Is the Drawer Under Your Oven Actually for Storage?
That bottom drawer might hold pans, warm food, or serve as a broiler. Check your exact oven model before you put anything in it that could melt.
Maybe, but don’t assume. The drawer under an oven can be a storage drawer, a warming drawer, or a broiler drawer, depending on the model. And a storage drawer can still get hot while the oven is on. It’s not automatically a safe home for plastic lids and spare oven mitts.
Start with the easiest clue: look at the oven controls. A setting labeled for a warming drawer or lower broiler tells you that drawer does more than store pans. No label? That doesn’t settle it. Apparently labeling the mystery drawer was optional.
To find out for sure, look up the manual for your exact model. Check for a model number on a label around the oven door frame or near the drawer opening. If you don’t find it there, check any paperwork that came with the appliance. Use that number on the manufacturer’s support site, then look for the section on the lower drawer. Ovens that look nearly identical can have different drawers, so a photo of somebody else’s stove isn’t much help.
Wait until the oven and drawer are cool before pulling it out to inspect it. A broiler drawer may have a rack or broiler pan, but missing pieces or a previous owner’s collection of baking sheets don’t prove what the drawer was designed to do. The manual is the answer.
If it’s a storage drawer, follow the manual’s limits on what can go in it. If you can’t check those limits yet, stick to oven-safe metal cookware and keep plastic, paper, towels, and anything else that could melt or burn somewhere else. If it’s a warming or broiler drawer, use it only as the instructions for that model describe.
Heat in the drawer while the oven is running doesn’t, by itself, mean something is broken. But if it heats when the appliance has been off and had time to cool, or you notice smoke or a burning smell, stop using it and have it checked.
So before you fill that drawer with whatever doesn’t fit in the cabinets, identify what it actually does. A drawer-shaped space is not necessarily a storage drawer. Convenient design, really.
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