How to Clean the Oven

After months of roasting and baking, an oven tends to get fairly grimy. Built-up grease and charred food accumulate and turn into carbon, causing a strong burning smell when cooking. Letting your oven remain coated in carbon can eventually taint your food and even become a fire hazard. Read on for instructions on how to clean your oven, whether it has a self-cleaning feature or not.

Steps

1. Know what type of oven you have. There are a few standard types of ovens, and they each require slightly different cleaning methods.
   
   
   
   • Self-cleaning ovens have a feature that allows you to heat the oven to such a high temperature that the built up food and grease gets turned to ash.
   • Textured ovens, or continuous cleaning ovens, have a porcelain layer that is designed to burn spilled food away while you are using your oven to bake.
   • Regular ovens without these cleaning features must be cleaned regularly by hand.

Cleaning a Self-Cleaning Oven

1. Prepare to clean the oven. Choose a time to clean the oven when your kitchen area is at its least active.
   
   
   
   • Keep children and pets away from the kitchen while the oven is cleaning, since it heats to a very high temperature and tends to give off a burning smell.
   • Open your windows to ventilate the kitchen, so your family won't be inhaling the fumes.
2. Remove the oven racks. Place them in a sink full of warm water mixed with a few drops of dishwashing liquid to soak.
   
   
   
3. Turn on the oven's self-cleaning mode. This should lock the oven door and heat the oven to between 800 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit (427 and 482 degrees Celsius).
   
   
   
   • Make sure the oven door is locked before leaving the oven to clean. If the lock isn't working, put masking tape or some other kind of barrier on the oven door so your family knows it is not to be opened.
   • The oven will clean itself for 2 to 6 hours, during which the grease and burnt food will turn into a light gray ash.
   • Let the oven cool for at least 2 hours following the cleaning cycle.
4. Open the oven door. Sweep out the ashes with a small brush and dustpan. Wipe the oven clean with a wet rag.
   
   
   
5. Clean the oven door. Scrub the inside of the oven door with a clean rag and a misting of a kitchen cleaning product. You can also use a vinegar and water solution to do the job.
   
   
   
6. Clean the oven racks. Scrub the oven racks in the soapy water. Rinse them off and dry them, then replace them in the oven.
   
   
   

Cleaning a Textured Oven

1. Remove the oven racks. Place them in a sink full of warm water mixed with a few drops of dishwashing liquid to soak.
   
   
   
2. Wipe the inside walls of the oven with a damp sponge. Since the oven cleans continuously, it does not need to be heated first. Make sure your oven is cold when you clean it.
   
   
   
   • Avoid using abrasive scrubbers or chemicals in your textured oven. These may damage the porcelain.
   • If necessary, use a solution of vinegar and water to wipe down the walls.
3. Clean the oven racks. Scrub the oven racks in the soapy water. Rinse them off and dry them, then replace them in the oven.
   
   
   

Cleaning a Non-Self-Cleaning Oven

1. Remove the oven racks. Place them in a sink full of warm water mixed with a few drops of dishwashing liquid to soak.
   
   
   
2. Make a cleaning solution. Load a 1-liter spray bottle with 4 tablespoons (56.7 g) of baking soda and fill the rest with water. Shake the spray bottle to moisten and dissolve the baking soda.
   
   
   
3. Spray down the oven. Spray the interior of a cold oven, focusing on the charred and stained areas, until the carbon is completely saturated.
   
   
   
   • For particularly dirty ovens, increase the ratio of baking powder to water so that you have more of a paste than a liquid. Spread the paste all over the charred areas.
4. Allow the solution or paste to soak in for at least an hour. After an hour, test to area to see if the charred part has loosened.
   
   
   
   • If it's still hard as a rock, douse it again with baking soda solution and allow it to sit for another hour.
   • If it's loose enough to chip off, proceed to the next step.
5. Use a scraper to remove the loosened carbon. The type of scraper you would use to chip ice and snow off your windshield works well. Keep scraping until most of the carbon is gone.
   
   
   
   • Wear rubber gloves if you don't want your hands to get black from the soot.
   • Spray the area with more baking soda solution as you go to make the loosening process easier.
   • Sweep out the debris you chipped off. Use a small brush and dustpan.
6. Spray the oven interior with the baking soda solution again. Allow it to soak in for an additional hour, then use a scrubber to remove the remaining carbon.
   
   
   
7. Wipe down the oven once more with a solution of half vinegar, half water. At this point the interior of your oven should be clean. If caked-on carbon remains, try the following alternative methods:
   
   
   
   • Use an industrial-strength oven cleaner. These contain chemicals that may be harmful to breathe, so use with caution. They typically instruct you to let the solution soak into the charred sections and then scrub out the oven.
   • Use ammonia. Pour it on the caked-on areas and let it sit for thirty minutes before scrubbing it off with a scrubber and then wiping with a damp sponge.
8. Clean the oven racks. Scrub the oven racks in the soapy water. Rinse them off and dry them, then replace them in the oven.
   
   
   

Caring for Your Oven In-Between Heavy Cleanings

1. Catch spills with a baking sheet. If you're cooking something messy, place a baking sheet on the rack below it to catch grease and food spills.
   
   
   
2. Clean up spills right away. When something does bubble over onto your oven floor, you can begin the cleaning process even while your food is still cooking.
   
   
   
   • Sprinkle salt over the affected area, then close the oven door and finish cooking your food.
   • After you remove the food and turn off the oven, wipe up the spill immediately with a damp sponge.
   • Use a half-vinegar half-water solution for tougher messes.

Video

Tips

• Don't worry about using too much baking soda. The more you use, the stronger the chemical reaction between the baking soda and the carbon.
• Clean oven spills while they are still warm to prevent caking and charring.
• If your sink isn't large enough to soak your oven racks, use your bathtub instead. You will have to clean your bathtub afterward, though.
• Read How to Clean a Stove for tips on cleaning your stovetop when you're done with the oven.

Warnings

• Avoid getting the baking soda solution onto the glass oven door. Baking soda can get trapped between the panes.
• Do not spray baking soda into a hot oven. You will burn yourself and get baking soda everywhere.

Things You'll Need

• Oven
• Dishwashing liquid
• Rags
• Water
• Kitchen cleaning product
• Spray bottle
• Baking soda

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