Oven on while no one is home?
 

Mr. Kipper's next return flight has him arriving late evening (9 PM or so). The airport is about half an hour from home, and I was pondering cooking dinner and having it warming in the oven so that when we did get home, he can eat dinner.

However, I'm concerned about leaving the oven on while no one is home. It's an electric oven. Should I be concerned if I leave it set to warm, or should it be just fine? It's a newer oven, if that matters. :)

Thanks!

Maybe he should get takeaway at the airport? Or eat there

Doesn't it have a timer?

Most electric ovens, in my experience, have timers that you can set and on my mum's you can set the time it goes off as well. She does it all the time and has never had a problem (actually, she did once when there was a power cut but it didn't catch fire or anything, just didn't come on at all).

You'd have the oven on for up to 3 hours if you were in the house I'd imagine (roasting stuff, slow cooking things) so if you trust the oven to do that I'm sure it'll be ok if you are out.

Here's what I do all the time.

If I'm making dinner, and then going to pick up the wife (about a 90 minute round trip most days), I'll put the dinner in the oven and cook it for a while. Just before leaving crank it up to 450, and then turn the oven off. By the time we get home it's cooked through, and the oven is still more than warm enough (our oven holds the heat for hours). If it's not done, just crank the oven back up and finish it off.

That works best for things that cook for a while and are forgiving in the cooking time (like beef shanks or short ribs, where it really doesn't matter if it's seven or eight hours at 250), of course it would not work for something with a 20 minute cook time.

I don't like leaving the oven on, that's just me. I've never had a problem with the oven, but should something happen, it's probably better somebody is home. Millions of people use the auto on or auto off or the sabbath mode when they are not home, so there's probably no real concern if you choose to do so, but if you are delayed for some reason because of traffic or flight delays, whatever, your food will just keep on cooking and cooking.

we leave all sorts of electrical devices on, or in idle mode all the time(don't forget to turn those computers, power supplies and battery chargers off) if you are really anal about it, you should go down stairs and turn off the main power supply.....and while you're at it, shut off the water inlet to the house.

we do have a voltage monitor on our household voltage. about 5 years ago, the neutral on the power input to our house was severed. in house voltage got close to 200. the computer power protectors issued no warnings.

I think ours has a timer, so I guess that's one option.
I'm looking at something with about a 1.5 hour cook time, so I might try cooking it for about 30 minutes at normal temperature, cranking it up for 30 minutes before I leave, and then shutting it off and figuring it would cook the rest of the way and stay warm.

We do that when we leave for more than a day. The last thing I want to return to is a flooded basement. It's an easy thing to do, so why not?

Ask my father. He turns the water off if they go away for a day or more. About two years ago they came home to a flood from the broken valve where he turns the water off! :eek:

On topic, our oven (gas) has a timer and we use it all the time when we are not home (with a pot roast cooking for five hours, etc.).

We've never done that, although we probably should if we'll be gone for a few days.
We've not had a flood (knock on wood), but we did have our thermostat batteries die while we were away for a week. We'd set the thermostat to 50 F, figuring that it was warm enough to keep pipes from freezing, but that we wouldn't go through much oil. We returned home to find that the thermostat read 32 F, and the furnace would not turn on at all. The pipes were frozen (there was ice in the toilet).

Of course, it was a Sunday afternoon, so the service call was $110. The technician arrived, couldn't figure out what was wrong, and eventually realized it was the thermostat batteries. He didn't charge us for the batteries. :rolleyes:

Back on topic--I *think* our oven has a timer. I'd be concerned with leaving something in there and setting it to turn on before I came home if it was something like a pot roast or some such, as I'd be concerned the meat shouldn't sit out for a portion of the day.

As far as this situation, since I wouldn't be gone but 2 hours tops, I would think the food would be just fine.

Water in toilet frozen? Maybe moving to warmer climate might be the answer:D

I've left an oven on for baking a bread once for 55 mins.. i had a timer and i got back with 2 mins to spare.

it is a concern but i think if you are careful it isn't too bad..

I wouldn't leave a gas oven on after I went out but an electric one like you describe should be fine.

Gas? oh helllll no. that's just asking for an insurance claim.

Ahh, the joys of not being a homeowner (anymore).

Water valves? What? :D

In all seriousness, i woudn't worry too much about an electric oven, as long as you can set up a timer. And have neighbors with keys just in case.

:D We were returning from Florida, and the entire East Coast was having record low temperatures.
I wouldn't dream of it if it was gas, especially with the kibblers. I'd be afraid the pilot light wouldn't light or things like that.
I won't give the neighbors keys, just in that I'm not a big fan of anyone other than my parents (who are on the other side of the state) having spare keys.