Oven disaster! Help

[remaininlight]

My DS (17) put the oven on to cook but forgot he'd stashed a plastic tray in there yesterday when "tidying". The tray's melted all over the oven racks and I haven't a clue how to get it off! The stench is dreadful. I could strangle him. Any advice?

Shove the oven racks outside, ventilate the room as well as possible.

I'm not sure about cleaning the racks - it will doubtless depend on the type of plastic and whether it's just melted or degraded.

Try a running a chisel along the racks then one of those paint scraper tools that have blades in them. You could try a steam cleaner to soften stubborn plastic, (wear a mask)

I support I could start by cutting the plastic off with a sharp blade... But then what? So infuriating.

Well, if hear melted it o to the racks, it'll sorely melt it off them.

Line the oven with baking parchment and heat them back up with all the doors open.amd get ds to clean it all once the plastic is off!

I’d just buy replacement racks, with DS pocket money of course.

I could strangle him. Any advice?
Washing line. Smooth, strong, wipeable - what's not to like?

Open all the windows and reheat the oven at the lowest temp possible until you can wipe the plastic off.

My son did this when he was 16. I feel your pain.

....

I did this in August at a holiday cottage, someone had stored a black chopping board in the oven. On our first night after driving six hours to get there, I'd bunged a pizza in the oven on top of the 'tray'...

Anyway, I aired the house and slung the rack outside. One it cooled I was able to half chip half peel the plastic off with no residue. And ate the middle of the pizza.

Was super pissed off though! definitely helped!

You can buy cheap replacement racks from eBay.

@theThreeofWeevils thank you for making me laugh today!

OP, I’d Chuck them and buy replacement

Here's the disaster

Oh wow!
Um. Tbh I think you're better just replacing them if you can. If not maybe a professional cleaner would be able to help?

OP that looks a bloody awful if not impossible job! New racks might be your best bet. But if you want to teach DS a lesson get him to cut/scrape it down as much as possible and see what you're left with

I hope by now your DS has measured up the racks and searched the Internet for replacements.

I don't think I'd want to try to use those - you've presumably no idea what type of plastic it was so there's no way to guess whether burning off any residue after scraping would be toxic or not.