Does lining the bottom of an electric or gas oven with aluminum foil affect its performance? Specifically, does it cause the thermostat to malfunction?

zbeckabee

I don't see HOW it could have any impact on the thermostat. This says: NEVER line any part of an oven with aluminum foil. However, it neglects to say why. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/1467710/Firenzi---FSF650BK---FSF650BK---(PNC-949711523)---Manual Another: Enamel doesn't burn or melt, at least not at the temperatures you can reach in your oven. However, the aluminum foil can do both, forming aluminum dioxide, which you don't want to breath or eat. Quit using your oven until the bottom panel is replaced. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/appl/msg0808383322641.html Jun 08 09, 10:55 AM

Baloo55th

I can't see any reason for lining the oven with foil, except to avoid cleaning it. Most ovens now seem to be self-cleaning anyway. Foil in ovens is for wrapping joints of meat and so on. As to thermostats - they don't live in the oven. They are to be found actually behind the knobs. The remote sensor does live in or very nearly in the oven, but so far as I know it's not in the bottom of the oven. With a gas oven - where the heating flames are open at the back of the base, putting foil on the oven bottom will not have much effect. Possibly some heat that would be absorbed by the base would be reflected, increasing the oven temperature. With an electric oven, there can be heater elements under the base (as in Baloo's little portable - well, sort of - oven) together with elements exposed at the top of the oven. DO NOT put foil or anything round these exposed ones. Foil on the oven bottom may reflect heat downwards and possibly cause element damage and overwork of the heaters by lowering the temperature achieved by fully working elements. Best avoided just in case. All in all, if the oven manufacturers had thought foil linings a good idea, they'd have fitted them (and charged extra for tuppence-worth of foil...). http://home.howstuffworks.com/how-to-repair-an-oven1.htm et al Jun 08 09, 11:39 AM