alponse, congratulations on remaining cancer free! I posted in this forum because I figured the people here are the most interested in reducing toxins. It's fascinating to me that your oncologist told you not to compost, but why? kimmsr, thanks for that link. I used to microwave food in plastic containers and I don't do that anymore. I'm still researching the possibilities of contaminates in my soil. It's not easy to find information on this (apart from lead): what contaminants could have been released, whether they did indeed settle on my soil, whether the plants take them up, etc. I'm very well aware that I could be overreacting because of my diagnosis, but still think it is better to investigate than assume everything is OK.

I would try some vinegar and baking soda, put some on a sponge or dish rag, run the microwave about 1 minute at a time. The steam created should loosen the burned on food, the baking soda should absorb the smell. Then you can use the rag to clean it up with, just be careful, the rag will be hot, just how hot depends on the wattage of your microwave, and how many "1 minutes" you have run. If that fails you could try the old "Tupperware Party" trick for getting odors out of those plastic containers wad up some newspaper and stick it inside, close and let set for a day or so since you say its at school, you may have to try this overnight for several nights, or for a weekend. Hope 1 of these ideas may help. Ellie

Regarding the burning smell: Just like a new car has some pretty strong plastic and rubber odors, your Bosch washer is similar in that respect. The internal heater has a tendency to enhance the new plastic/rubber odors. This combined with a slight odor from the new tub drive belt, during high speed spin can be somewhat of a concern to a few customers. When I worked for B/S/H/, periodically I would receive calls from customers complaining of the plasic/rubber burning odor coming from their new washer; both AXXIS and NEXXT, but it never amounted to anything dangerous in the way of a fire hazard, just a disturbing odor. One customer received two AXXIS replacements, due to the burning odor. The replacement machines produced the same smell and I can only attribute it to the internal heater, which had a tendency to enhance these odors, of which some people are very sensitive. Our live showroom AXXIS unit produced this odor when new, with a reduction and finally an elimination of the smell over a few months of use. Some dealers took the so called problem machines back, due to a few customers unwilling to live with the smell on the short term, but you should notice a reduction in the odor over time. I do recommend having any machine with a burning odor to at least be checked/inspected by an authorized servicer for your own safety and peace of mind.

After much research I found that the cost of the bearings, the seals and the tools required would be far more than the machine was worth. I also contacted a local tech who informed me that the labor cost alone would be roughly $150 to replace the bearings and seals and install the new stator and rotor. The tech stated that if he were me he would discard the old machine and put the money towards a new one. I could not have said it better. I decided to install the new stator and rotor but I noticed that the new stator also has several cracks in it, much like the old one. Bummer. Looks like a new machine is in the near future for us. At this point with nothing left to lose I decided to epoxy the cracks in the new rotor and reinstall. It's working now and I hope this will last until after the holidays when appliances will be on sale.