GE Slide in Range: A Smokey Mess...

[washerdude]

We had a bit of a mishap with our GE JCS830SM4SS a few nights ago.

We were using a baking sheet that just wasn't deep enough, resulting in some grease/fat to spill onto the oven bottom. I cleaned up anything that spilled onto the surface however some of it looked to have made it through the gaps around the ovens bottom cover - where the heating element lives.

I figured it wasn't that big of a deal and decided to run the oven empty at about 375F to let it burn off anything residual after cleaning up the surface. About 30 minutes in, a strong burning odor was present along with tons of smoke. It got so bad that I had to shut off the oven despite the windows open and exhaust running. This continued long after the oven was shut off.

There was thick white smoke billowing out of the gaps along the bottom panel of the oven interior towards the left, mind you this is 30 minutes after shutting it off.

A couple hours later, I tried again and not even 5 minutes in smoke began building up again.

Is there any way to remove the bottom panel? In the past I've owned a Frigidaire/Kenmore and Whirlpool, both of those had two screws which could be removed giving access to the heating element. This GE...I have no idea despite diagrams showing it is removable. How on earth does the panel come up?

 

[vacerator]

Oh, this is different from our 2007 GE Profile slide in. The bottom pan slides out on ours. Then the element is accessible. There is a second bottom. You have to get to the element from underneath.

 

[combo52]

The bottom panel is not removable, I would just let it burn off, you may want to run the Hi-Temp clean cycle, it will stop smoking, I would guess it may take 30-60 minutes to burn off completely.

I have had many ranges do similar things, they have always survived.

John L.

 

[washerdude]

Absolute garbage design if that bottom panel can't be removed. Less than 10 years back this wasn't an issue. Of course other manufactures are doing this too.

I've seen ranges that need to have the cook top removed, along with the side panel just to access the oven heating element -_-

Ironically enough GE seems to be advertising an "easy wash" oven bottom which just slides out now.

 

[DADoES]

Absolute garbage design if that bottom panel can't be removed. Less than 10 years back this wasn't an issue. Of course other manufactures are doing this too.

My aunt has a Kenmore/Electrolux-Frigidaire slide-in range serial date 2007. The hidden bake element is accessed by removing a back panel to access the element wires through a slot, pulling the lower storage drawer and removing the element support panel from beneath. I pulled the bake element in Dec 2017 to thoroughly check everything related when investigating a baking/heating issue. The control board was the fault.

My GE range serial date 2003 has a hidden bake element that's also accessed from beneath. The oven cavity as a whole has several anchor screws around the front perimeter but the bottom of it isn't separately removeable. Pulling the cavity would involve removing and disconnecting wiring for the light socket, temperature probe socket, and broil element but probably still wouldn't provide for removal of the bake element.