How a man cleans an oven.

[ProDave]

So we have a posh oven with pyrolytic  cleaning.  Except last time we used that function, it slightly melted the internal plastic door lining, so I have lost confidence in that.  Time to manually clean it.

 

Now in all my 6 decades, I have never found an "oven cleaner" that easily removes oven residues.  Forget what the adverts show you, I have yet to find one where you squirt it on, wait a bit, and wipe it clean in an effortless move to a lovely shiny oven (where is trading standards and trades description law on this?)

 

Many moons ago I was dismantling to repair a cooker hood, covered in cooking grease, and by trial and error using all the chemical products in the house and garage, found white spirit particularly effective at disolving and removing the cooker hood grease.  Worth a try on the oven?

 

So yes I tried it, and it did indeed work WAY better than any oven cleaner at removing the baked on grease with not too much effort.  Of course I now had an oven smelling of white spirit.  Time to use the oven cleaner, that did at least seem effective at removing the last of the white spirit residue.

 

Then time to try it.  I ran it at a very low 60 degrees for about half an hour until all smells, of both white spirit and oven cleaner, had dispersed before putting it to full temperature and cooking my dinner.

 

No obvious issues with said dinner and not a trace of white spirit or oven cleaner smell now.

 

Off to get my tin hat as someone is bound to tell me how I narrowly missed killing myself or blowing up the house.

[Alan Ambrose]

Oxy-acetylene and/or angle grinder obvs.

 

I know this is not what you asked, but there are ovens that have working pyro cleaning - a better long-term solution? Return the other for a refund as 'not-fit-for-purpose'.

Edited July 24, 2023 by Alan Ambrose

[LeeV]

Try this stuff - https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253841037

 

It's a clear gel, wear gloves, pour some into the bottom of the oven, using a small sponge wipe it all over the inside of the oven. Leave for an hour, wipe it out with paper kitchen towel. 

Repeat until clean. Then rinse with a wet paper towel. If there are any nasty spots, give then a little scrub with plastic scourer. It works great.

It comes with a big plastic bag, that you can put grills and wire racks into. Pour in the gel, seal the top of the bag. Massage the gel into the nooks and crannies. Leaf for an hour, massage again and repeat until clean.

The contents of the bag will be truly disgusting, but the gear will be super clean.  

 

In summary, no heavy duty scrubbing, just wiping over the course of a few hours. And also dirt cheap. If it's bad you may need two packs, but still dirt cheap.

[Onoff]

46 minutes ago, LeeV said:

Try this stuff - https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253841037

 

It's a clear gel, wear gloves, pour some into the bottom of the oven, using a small sponge wipe it all over the inside of the oven. Leave for an hour, wipe it out with paper kitchen towel. 

Repeat until clean. Then rinse with a wet paper towel. If there are any nasty spots, give then a little scrub with plastic scourer. It works great.

It comes with a big plastic bag, that you can put grills and wire racks into. Pour in the gel, seal the top of the bag. Massage the gel into the nooks and crannies. Leaf for an hour, massage again and repeat until clean.

The contents of the bag will be truly disgusting, but the gear will be super clean.  

 

In summary, no heavy duty scrubbing, just wiping over the course of a few hours. And also dirt cheap. If it's bad you may need two packs, but still dirt cheap.

 

Yep, we rate this one as well. 

 

A tip that does work for cleaning the glass is to rub a dishwasher tablet over it. Dip it in water and rub on the glass. It has a gentle abrasive action as the tablet gets smaller. 

[Temp]

Some years ago my elderly mother purchased an oven and was sold an extended warranty. I was about to tell her that extended warranties were a waste of money when she mentioned it came with an annual clean! Every year a man came and professionaly cleaned it for her. Worth every penny.

[ProDave]

Well an update.  The oven was due another clean.  SWMBO works in a cafe and tells me of their oven cleaner (just branded as M3) works like you expect, squirt it on, wait a bit, wipe it off.

 

I have been unable to identify any "M3" oven cleaner so I took a punt on this one on ebay  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404801471547

It is branded as "K3"  (anyone know exactly what these mean)

 

SWMBO says it looks and smells like the M3 stuff they use.

 

Today was the day to try it, and almost effortly I have a clean oven.

 

Just why is it all the stuff on sale to the public in the supermarkets is such ineffective rubbish when proper cleaners are available?

[SteamyTea]

I use this at home.

 

At work, this.

 

It rips my skin off.

 

You can make your own with this, just make a paste with water.

Just don't throw it in anyones face, then jump of a Thames bridge or they will ban the sale of it.

 

 

Edited February 23 by SteamyTea

[Gone West]

It's a simple job 😃.

 

https://www.aeg.co.uk/support/support-articles/cooking/ovens/how-to-use-pyrolytic-cleaning-on-your-aeg-oven/