Oven Cleaning

[TMC]

Looked in the oven today

looks like a major clean is needed

Whats the best stuff

[Tabby]

Best place to start is to wipe it over with caustic soda, then put a pan of water in there and run it to boil the water. That will remove a fair bit without you doing anything.

NT

[stuart noble]

Ammonia should be the best bet as it leaves no chemical residue. The "household" strength is available in most hardware shops, and you just leave a bowl of it at the bottom of the oven overnight, having sealed off any obvious gaps. I've never tried it but, even if it takes longer to dissolve the gunk, it should be less work in the long run.

[TMC]

Interesting but as all ovens have ventilation and mine is fan assisted with a vent half way down the back and not easy to get sealing is easier said than done.

[Andy Dingley]

Mine has inner plates that lift out, then I take them outside and go at it with caustic soda in a shallow plastic tray (some under-bed storage thing from Ikea, gets used a lot for mucky cleaning jobs). Wear gloves, eye protection and an apron. A soak and a blast with the pressure washer does most, without any need to get too hands-on.

For sprays, Mr Muscle is pretty good (a chemist and shooter friend studied the lot of supermarket cleaning products quite carefully, to see what had the most in for the money, re. gun cleaning).

[Toby]

IME, Oven Pride

affiliation, just a happy customer.

My main oven is self cleaning (heats up very high and just turns it to ash) however, the microwave/oven (looks like a regular small oven, not a microwave) isn't, so gets the oven pride treatment every so often, and comes up like new.

Also good for the racks, as it comes with a huge plastic bag.

[stuart noble]

Stuff some plastic bags in the gaps? More for your own comfort than anything because the fumes are pretty bad, even with the 10% strength domestic stuff. My take on this is that with ammonia there should be no spraying, scrubbing, or serious rinsing involved. In theory you should be able to just wipe the gunk off with a damp rag. Dunno, maybe someone has tried it?

[Tabby]

Sounds like a good way to die in your sleep.

NT

[Frank Erskine]

An angle grinder, of course.

[John]

I saw some bags in Aldi - ones where you put the loose items in and then some cleaning stuff.

I have to say (sorry) that prevention is best - after doing a roast always clean the oven.

[pete]

Mine has removable plates. too. However the manual that it came with has a warning (it's in CAPITALS, so it must be true) that says "Most kinds of cleaning agent will damage the lining". I have been told by a reasonably unreliable source that all "self-cleaning" oven liners would have come with a similar warning. However, the OPs don't sound like it#s particularly self-cleaning any more, so it may not hurt. I've only ever used, or needed, a steam cleaner - no chemicals, just steam.

[dom]

In spite of its awful smell, ammonia isn't that dangerous.

"Ammonia vapour has a sharp, irritating, pungent odour that acts as a warning of potentially dangerous exposure. The average odour threshold is 5 ppm, well below any danger or damage. "

[Dave Liquorice]

For self cleaning linings to work you need to occasionally run the oven flat out for a while. Wait for it to cool and the muck will have turned to crumbly carbon dust.

[Baz]

Sounds like my wife's cooking!

Baz

[Jules Richardson]

Most ones I've seen here in the US have a "clean" setting which does exactly that, but I don't remember ever seeing it on UK ones. (Maybe it's one of those situations where one company over here did it as a "feature", and now they all have to or consumers consider the product to be inferior)

cheers

Jules

[A Plumber]

My wife swears by Mr Muscle oven cleaner, sprays on at night, wipes off in the morning. simples

[Tabby]

Warning of course doesnt happen when youre asleep. Ammonia also soon dulls the nasal senses to the smell.

NT

[TMC]

Thanks for all the responses

Used some cit oven cleaner which was great on the shelves and walls but not so good on the baked fruit pie juice on the oven floor. Old putty knife seemed to deal with that however.

The roof of the oven is another matter altogether and will need a further talking to

Found a silicone oven floor liner in the cupboard but apparently no use as the fan blows it about. Will give that some further thought as well

Overall SWMBO well impressed

[Dawn]

and it seems to linger - Oven Pride doesn't smell and seems to rinse off better.

Dawn

[newshound]

I would also rate that strategy as being much more effective than exposing the muck to ammonia vapour.