use a phone, because either can spark.
• Do not strike a match or create any flame.
• Call 911 from a neighbor's house or somewhere well away from the leak.

Never look for the leak or tighten a fitting yourself, and do not go back inside until the gas utility or the fire department says it is safe. A loud whoomp or boom when a gas oven lights is delayed ignition, which GE says requires service; stop using the oven until a technician has checked it.

Carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide is a separate danger from a gas leak. It is colorless and odorless, so your nose will not warn you, and fuel-burning appliances such as gas ranges can produce it.

The CPSC recommends battery-operated CO alarms, or alarms with battery backup, on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas, but not in the kitchen or directly above fuel-burning appliances.

Never use a gas range or oven to heat your home. If a CO alarm sounds, go outside to fresh air right away and call 911.

What usually causes it

• Food residue, grease or foil. A burning smell, often with smoke when preheating. That calls for cleaning, not a repair.
• New-oven burn-off. A hot metal and oil smell for the first few uses.
• Self-clean. Strong odor and light smoke during the cycle.
• Shorted bake or broil element. A flash or sparks, then a burning smell and no heat.
• Overheating wiring, terminal block or control. A hot plastic or electrical smell with nothing melting inside.

What it costs in Atlanta

If the smell turned out to be a failed element, a scorched connection or a control fault on an electric oven, the diagnostic is $80 on a freestanding range and repairs start at $180 plus parts. Built-in wall ovens and double ovens take longer to access, so the diagnostic is $120 and repairs start at $250 plus parts. On standard brands, typical all-in repairs run $230–$450 for a range and $330–$550 for a wall oven. The diagnostic is waived when you approve the repair, you get a written flat-rate estimate before any work begins, and every repair carries our 60-day parts-and-labor warranty. See our pricing.

Schedule a visit or read about our oven repair service. Prefer to talk? Call (470) 778-4087.