A few weeks ago we started noticing that whenever I used the oven, the kitchen started to smell like dead fish.
And as we all know, there is nothing quite like the odor of dead fish to convey to your dinner guests that CULINARY DELIGHTS, THEY ARE SERVED HERE.
I figured that something was probably on the burner (?) (element?) (thing inside the oven that turns red?), but even after wiping out the inside of the oven, using the self-cleaning deal, and wiping out the inside of the oven again, the smell stuck around.
It lingered, if you will.
So my best friend Google and I, we did some research. And Google told me that there might be a wiring issue of some sort, so I quickly relayed that information to my husband, seeing as how he handles all our home repair issues.
(I do not venture into home repair issues unless we’re facing a dire emergency because I inevitably get terribly intimidated when dealing with repairmen. They speak a language I do not understand. And when I try to speak their language, I oftentimes cry. So it really is better if I stay out of the home repair picture.)
This past Friday an electrician came to check out our oven – along with some outlets that have been giving us trouble – and while he was here he happened to look over at our dishwasher. Then he said, “You know, I think there’s a recall on that – you might want to check it out.”
And sure enough, when D looked up the serial number online, there was a very urgent message saying DO NOT USE YOUR DISHWASHER! DANGER! FIRE! DISHWASHER COULD CAUSE A FIRE WITH MANY FIERY, HOT FLAMES OF BLAZY DESTRUCTION!
Or something like that.
Anyway, the electrician said we need an appliance repairman for the oven issue, and we ordered the replacement part for the dishwasher, so now we’re waiting on said appliance repairman to call us and set up an appointment so I’ll know when to leave the house and make a Starbucks run while D sorts out the problems with the expert.
Because did I mention that I’m intimidated by repairmen?
I wasn’t sure if I’d covered that or not.
This morning D opened the dishwasher – I guess to make sure that it hadn’t, you know, BURNED UP – and when he saw that there were dirty dishes inside, he said, “Have you, um, been using this?”
And I told him the absolute truth: that I have in fact used it one time since we found out about the recall BUT I only did a light wash AND I stood in the kitchen the whole time the dishwasher was running.
Then he grinned in that way that lets me know he would probably take the time to question my sanity a little more thoroughly if not for the fact that he’s already PLEDGED TO SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE WITH ME, and he said, “So you know that you standing in the kitchen isn’t necessarily going to stop a fire from starting back behind the door panel, right?”
“Oh yes,” I replied. “I totally know that.”
And I don’t really know why I just shared that anecdote except to maybe offer further proof that spending six years in the American higher education system is absolutely no guarantee for having, you know, GOOD SENSE.
Because I’m sure that if a fire had in fact started in our dishwasher, I would have found great solace and comfort in the fact that AT LEAST I DIDN’T HAVE TO HANDWASH THOSE PESKY DISHES.
LOL! I probably would have done the same thing :)
I know appliances are supposed to make our lives easier but COME. ON. If I have to baby-sit it while it works, is that time-saving? I think not, General Electric.
You have my sympathies.
We had an electrical wire behind our dishwasher short out, but no fire, thank God. It still gave me shivers when they showed me the burnt electrical box.
“Then he grinned in that way that lets me know he would probably take the time to question my sanity a little more thoroughly if not for the fact that he’s already PLEDGED TO SPEND THE REST OF HIS LIFE WITH ME, and he said, “So you know that you standing in the kitchen isn’t necessarily going to stop a fire from starting back behind the door panel, right?—
You are too funny. Write a book already, will ya?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just move?
I would TOTALLY have run the risk of fire in order to get out of hand-washing the dishes. That is completely an understandable trade-off.
I am running to the kitchen right this minute because I am hoping my dishwasher is on the recall. If not maybe I could redo the serial number with my handy label maker.
Glad you are fine and safe.
My husband took the pledge too before we became THAT family. I’m often tempted to use faulty-fire-causing appliances or leave candles burning (THRU THE NIGHT). Just gotta love them for their patience and fire-extinguishing abilities. Ya know?
Hey, I know why you stood in there…we have this sense that we COULD control fire if we reeeealllly had to. I secertly think I’m wonder woman
You are truly a rebel without a cause.
Except for you do have a cause and it’s called ‘wives against handwashin dishes’ :)
Aack! There seems to be an appliance virus going around…everyone I know is having issues lately! I’m going to go home & give mine a booster shot or something!
I would have totally risked it. I hate handwashing dishes.
Ha! I love this. I know I would have done the same, too.
So your dishes could be:
a. clean
b. cinders after a fiery explosion incinerates your kitchen.
Either way, they aren’t dirty anymore. I say Mission Accomplished!
You are not alone – I too fear all repairmen. My husband cannot understand why I make him drive home from work to attend any repairman who plans to enter our home.
Those vows of marriage come in handy, no? He has to put up with all my irrational fears. Mine’s called repairguyphobia. And yes, that is the technical term. When confronted with it, I get sweaty, tongue-tied and paranoid.
Funny! I would do ANYTHING to get out of handwashing!
Having spent the first year of my marriage in a house with NO dishwasher – and NO oven… I have to say, I would have run the dishwasher regardless… and would be running the oven as well.. good luck getting them fixed – I also do NOT like repairmen… they ask so many questions of which I never know the answer!
Think of the post it would have made:
“Well, we knew there was a recall , but darn it! Those dishes needed to be done. I mean, seriously.
It’s not going to catch fire NOW THAT WE KNOW.
Right?
Right?!
AACK!
FI-YAH! FI-YAH!
Who’d a thunk it?.”
That would be me…I hate doing dishes by hand!
My husband makes me take care of my vehicle maintenance and dealing with repairmen/ordering replacement parts. Don’t worry too much about the terminology, they are pretty good at figuring out what you mean.
The only time it has been an issue for me was when the differential leaked on my Jeep. He told me to have them look at my pumpkin. Ok, fine. Then he told me NOT to say melons. All I could think after that was that I was going to walk into a service bay full of men and ask them to look at my leaky melons. The whole 1/2 hour drive to the dealership I kept repeating to myself, “Pumpkin, not melons. Pumpkin, not melons.”
BTW – I would totally continue using the diswasher. Hello, the water spraying around would put it out.
SO, where was the fish? LOL
Roxanne
Hee hee. It never even occured to me that you would STOP using your dishwasher until it was fixed. You can HAND WASH dishes? What, like take ’em down to tha crick and rub ’em on rocks or something?
I totally agree with using the dishwasher even in it’s potentially hazardous condition rather than hand washing the dishes. I mean come on, what are we in the Dark Ages or something? Where I differ from you is that I am completely neurotic and I would have stood there with the fire extinguisher aimed at that sucker the entire wash cycle. Either that, or had my 5yo son stand there ready to pelt it with water balloons. I agree with the pp – water spraying around would put it out. Completely logical to me.
Not only would I have done the same thing… I would have hoped a mild, kitchen consuming fire would have broken out so as to aleviate the need for a repairman to arrive to fix the stove. :0)
Woot to all new appliances, cabinets, flooring and the sort because of said pesky little recalled fire inducing dishwasher.
If I couldn’t use my dishwasher, I would either A: buy disposable everything and not cook until it was repaired (cause I’m green like that) or B: load them all in a box and take them to my mom’s and use her dishwasher (cause that would be SO much faster).
I do not hand wash dishes.
Honey…a little windex will do ya just fine.
so what kind of dishwasher do you have that has a recall? I must know or I might have to stand in my kitchen while I run my own dishwasher on the off chance that I have the same one.
Ha!
My DH is out of town for THREE MONTHS… and when does our fridge/freezer go out??? Last night. When did I realize it? This morning… so who had to tearfully call every repair man in the book today? That would be me!
Just think of all the house fires you just prevented because all of us are checking to see if our dishwasher has been recalled.
Can I just say that the guarantee for good sense was revoked when you had kid(s)? Didn’t they tell you that in the hospital? It’s just so good to hear that other Mamas out there have the same kinds of trouble I have with pesky dishwasher dilemmas!
Oh yee of little faith – don’t you know that hand washing dishes gets your paws SO clean and nice and even the fingernails say thank you! My DH is the repairperson – and I’m his trusty assistant. When something breaks – I do not hesitate to have heated discussions with repairpersons. ’cause he has to sleep with me and he might as well be nice about the broken whatevers. Bless you Sophie – there are countries with NO dishwashers and their ovens smell funny all the time because of what they burn to make fire. But then – you knew that. Wonderful about the recall and SAFETY FIRST dadgummit!
But….if the dishwasher is running there’s water bouncing around in there, right? So wouldn’t the water put out the fire? Or maybe the fire would start during the drying cycle which would explain how there could be a fire in there at all.
Obviously, I’m as adept at these things as you are. And really, I’m laughing so hard, I’m surprised I could even type this comment.
I once had to go without my dishwasher for a year. . .but it was still there with all it’s little nooks and crannies. So, I washed the dishes by hand, but stacked them in the dishwasher to drip dry.
My husband would join your because I would completely run my dishwasher and stand in the kitchen. That was wise my friend. And repair people, their really should be a code as to what you do when they are around. It is creepy!
My husband is the guy that nods his head in amazement at all things the expert tells him and hands over a small fortune and our firstborn to purchase accessories and incidentals completely unrelated to the repair. Just count yourself lucky.
Real lucky.
Okay, now I’m all paranoid about my dishwasher!
Our dishwasher went out last year…and I had to do dishes by hand for three months for our crew of six. At first it was awful, then I began to enjoy the quiet reflection…then after two and a half months, I began to hate it again. Thank God for a handy husband, who finally had the time and willingness to fix it.
Praying for safety over your appliances and home :)
I’m like you…I don’t have anything to do with repair people!☺
One time when I was in high school, I was home alone and smelled smoke. I ventured down the hall to the kitchen and saw smoke coming out of the running dishwasher. The fire extinguisher… was in the cupboard next to the DW (which I didn’t want to open, since I wasn’t sure which part of the DW was smoking). I also didn’t want to open the DW because I recalled something about fire getting bigger with lots of oxygen.
So I called my dad at work and he had me turn off the electricity and call 911. Problem was, turning off the electricity turned off the cordless phone (go figure). So I called 911 from the phone down the hall. I knew I was safe, but apparently this upset the 911 guy and he commanded me to hang up and get out of the house.
My dad raced home and got there about the time the firetruck showed up (complete with siren and lights). The firemen entered the house and discovered the source. A plastic lid had landed on the heater thing in the dishwasher and melted. There was no fire, only smoke.
I felt a bit stupid, but the fireman made me feel better when he told me that he wished more people would call instead of trying to take care of things themselves and getting hurt.
Don’t know why I shared this with you… except maybe to say to keep your fire extinguisher handy and call 911 if you see smoke. :)
hahahaha! i love it! i think i would have done exactly what you did! :) who likes to wash dishes?! :)
Girl, you crack me up!
My dishwasher is SO LOUD we have to scream at each other to be heard while it’s running. I wish there was a recall on its head.
Ohhhh, yes…anything to not have to wash dishes. Many times, I figure that little symbol on the bottom of the dishes is simply a SUGGESTION, probably for women who LIKE to wash dishes. I figure if I put it in there and it melts or warps, then it really wasn’t worth using anyway…
So please tell us what type dishwasher has a recall so I may check mine:)
I can tell you with absolute certainty that I would have done the exact same thing. The “risk” of fire is nothing compared to the “actual” fact that I would have to wash dishes. Sounds like the risk was well worth it.
I love your blog. It makes me smile, chuckle, and feel like I am really a woman.
Thank you…you are awesome.
You are so funny!
Our dishwasher has been out for two years. Our stove has “issues”. We have replaced our washer and dryer in the past two years and currently I am waiting for my husband to take a look at the dryer to see if he can fix it before we call someone in (because somethings he can do like that) We are two steps from just building a fire in the backyard to do our washing and dishes over and digging a creek through our backyard so we can have a springhouse I think. We’ll just be that little house in the countryside or something like that.
And on a serious note, if the appliances had not all revolted at once as they have, then my teenagers would not have learned that clothes can dry on a clothesline (plus what a clothesline is) and how to go to the laundromat, and how to wash dishes by hand. Ahh is nice to have teenagers :D
I might have washed the dishes by hand but had it been the air conditioning system, I would have been watching it run for sure…freon is my favorite chemical.
I tried to send this by email, but it came back to me:
Did you know that comment #26 for you American Idol link is to an online gambling site instead of to a blog about AI???!!!!
Just thought you would like to know!!
I’m with PP who said the water in the dishwasher would extinguish the fire. Right? Water beats fire? Right. So, problem solved.
Or… I would buy new dishes.
Dirty dishes – Dishwasher = Disposable
My husband gives me that exact same look!
You may very well have the same dishwasher I have.
However, if that is true, you really have been living on the edge. We got our replacement part about a year ago after I receieved a note in the mail (always register your appliances!!!!!) saying that using ours could cause fire!
I actually think you did the right thing. Hasn’t hubby heard the popular saying…
A watched dishwater never burns…?
I know that look too! Thank God for wedding vows.:)
I am totally with you on that! Risking a kitchen fire is far more agreeable an option than handwashing dishes!
I bet it was an LG. Grrrrr
This post makes absolute sense to me. I have no idea why your husband would think that you couldn’t stop a fire. I believe in you.
Dishwashers are the World’s Greatest Invention–even the fire starting ones. I couldn’t bear to go back to not having one.
I understand completely! I think I would have done the very same thing! And I think you totally could have put the fire out, I am sure your sink has a sprayer, right….
I would have done the same thing – watch the dishwasher as it ran. That does make it safer, doesn’t it?
So – – – what is making the fish smell????
I did dishes by hand for our big, ole family for too long. I would have used that dishwasher with a fire exstinguisher in hand!