Cleaning regularly your oven is the best approach if you don’t want to end up with an appliance that looks old and shabby. Not to mention, it’s the best way to avoid cooking your meal in an unhygienic oven. A clean stove will also make the whole kitchen looks more beautiful, and you may even become a happier baker. Here are three efficient methods for cleaning your oven.
Ovens With a Self-Cleaning Setting
A self-cleaning oven is a well-insulated appliance that heats to an extremely high temperature (400 C or more) and thus incinerates leftovers of food and grease. Ovens with the pyrolytic cleaning (popularly known as self-cleaning) were invented in the ’60s. Much like you can clean up an outdoor grill by turning up the temperature and letting the scorched food bake-off, the self-cleaning stoves utilize very high heat to deal with stuck on grease and food.
However, you shouldn’t be fooled by the name of the method. Most manufacturers recommend first to remove as much of the grime and only then to initiate the self-cleaning setting. After the programme is over, you’ll still need to wipe off the inside of the appliance to remove the remaining ash and residues.
If you are hesitating to leave your oven, heat up to 400-500 degrees and leave it like this for a few hours (which is how much the program usually needs) you’re not alone. Many people worry that this setting damages the appliance and shortens its lifespan despite the manufacturer’s assurance that the device is perfectly safe to use as long as you follow the instructions. Some stoves require you to remove the interior racks before cleaning. A lot of people don’t want to leave their house with this setting on. Because a self-cleaning oven cremates all residues to a crisp, you may see vapour or smoke coming from the appliance. If you have pet birds, it might be better to sequester them away from the oven during the self-cleaning as the fumes can be highly toxic to birds.
Self-Cleaning Oven’s Advantages:
- Saving you a lot of efforts
- Easy to use
- Effectively burns off scorched food and grease residues
- Energy efficient due to better insulation
- They don’t require the use of additional oven cleaning detergents
Self-Cleaning Oven’s Disadvantages:
- You still need to clean the appliance before and after the self-cleaning process
- Hazardous vapours and fumes are released during the session, toxic enough to kill pet animals
- Strong smells coming from the device may be unpleasant
- Smoke coming from burning food residues may set off your smoke alarm
Cleaning the Oven With Chemical Products
Arguably one of the riskiest ways to clean your oven is using off-the-shelf chemical cleaners. Not that they won’t do the job – these products use lye (along with a multitude of other chemicals) and lift off caked on grease and grime magically. The main reason you wouldn’t want to use that kind of detergents is that they are incredibly hazardous to the health of your household. Lye is corrosive and can cause irritation to mucous membranes, skin, eyes, and lungs.
In fact, it is recommended to wear thick long gloves and protective goggles while using the products containing harsh chemicals. Corrosive alkalis are hazardous when inhaled and will damage the lung tissue. Chemical cleaners may contain various dangerous ingredients, such as MEA (monoethanolamine), which is a volatile organic compound, diethylene glycol butyl ether, petroleum, and many other toxic chemicals.
Advantages of Chemical Oven Cleaning Products:
Easy removal of grease and food residues Disadvantages of Chemical Oven Cleaning Products:
- Toxic fumes can burn lungs and damage the respiratory system
- Chemical ingredients are known to cause cancer, damage to the reproductive system, skin irritations and allergies
- Proven environmental hazards
- Deadly poisonous when swallowed
Non-Toxic Oven Cleaning with Homemade Cleaners
You might think that something as hard to remove as caked food would need harsh chemicals to be cleaned, but luckily that’s not true. There are many ways to clean a greasy oven using inexpensive and non-toxic ingredients. Actually, our cooking appliances can be cleaned efficiently using only homemade cleaners. You can make your own detergents easily in a minute (or less) with products you might already have in your cabinets. Baking soda is one of the most efficient cleaners – it’s abrasive enough to deal with caked on food residues but not enough to scratch the surface of the appliance.
Bicarbonate of soda also helps to remove odours. White vinegar and lemon juice cut through the grease with ease. Some DIY recipes call for natural soaps such as Castile soap, which a great natural cleaner.
Whichever of these cleaners you decide to use, wipe off as scorched food before you give it a try. You can spray the dirt with hot water prior to the cleaning to help loosen baked-on residues. Here is one easy and quick way to clean the oven at home.
Non-toxic homemade oven cleaner
You will need:
- Baking soda
- White distilled vinegar
- Spray bottle
- Cleaning sponge
- Microfibre cloth
Instructions:
Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda on the soiled surfaces. Pour vinegar into the spray bottle and spray on the baking soda. You will see an immediate reaction – two substances will start forming bubbles, and you will hear a fussing sound. Let the two natural cleaning agents sit for at least 4 hours (or leave overnight). After the time is up, scrub off the grime with the sponge. Wipe all the surfaces clean with a slightly damp microfibre cloth to finish the process.
Advantages of Non-Toxic Oven Cleaning with Homemade Cleaners:
- Inexpensive
- Easy to prepare
- Efficient at removing residues and grease from oven
- Non-irritating
- Doesn’t cause toxic fumes
- Environmentally friendly
- Total control over the amount and types of ingredients in the cleaning recipe
Disadvantages of Non-Toxic Oven Cleaning with Homemade Cleaners:
- You may need to apply more elbow grease to remove scorched residues
- The cleaning may take longer compared to other methods
- Sometimes, you may have to repeat the whole process until you achieve the wanted result
How To Keep Your Oven Clean At All Time
The best thing you can do to keep your oven clean is to tend to spills as soon as they happen. Or even better – to prevent them from happening. This is now possible, you only need to get yourself a protective oven liner. The best way to deal with splashes from food and grease on the oven door is to wait until your appliance has cooled down. Then you can easily wipe the grime off the door with a sponge and an oven cleaning product of your choice.
If you need a hand to deep clean the appliance, don’t hesitate and book our professional oven cleaning service. Our team consists of experts with years of experience dealing with all types of dirt and stains, and each of them will leave the device spotless.