How to Properly Clean Your Oven

After some regular months of roasting and baking, it happens that your oven tends to get coated with a fairly black grimy carbon. The oven gets the grease built up in it and the charred food accumulation while cooking turns into black solid carbon, which can cause a strong foul and a burning smell while cooking. And if you let your oven remain the same that is coated in black and sticky carbon; it can eventually deteriorate your food quality and can eventually result in a scandalous fire hazard. So prevent yourself from such things and read the following instructions on how to properly clean your oven, whether it has got a self-cleaning feature or it is non-self-cleaning oven. Here are some ways for all the types of oven.

Before starting to clean your oven, you must know the type of oven that you possess?

Below mentioned are a few standard and often used type of ovens and to be precise, each of them requires slightly different cleaning methodologies. Also, try to use safe and sound products instead of store-bought cleaners because they contain harmful chemicals and ammonia that can lead to various health problems. Make sure you focus on using baking soda, white vinegar and mild dishwashing soap.

1. Some are known as self-cleaning ovenswhich readily possess a feature that allows you to heat your oven to some predefined high temperature that gets built up gradually and makes stuck food and grease to turn into ashes within some time.
2. Seconds are the textured ovens or the continuously cleaned ovens which have got a porcelain layer that is designed especially to burn the spilled food; meanwhile you are actually using your oven to bake items.
3. Next are the regular ovens which have no self-cleaning feature and it must be cleaned regularly manually.

Some tips before you start to clean your oven

Choose an appropriate time to clean your oven. Perform the cleaning operation when your kitchen and cleaning area is in minimum use. If there is any child or pet in the house, then keep them away from the kitchen, meanwhile the oven gets cleaned, since it gets heated to a very high temperature and releases a foul burning smell. Additively, open the windows of your home to ventilate your kitchen, so that fresh air gets in and your family does not inhale the burning fumes.

• If your oven is a self-cleaner

Turn on the oven’s self-cleaning mode to clean your oven. Lock the door of the oven and heat it in between the temperature range of 427 and 482 degrees Celsius (800 and 900 degrees Fahrenheit). Assure that the oven door is properly locked before you leave it to get cleaned. If the lock is not working properly; either you apply the masking tape on the door or any other kind of barrier on the door of the oven so that the door gets fixed and no one in the family opens it. It will take 2 to 6 hours to self-clean itself. In this process, stuck grease and burnt food get turned into light ash. After the cleaning is done let the oven get cooled for at least 2 hours.

Use a damp sponge to wipe the inside walls of the oven. Since in the self-cleaning process, the oven runs continuously and is heated so there is no need for preheating. To prevent the porcelain from getting damaged use of hard or abrasive scrubbers should be avoided. Instead, a solution of vinegar and water should be used for effective cleaning. You can use vinegar and other natural ingredients to clean your house properly.

 

• If the oven is not a self-cleaner

There are many such ovens which do not possess the feature of getting cleaned on its own. In such cases, there are some other feasible and reliable methodologies adopted to get it cleaned manually. These may be aggregated as following:

Remove various parts of the oven and sink them in mildly warm soapy water before you start to clean your oven. Next step would be to spray oven cleaning liquid in the oven following directions that are mentioned on the spray can. The market is full of such products which can meet your desired needs and specifications.

But for sure this idea of using oven cleaner spray is not so worthy. It might not be that suitable for your oven. So better go for home remedial methods to perform this deed. You can opt to use ammonia also. It proves to be one of the widely used methods for cleaning. Take a suitable amount of ammonia, which you need as per your requirement in a bowl and dip the sponge or rag in it. Then slightly apply ammonia to the surface which needs to get cleaned or the sides which consist of spots. Leave it for 30 minutes. Use rubber gloves to prevent yourself from skin reaction and use ammonia with full precautions.

When 30 minutes are over, simply wipe out the scorched or burnt parts of the oven with normal water. Rinse ammonia thoroughly otherwise the aroma of ammonia can deteriorate the dishes, which are further prepared in the oven.

The most versatile and feasible method of cleaning the oven is using baking soda. All things you need before you clean your oven with baking soda are baking soda, water, rubber gloves, damp dishcloth, silicone or plastic spatula, white vinegar and the spray bottle.

Method to be followed

You can explore more home cleaning tips and tricks online if you want to keep your abode sparkling clean.

Remove the oven racks, pizza stone and everything else that resides in your oven. Set them aside in a sink full of lukewarm water and mix a few drops of liquid soap to clean them properly. Then proceed further to make a consistent and even baking soda paste in a small bowl. To do this, mix half cup of baking soda with a few tablespoons of mild water. Adjust the paste till it becomes evenly spreadable on the surface of the oven. Coat the paste over the interior surfaces of the oven.

For grimy ovens prefer usage of gloves so that you can spread the paste over the dirtiest nooks without worrying about the grime under your nails. It’s fine if the baking soda turns brown or chunkier in some places.

What is to be more cared about is that the whole surface is coated by the paste, leaving no greasy area uncoated. Allow it to get settled in the oven overnight or for about 12 hours. In the meantime, brush your racks.

Once the baking soda is settled evenly, use a damp cloth to clean its surfaces and wipe out the paste of baking soda. If needed, use a plastic spatula to scrape off hard to reach places in the oven. Fill the spray bottle with a vinegar solution and sprinkle it over the residues of the baking soda paste. It will form foam upon reaction with the paste. Now carry out the final wipe out procedure with a cloth unless the foamy residue gets cleaned from the oven. Rub it softly on each and every point to get a shinier appearance. Now you’ve cleaned your racks and oven. Put the racks back in the oven at right places.

It is better to clean your oven once in a month and if it is used excessively then clean it once in a fortnight in order to continue consuming healthy and ambrosial food. Take all necessary precautions while cleaning your oven.

Do not leave your oven greasy if you are at  the end of your tenancy. Most landlords hold back the deposited security due to dirty kitchen appliances. You can hire a good company that specialises in bond cleaning in Australia. They can help you get the full bond money back without any rental dispute or conflict.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned tips will help you clean oven like  a pro. Make sure you use eco-friendly products and tools to restore the shine of your much loved kitchen appliance.