O.K. I know this sounds crazy, but has anyone heard of this. The oven is VERY old. The brand name is Sunray. It has worked fine, other then the temperature being off 50 to 100degrees.

Propane smell huh? I can't say I heard of anything like that except where an electric oven also has a connection for gas or propane stove located behind it with a leak. Dose this smell only occur when the oven is on? If so I imagine it is something burning off coils that seems to smell like propane.

Yep, if there is no propane hooked up, there can not be any smell from that. Just not humanly possible.

There can be smells of old heating coils and items burning in the stove.

Yes the smell is present only when the oven is on, and not every time it is on maybe every other time, or every third time I use the oven...

Okay, I am glad I am not just imagining things, I am experiencing the same smell with my electric oven and clothes dryer. Did you get any answers?

No, Our oven was very old and we found a good newer stove on craigs list for $200.00. Good luck. I will be curious to see what you hear.

We are experiencing the same thing. The only thing I can possibly think of for us is we were stripping the kitchen table and chairs and re-staining them and somehow the smell is coming from the dust.

Still would like to find a good answer.

I am having the same problem. It is a 3 year old electric and I thought the smell was a bit like butane. I did use a floor wax stripping product recently. Otherwise no reason it should smell.

Check for dead animals. Or bite the bullet and replace your old stuff already. NASTY

Glad to see that i'm not the only one with a electric oven that after about 12yrs of owning it now when i turn it on it emits a odor that's smells like lighter fuild or butane. I have no gas or propane in my home, i am strictly oil heated and electric cooking. The oven is clean, didn't use any cleaner on it just wiped it out. I assume anything spilling on the coil would burn off after the first use. Does anyone out there have an answer to what the problem might be.

I am having the same problem! My oven is 7 years old, a GE model (electric). It started to smell about a week ago, only when it is on of course. I tried to explain it to my husband and I said I thought it smelled like kerosene or butane or something. He gave me a really funny look, until I turned the oven on and had him smell it as well. He totally agreed with me. I thought I was going insane!!

Could the oven's heating element be going? Is there anything in the element itself that would smell?

Having same problem - my electric wall oven when turned on emanates a propane type order and so does the electric clothes dryer.
Only answer I can assume is that I had my wood floors refinished right before I started noticing the smell. I was nervous because I do have a gas cooktop, (which does not smell), and gas heating in the home.
Very strange (and until I found this) thought I was going crazy!

Crazy, I'm googling the same issue and yes, we just had out floors redone too. Weird!

Propane and natural gas have no odor; what you smell is ethylmercaptan, an odorant added to the gases to make it possible to be alerted to a gas leak. Other organic chemicals can smell similar. One drop can be detected in a football stadium. See: https://www.mathesongas.com/pdfs/msds/MAT09070.pdf
Ethanethiol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanethiol)