The Reason It's So Dangerous To Use A Wet Oven Mitt

Few things are more exciting than hearing the high-pitched ding of the oven timer go off, signaling that it's nearly time to indulge in the meal you've spent the last hour putting together. The aroma of a delicious sheet pan dinner or chocolate chip cookies fills your nostrils as you yank open the oven door, sending a blast of heat into your face as you admire the drool-worthy tray of food that will soon be filling your belly.

You reach for your oven mitts and gently place them over your hands so you can pull out the tray when, suddenly, your food trance is broken by the feeling of a big wet spot on one of your protective gloves. The dampness is more than unpleasant, but surely won't have an effect on your ability to take the food out of the oven, right? Wrong. According to Mental Floss, it is actually incredibly dangerous to use a wet oven mitt or potholder to pull something out of the oven, and can potentially lead to a serious injury. Here's why it's so important to keep your mitts nice and dry.

Wearing a pair of wet oven mitts to pull a hot tray out of the oven may not seem like that big of a deal. The process takes a mere five seconds to complete, after all. However, Mental Floss reports that using damp oven mitts or potholders is a big no-no that can potentially cause third-degree burns to your hands.

The reason it is so dangerous to use a damp oven mitt or potholder is that water is a conductor that transfers heat nearly 25 times faster than air. Therefore, when one of these protective items gets wet, the layer of heat-resistant material they are made with becomes less effective — so much so that a study by Oklahoma State University found that third-degree burns could occur in just one second when pulling something out of an oven that has been set to 350 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. A similar fate can occur if your hand is not fully dry when you place it inside of a cloth glove, so make sure to take the extra second to towel off your hands completely before grabbing your food from the oven. Considering the fact that one Redditor described the wet-oven-mitt-burn as being "worse than a 'dry' burn," we highly suggest equipping your kitchen with a second set of protective gloves or potholders in the case that your go-to pair gets wet to ensure that no injuries will occur.