How to clean an oven

In this article we will go over how to clean an oven. One of the kitchen appliances that demand frequent maintenance from you is an oven. With butter and cheese melting on the racks, foods dripping on the plates and the oven glass getting filled with grease, your oven can become a nightmare for you if you don’t clean it regularly. Are you worried about getting rid of these tough stains from your oven? Do you want your oven to turn into that sparkling clean appliance that you once bought? We are here to help you; please find below some quick and easy tips for you to clean your oven thoroughly and bid goodbye to the tough stains and food marks.

Some popular methods to clean the oven’s interiors

• Using the self-clean function of ovens

Thanks to the advancement in technology, most modern ovens come with self-clean and steam-clean functions. Therefore, the best method to clean your oven is to use this function. If you are unclear about this function, you can check the manual for more information. In most brands of ovens, this function will require the oven to be heated extensively (sometimes even over 800 degrees F), and this might take a long time.

This means your oven may have to be put in cleaning mode for about 5 hours, during which time you cannot use it for cooking, heating, or baking purposes. Also, this self-clean process emanates a lot of smell due to overheating. So it is a good idea to keep the windows open and allow the kitchen to be well-ventilated. Please remember to keep pets and kids away from the kitchen during this process.

The tough stains and food marks are converted into an ash-like consistency when the oven is overheated. Once the process is completed, allow the oven’s interiors to clean down a bit. Then, you can use a clean & damp cloth to wipe off the ash, and your oven becomes spotlessly clean!

• Using chemical cleaners bought from stores

If your oven doesn’t have a self-clean feature, or if you don’t have the time to implement this feature in your oven, you don’t have to fret too much. You will find many store-bought oven cleaners in supermarkets. When you find many food stains or grease marks in the interiors of your oven, you can spray some chemical cleaner on them. Allow the chemical to sit on these marks for at least 30 minutes (you should allow the stains to soak in the cleaner for a long time if they haven’t been cleaned for a long time).

The chemicals of these cleaners will loosen all these stains, and they will come off easily when you wipe them off with a clean, dry cloth. Regardless of the extent of the grime accumulated in your oven’s interiors, you can trust good cleaners to do the job for you. Please ensure you buy organic oven cleaners to be sure that they don’t emanate any toxic elements when sprayed inside your oven. Always wear a mask and protective gear when using these chemical cleaners, and keep the windows open to allow fresh air to circulate inside the kitchen.

• Using oven cleaners made at home

If you are skeptical about using store-brought chemical oven cleaners, you can make use of simple & organic cleaners prepared at home using basic kitchen ingredients like baking soda and vinegar. While a combination of baking soda and water is more than enough for light stains, a paste made from baking soda, water and vinegar is ideal for tough stains and accumulated grime & grease marks.

Spread generous quantities of this paste in the inside of your oven, and allow the mixture to settle down there for at least 30 minutes. You can leave the paste to settle for a longer time, if your oven has long-standing and tough food stains. The chemical properties of baking soda and vinegar help to break down these stains, and loosen them quite well. You can then use a non-abrasive pad, or a clean & soft cloth to wipe off the interiors. Voila! The stains are gone, and your oven looks sparkling clean!

If you have racks and pans inside your oven, you need to remove them first before applying the baking soda paste to the interiors of the appliance. If the oven racks are dirty, you can soak them in a huge tub containing a mixture of boiling water, baking soda and vinegar. Allow the racks to soak for about an hour or two, before you scrub off their stains with a cleaning brush.

This magical, homemade cleaning mixture (baking soda, water and vinegar) can also be used to get rid of the stains and marks on the glass doors of your oven. However, you need to be careful while wiping off the stains from the glass after it has soaked in the mixture for about 30 minutes. You should never use abrasive pads or rough clothes to wipe stains from the glass doors. Always use a soft microfiber cloth to ensure that your oven’s doors don’t develop any scratches.

Additional tips for cleaning your oven

• If your oven’s door contains two pieces of glass, dust and grime can easily get settled in the hidden areas between the pieces. So, you should first unscrew the door completely to get access to these hidden areas. You can use a vacuum cleaner (with small-sized nozzles) to get rid of dust and food crumbs stuck here. For tougher stains like grease & grime, you should insert a damp sponge in these areas with the help of a stick. Move the sponge along the hidden areas to get rid of these stains.
• Use soft microfiber rags to get rid of stains on the oven knobs. Never spray any cleaner directly on the knobs, as the liquid can get inside the knobs, thereby affecting the power supply inside the oven.
• Always read the manual thoroughly before using your oven’s self-clean feature, as different models have different cleaning settings installed in them.
• If you use your oven extensively for cooking or baking, you must clean it regularly (at least once a month). If you use it sparingly, cleaning it once in three months is highly recommended.