I awoke to a horrible odor as a result of a plastic spoon falling onto the heater element in the dishwasher. What is the best way to remedy this situation? Should I remove the element and burn the remainder off with a torch? Do I just scrape off what I can and let it burn off during the next cycles? This is in one of the Maytag models that Appliance Brad recommended a few years ago.

My first thought is to freeze it with a can of gum remover or canned air upside down. Might pop right off.

How about removing the element, take it outside and plug it in to 110v? It should burn off and then stop smoking.

Do it carefully -

GE says to let it heat back up in the 'dry' cycle about four minutes and scrape it off. Maybe sense.

The residue may come off with acetone but I'm sure that is not approved.

http://products.geappliances.c...tent?contentId=17406

Problem solved. I just scraped most of it then used really course steel wool to get the rest off. I was able to lift the element enough to get underneath. Thanks for the responses!