My 82 year old mother recently was baking potatoes in our microwave and put the timer on for a ungodly amount and burnt them to a crisp. The whole house smelled of burnt food, the cabinets and microwave. My mother decided to use carpet deodorizer inside the microwave to get the odor out.
She swears she "rinsed it all out good", but my husband and I have our doubts that it's even safe to continue to use the microwave with the carpet freshener smell inside. I Googled everything I could think of but came up with no answers. So I ran across this site when Googling smoke odors. Does anyone know if the smell will be dangerous to the foods we microwave inside? And if so can we still use something to get rid of it to make it usable again? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
By Gwen72 from PA
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Earlier this year I copied tips from 2 different TF members for deodorizing a microwave.
1 - To combat those odors and leave your microwave smelling fresh, use lemon essential oil. Just put a cup of water into a microwave-safe glass container and add 4 drops of lemon oil. Microwave the bowl on high for 2 minutes; keep the microwave door closed until the water is cooled a little, about 10 minutes.
2 - To clean your microwave, take a bowl of water and add a half cup of lemon juice. Place in microwave for 3 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes or so to loosen the dirt inside and wipe clean. This makes all the dirt and grime come off a lot easier. (Note from me: This tip is for cleaning, but it should deodorize as well. If there is grime on the inside surfaces, it should be cleaned off, since the grime probably absorbed the odors as well, and would release the odor again when heated.)
(Sorry, I didn't record the names of those who sent in these tips.)
I would try either method. You might have to repeat a few times, but hopefully you can salvage your microwave oven. Good luck!
Try microwaving a cup of vinegar for one minute, let it sit overnight, without opening the door. Hope this helps.
If the lemon method does not work, try vinegar. I heat a cup of vinegar in the microwave for 3 minutes and let cool for a few minutes before opening the microwave.
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