My oven keeps burning everything, should I live with it and adjust, or call maintenance?

I just moved into a new townhouse and have numerous issues. The most recent is my oven. I made a lasagna a week ago and set it for the minimum suggested time. When I pulled it out, the top layer, bottom layer, and an inch or so on every side was inedible (not just slightly burnt, completely inedible). It was a new recipe, so I assumed I had done something wrong.



Yesterday, I put in a frozen Red Baron Pizza - suggested cooking time of 17-22 minutes and set the oven temperature and allowed it to preheat. After 17 minutes, my pizza was burnt to a crisp - blacker than anything I've ever burnt before. I then tossed in a second pizza and set it to 13 minutes. Luckily, I checked it at 10, because it was already starting to burn!



Should I adjust temperatures and times and just live with it? Or is this too extreme of a variation and which warrants a call to maintenance? I hate to keep burning food, and I'm worried about not cooking items well enough and ending up with food poisoning.My oven keeps burning everything, should I live with it and adjust, or call maintenance?
Test it to see whether it needs to be re-calibrated. Put a meat thermometer inside and set the temp to 350 degrees and wait until the oven tells you it has reached that temperature. Then check the thermometer you have inside to see whether the temperature matches what you set. Often times, ovens require calibration when you start noticing that foods are either being under or over cooked. If there is a variance either way, it is time to have it serviced.My oven keeps burning everything, should I live with it and adjust, or call maintenance?
first buy a oven Temperature Gage

place it in the oven set the oven at 300 deg, give it 15 min, check Gage, for temp, if its off more than 25 deg from setting to reading temp gage, exp, if setting is at 300 deg and gage reads 350 or more call maintenance My oven keeps burning everything, should I live with it and adjust, or call maintenance?
Eskie is correct..AND yopu can calibrate the oven yourself.

How? Remove the oven temperature control knob.

Onthe back you will find a notched wheel or half moon.It is usually held by a screw. If you set the over to (for example) 300F and your test shows it is actually at 400F then adjuset the notched wheel so that whenthe oven control knob is reinstalled it indicates (aligned with) the 400F setting.

Youmayhave to do this test a couple of times as the over may over shoot any set temp by a several degrees. But in any case you can get it close.

Regards,

Eric

peterbilt