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I have melted aluminum foil on the bottom of my oven. Can I still use the oven for baking?

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I doubt you have melted aluminum foil at the bottom of your oven. The melting temperature of aluminum foil is 660 degrees Celsius (1,220 degrees Fahrenheit) at standard pressure. It is possible that you have a layer of grease between some foil and your oven bottom. This combination will likely char and burn. I would clean your oven well, and use as normal.

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    As a chemist I was curious. It doesn't seem that even the self cleaning cycle (approximately 500 degrees Celsius or 900 degrees Fahrenheit) would get hot enough to melt aluminum. However maybe right under electric coils it could get that hot.
    – MaxW
    Dec 24, 2018 at 21:07
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    The foil is probably bonded to the oven, just like aluminum foil can deposit on the surface of (acidic) lasagne, no melting required. However, this isn't the point: the foil is there, and it doesn't really matter how it got there, but it does matter whether the oven is safe to use.
    – Daniel Griscom
    Dec 26, 2018 at 3:46
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    I think it is possible to melt it - 660 is not that much, and we have had other people to whom it happened, see cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/63280. The temperature on the dial is the average temperature of the air in the oven, the walls and bottom are almost by definition hotter than that.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Dec 26, 2018 at 13:26
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    @rumtscho That is one heck of an oven that reaches 660 Celsius on the walls and bottom. Just puruse the pizza questions and you can find people lamenting over ovens that are not hot enough...maybe the element achieves those temps, but again, I think this user has the larger issue of a dirty oven.
    – moscafj
    Dec 26, 2018 at 13:57
  • Whether it is caused by heat or some reaction with the metal surface of the oven, this can and does happen. I have a new electric oven. Aluminum foil from a rack fell to the bottom of the oven when when oven was set at 380 F (and I use a thermometer in the oven to check temp). The oven only reached about 380 F for 30 minutes. The foil "melted to the surface of the oven - New Oven :( Seems impossible to remove without damaging the surface of the inside oven.
    – foil stuck inside oven
    Jun 26, 2019 at 16:55
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Aluminum foil itself should be safe. In fact, before ‘self cleaning’ ovens, I knew people who lined the bottom of their oven with foil incase any spills should happen.

The only issue that might come up is if there is any sort of coating on the foil. Reynolds says their non-stick foil is safe up to 650°F, which should be higher than home ovens can get to unless it’s in direct contact with a heating element. If you’re using a different brand of coated foil, you may want to check the box or the company’s website

update: as the foil is stuck, there’s also the question of what’s sticking the foil on if it hasn’t melted. There may be some food residue that will smoke as it bakes off. Unless there’s a huge spill that’s obvious, it likely won’t be very much (and should then release the foil)

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