Jenn Air Electric Grill - Live and Learn

[JLR]

I pretty much destroyed my Jenn Air Electric Grill the other night due to my own stupidity but I thought I would pass it on anyway. I bought special aluminum foil that is supposed to be non stick on one side for fish and other such items. I wrapped the cast iron grates in the tin foil and then pre heat the grill with my sheet metal cover down. I have done all of this before without the aluminum foil with no problems. Sure enough, presumably due to the foil, the grill got so hot that the cast iron grates melted. Also, due to the extreme heat, the wires coming from the elements melted together shorting out the grill. So, I had the grates flown in by overnight mail and rewired the grill and all works fine now. I guess I will not be using the foil anymore and I thought I would pass this along to those who do use it or might want to. Maybe it was just bad luck but that darn grill had to get really hot to melt those grates. Anyone else ever make such a silly mistake or do you all know better than I?

 

[OBXTucker]

Never tried that, but I appreciate the lesson! We use ours all the time and love it.
Thanks for the heads up!

 

[Jaxfishgyd]

seen that kind of aluminium foil used on FoodTV, must be strong to melt the grates !!!

 

[JLR]

Should have left the cooking to the Admiral.

 

[Pascal]

I don't think I d have tried this at home! Between the foil and the cover you re trapping a low of heat in there

On the seaward we have, we occasionally use a foil pan while cooking to trap the heat on the food but the metal cover has a safety switch to kill the element if closed

 

[doc g]

John , my guess is that you shorted the unit with the foil which was electrically connected to the cast iron. That melted due to the short not the heat. Glad to hear it all turned out ok!! ... Pat

 

[JLR]

Pat - no question I shorted out the grill because it popped tte breaker. I thought it was due to melting the wires to the elements and having those in contact with the ground wire. Fixing that was easy but embarrassing. Now I have new grates but my vacation is about over so no more grilling until back at home base. My daughter reminds me that we replaced the elements in 40 knot winds and 20 degree temperature in February and never got to use the grill so far this summer. Well, at least it works--or I think it does.

Pascal - it only goes to show what a newbie I am when it comes to cooking on an electric grill. Now, being a little gun shy, I will probably stick to hot dogs and hamburgers and leave the fish, shrimp and more exotic foods to those who know what they are doing.

 

[rsmith]

Dont give up the ship! We all have brain farts once in a while. Only the real men admit to it. I did the same thing once. We always take a cheap grill to the Bahamas and then give it to one of the locals when we leave. I covered too much of the cooking surface once with fish in foil and trapped the heat underneath. The heat set the builtup grease on fire and turned the whole grill into a torch. Ended up pushing it off the end of the dock to put it out.

 

[captddis]

I almost set a microwave on fire last night. Had to toss the micro. The house still smells!

 

[saltshaker]

I almost set a microwave on fire last night. Had to toss the micro. The house still smells!

I did the same thing making popcorn. Bag actually caught on fire. Go to Bed Bath and Beyond. They sell a product that absorbs the smoke odor.