I am an idiot. Everyday, my wife and I boil or baby's bottles in a pot of hot water to sterilze
them. Last night, I turned on the stove at 12:30 am and while I was waiting for the water to boil, I
sat down and watched tv. Well, next thing you know, I woke up at 4am with the most disgusting smell
of all of the melted bottles and nipples inside the covered pot. I immedieately threw the pot
outside into the snow. but the smell was so bad, I could hardly breathe. I looked at the pot this
morning and all that is left is a black hard hardened plastic clump on the bottom. It looks like the
surface of the moon, or like sugar after you boil it.

I didnt see any smoke but there must have been some. I opened the windows immediately at 4:30 am
(front door, rear door, windows, fans, etc, which was terrible because it was 20 degree last night
and it was snowing when this all happened. I closed everything after one hour and went back to bed
(with out bedroom door shut). Thank goodness the baby's room door was almost completely closed
because we have a humidifier in his room. Our room was far enough away from the kitchen that it
didnt smell yet.

So there is my jackass story. Now, my wife left for the day with the baby and my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking vinegar is a good way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work? I live in a ranch so it is only the one
floor to worry about. Also, there is no carpeting in any of the affected rooms. Will it get better
if I washed down all the walls, ceilings and mopped the floors? Please help. I am sitting here in a
55 degrees house with the windows wide open and the smell of burnt plastic is almost everywhere.

I dont have the money to hire a professional or to get ozone machines. Thanks for any suggestions
that you think I can try that wont cost much.

Tony

"Tony" wrote in message
...

my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking vinegar is a good
way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work?

Vinegar is famously used to get rid of tobacco smoke -- simply
left out in three or four saucers (not heated let alone boiled.)
This is so cheap you could try it today, in case it helps.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

On Dec 21, 8:00*am, Tony wrote:
I am an idiot. Everyday, my wife and I boil or baby's bottles in a pot of hot water to sterilze
them. Last night, I turned on the stove at 12:30 am and while I was waiting for the water to boil, I
sat down and watched tv. Well, next thing you know, I woke up at 4am with the most disgusting smell
of all of the melted bottles and nipples inside the covered pot. I immedieately threw the pot
outside into the snow. but the smell was so bad, I could hardly breathe. I looked at the pot this
morning and all that is left is a black hard hardened plastic clump on the bottom. It looks like the
surface of the moon, or like sugar after you boil it.

*I didnt see any smoke but there must have been some. I opened the windows immediately at 4:30 am
(front door, rear door, windows, fans, etc, which was terrible because it was 20 degree last night
and it was snowing when this all happened. I closed everything after one hour and went back to bed
(with out bedroom door shut). Thank goodness the baby's room door was almost completely closed
because we have a humidifier in his room. Our room was far enough away from the kitchen that it
didnt smell yet.

So there is my jackass story. Now, my wife left for the day with the baby and my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking vinegar is a good way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work? I live in a ranch so it is only the one
floor to worry about. Also, there is no carpeting in any of the affected rooms. *Will it get better
if I washed down all the walls, ceilings and mopped the floors? Please help. I am sitting here in a
55 degrees house with the windows wide open and the smell of burnt plastic is almost everywhere.

I dont have the money to hire a professional or to get ozone machines. Thanks for any suggestions
that you think I can try that wont cost much.

Tony

Ozone is poison so dont regret it, burn candles, carpet deoderiser or
baking soda in carpet, might help. Once my mom left a pot of chicken
on the stove and threw in 6 or so eggs to boil, 8 hrs later can home,
meat was off bones gone, eggs broke and burnt away, 2 years later it
might have been still stinking. Maybe google, plastics may be bad, or
maybe not.

In article , ransley wrote:
On Dec 21, 8:00=A0am, Tony wrote:
I am an idiot. Everyday, my wife and I boil or baby's bottles in a pot of=
hot water to sterilze
them. Last night, I turned on the stove at 12:30 am and while I was waiti=
ng for the water to boil, I
sat down and watched tv. Well, next thing you know, I woke up at 4am with=
the most disgusting smell
of all of the melted bottles and nipples inside the covered pot. I immedi=
eately threw the pot
outside into the snow. but the smell was so bad, I could hardly breathe. =
I looked at the pot this
morning and all that is left is a black hard hardened plastic clump on th=
e bottom. It looks like the
surface of the moon, or like sugar after you boil it.

=A0I didnt see any smoke but there must have been some. I opened the wind=
ows immediately at 4:30 am
(front door, rear door, windows, fans, etc, which was terrible because it=
was 20 degree last night
and it was snowing when this all happened. I closed everything after one =
hour and went back to bed
(with out bedroom door shut). Thank goodness the baby's room door was alm=
ost completely closed
because we have a humidifier in his room. Our room was far enough away fr=
om the kitchen that it
didnt smell yet.

So there is my jackass story. Now, my wife left for the day with the baby=
and my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking vinegar is a good=
way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work? I live in a ranch=
so it is only the one
floor to worry about. Also, there is no carpeting in any of the affected =
rooms. =A0Will it get better
if I washed down all the walls, ceilings and mopped the floors? Please he=
lp. I am sitting here in a
55 degrees house with the windows wide open and the smell of burnt plasti=
c is almost everywhere.

I dont have the money to hire a professional or to get ozone machines. Th=
anks for any suggestions
that you think I can try that wont cost much.

Tony

Ozone is poison so dont regret it, burn candles, carpet deoderiser or
baking soda in carpet, might help. Once my mom left a pot of chicken
on the stove and threw in 6 or so eggs to boil, 8 hrs later can home,
meat was off bones gone, eggs broke and burnt away, 2 years later it
might have been still stinking. Maybe google, plastics may be bad, or
maybe not.

There is nothing wrong with using ozone machines if done properly. I would imagine
there might also be ozone machine rentals. Also, any quality air cleaner
will have a carbon filter which sucks up room odors. You can also install them on
furnace or air conditioners. Getting at the source odor is the most important, but
it may be stuck on everything.

greg

(GregS) wrote in
:

In article

m, ransley wrote:
On Dec 21, 8:00=A0am, Tony wrote:
I am an idiot. Everyday, my wife and I boil or baby's bottles
in a pot of=
hot water to sterilze
them. Last night, I turned on the stove at 12:30 am and while
I was waiti=
ng for the water to boil, I
sat down and watched tv. Well, next thing you know, I woke up
at 4am with=
the most disgusting smell
of all of the melted bottles and nipples inside the covered
pot. I immedi=
eately threw the pot
outside into the snow. but the smell was so bad, I could
hardly breathe. =
I looked at the pot this
morning and all that is left is a black hard hardened plastic
clump on th=
e bottom. It looks like the
surface of the moon, or like sugar after you boil it.

=A0I didnt see any smoke but there must have been some. I
opened the wind=
ows immediately at 4:30 am
(front door, rear door, windows, fans, etc, which was terrible
because it=
was 20 degree last night
and it was snowing when this all happened. I closed everything
after one =
hour and went back to bed
(with out bedroom door shut). Thank goodness the baby's room
door was alm=
ost completely closed
because we have a humidifier in his room. Our room was far
enough away fr=
om the kitchen that it
didnt smell yet.

So there is my jackass story. Now, my wife left for the day
with the baby=
and my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking
vinegar is a good=
way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work? I live
in a ranch=
so it is only the one
floor to worry about. Also, there is no carpeting in any of
the affected =
rooms. =A0Will it get better
if I washed down all the walls, ceilings and mopped the
floors? Please he=
lp. I am sitting here in a
55 degrees house with the windows wide open and the smell of
burnt plasti=
c is almost everywhere.

I dont have the money to hire a professional or to get ozone
machines. Th=
anks for any suggestions
that you think I can try that wont cost much.

Tony

There is nothing wrong with using ozone machines if done
properly. I would imagine there might also be ozone machine
rentals. Also, any quality air cleaner will have a carbon filter
which sucks up room odors. You can also install them on furnace
or air conditioners. Getting at the source odor is the most
important, but it may be stuck on everything.

greg

The big areas for odor retention are carpet, upholstered furniture,
shades/drapes, and the paint on the walls. I would suggest, first,
clean the drapes/curtains. Then if you feel competent, steam clean
the upholstery and carpeting [Don't forget the underside of the
furniture]. Otherwise hire a professional to do it. Then wash the
walls, and if possible ceiling. If the odor still persists, use
something like Killz to seal the existing paint on the walls and
repaint the walls and ceiling. Good luck.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

I wound up putting pots of vinegar all over the house, opened all the doors and windows (shut off
the oild burner), on a beautiful 40 degree windy day. I then washed every piece of the kitchen
(cabinets, under and over, inside, counter top, dining room table, chairs, mopped the floor, walls
and ceiling. Did all the same stuff in the living room. Well, the kitchen still smells like burnt
plastic. I do notice a lot of the smell coming from the space saving microwave that is just over the
stove where the burnt plastic melted. I am going to have to throw that microwave out and buy a new
one. The vinegar did nothing in this case. It just made the house smell like vinegar.

Tony


On Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:51:43 -0500, tim wrote:

(GregS) wrote in
:

In article

m, ransley wrote:
On Dec 21, 8:00=A0am, Tony wrote:
I am an idiot. Everyday, my wife and I boil or baby's bottles
in a pot of=
hot water to sterilze
them. Last night, I turned on the stove at 12:30 am and while
I was waiti=
ng for the water to boil, I
sat down and watched tv. Well, next thing you know, I woke up
at 4am with=
the most disgusting smell
of all of the melted bottles and nipples inside the covered
pot. I immedi=
eately threw the pot
outside into the snow. but the smell was so bad, I could
hardly breathe. =
I looked at the pot this
morning and all that is left is a black hard hardened plastic
clump on th=
e bottom. It looks like the
surface of the moon, or like sugar after you boil it.

=A0I didnt see any smoke but there must have been some. I
opened the wind=
ows immediately at 4:30 am
(front door, rear door, windows, fans, etc, which was terrible
because it=
was 20 degree last night
and it was snowing when this all happened. I closed everything
after one =
hour and went back to bed
(with out bedroom door shut). Thank goodness the baby's room
door was alm=
ost completely closed
because we have a humidifier in his room. Our room was far
enough away fr=
om the kitchen that it
didnt smell yet.

So there is my jackass story. Now, my wife left for the day
with the baby=
and my job is to get rid
of this smell. I googled this and it seems that boiking
vinegar is a good=
way to do this. Also, cut
an onion and leave it out. Do these things really work? I live
in a ranch=
so it is only the one
floor to worry about. Also, there is no carpeting in any of
the affected =
rooms. =A0Will it get better
if I washed down all the walls, ceilings and mopped the
floors? Please he=
lp. I am sitting here in a
55 degrees house with the windows wide open and the smell of
burnt plasti=
c is almost everywhere.

I dont have the money to hire a professional or to get ozone
machines. Th=
anks for any suggestions
that you think I can try that wont cost much.

Tony

There is nothing wrong with using ozone machines if done
properly. I would imagine there might also be ozone machine
rentals. Also, any quality air cleaner will have a carbon filter
which sucks up room odors. You can also install them on furnace
or air conditioners. Getting at the source odor is the most
important, but it may be stuck on everything.

greg

The big areas for odor retention are carpet, upholstered furniture,
shades/drapes, and the paint on the walls. I would suggest, first,
clean the drapes/curtains. Then if you feel competent, steam clean
the upholstery and carpeting [Don't forget the underside of the
furniture]. Otherwise hire a professional to do it. Then wash the
walls, and if possible ceiling. If the odor still persists, use
something like Killz to seal the existing paint on the walls and
repaint the walls and ceiling. Good luck.
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Tony wrote in
news
I wound up putting pots of vinegar all over the house, opened
all the doors and windows (shut off the oild burner), on a
beautiful 40 degree windy day. I then washed every piece of the
kitchen (cabinets, under and over, inside, counter top, dining
room table, chairs, mopped the floor, walls and ceiling. Did all
the same stuff in the living room. Well, the kitchen still
smells like burnt plastic. I do notice a lot of the smell coming
from the space saving microwave that is just over the stove
where the burnt plastic melted. I am going to have to throw that
microwave out and buy a new one. The vinegar did nothing in
this case. It just made the house smell like vinegar.

Tony


Before you pitch the microwave, take it down and clean the outside
of it and the area it was mounted to throughly. Does your
microwave have an exhaust hood setup beneath it? If it does, clean
or replace the filter and wipe down the rest of the hood area very
well.

If you feel up to it, take the micro outside, take the cover off
(its best to let it sit unplugged for a day or two so the charge on
the big caps goes away), and vacuum out all the dust and dirt
inside you can get at. Then take a can of compressed air and blow
out everything you can see. If there is a greasy film over
everything get a can of TV Tuner cleaner and spray it all over.
Act like you are washing down the insides so you work any gunk to
the outside of the unit. By now you should be able to tell if
there is any odor left in the unit.

Do you have any porous countertops? They may have absorbed some of
the smoke and would need a very thorough cleaning as well.

Lastly, get a couple of those lava rock bags that they sell to
abosrb odors and spread them around where the odor seems to be
strongest.

If none of this works and the odor is in the kitchen, you will be
stuck with putting a clear sealer finish on the cabinets or
refinishing/refacing them. Again, good luck
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

I lived through a fire. Here are my thoughts:

1. If you smell it, it's because whatever absorbed the odor is giving
it off into the air. So eventually it'll all be gone from whatever
absorbed it. If this were summer you could leave the windows open,
but since it's cold you probably are stuck with only maybe one window
partially open and an exhaust fan. You are better off with air
circulation (i.e., a fan) because just leaving windows open means less
air circulation but still a lot of heat transfer (in other words, your
house gets cold with less productive removal of the smell).

2. Some of the smell is in your nose-- you'll be 'smelling' the smoke
after it's mostly gone because you have memory of it. So it'll smell
worse for you in a week or two than for visitors who have no memory of
it.

3. Porous things absorb smoke-- couches, curtains, carpets, clothing,
towels.

4. Try to keep all the room doors closed to keep the smell where it
started.

It WILL go away, so try not to drive yourself crazy.

Shaun Eli
www.BrainChampagne.com
Brain Champagne: Clever Comedy for Smart Minds (sm)