Cleaning an oven can be quite a hassle, especially if it’s been neglected after several spills. Luckily, the introduction of the self-cleaning function in modern ovens has made things much easier.
To clean a self-cleaning oven, remove the racks and drawers, get rid of food residue, and run the cleaning cycle. Make sure your kitchen is well ventilated before you proceed. If the oven door is still dirty once the cycle is complete, clean it with baking soda and water.
Some oven owners are hesitant to use the self-cleaning function since it tends to make the kitchen hot, and it can produce unpleasant smells and smoke. However, there’s nothing to worry about if you do things properly. Let’s take a closer look at how you can clean the oven using the self-clean function as well as how you can clean it manually.
How to Clean a Self-Cleaning Oven
Cleaning a self-cleaning oven is quite easy, and it involves the following steps:
1. Read the Manufacturer’s Instructions
Before you do anything, it’s important that you go through the manufacturer’s instructions. Since each appliance is different, what works for your appliance might not work for another.
Typically, most ovens heat up to more or less the same temperature, and they have a few safety precautions in place to keep you safe. But it’s still better to go through the instructions so that you don’t put yourself or your oven at risk.
2. Strip the Oven Racks & Drawers
Take out everything present inside and around the oven. This includes the drawer present underneath and the racks inside. Make sure you don’t leave the racks inside, since the high temperatures used during the cleaning process can make the shiny metallic coating turn dull.
Instead, you can clean the racks yourself in a tub or even your sink. All you really need is a DIY cleaner and a soft sponge. One way to go about it is to let the racks soak in the sink while the self-cleaning cycle is going. Once the cycle is over, you can then scrub the racks.
3. Remove Caked-On Food and Debris
Before you start the self-clean cycle, try removing as much food residue as you can from the bottom and sides of the oven. You can do this by hand, or you can use a non-scratching tool.
This step isn’t necessary, but getting rid of caked-on food does make the self-clean cycle more effective, particularly if you’ve had some bad spills. If there are no noticeable spills in the oven, then you don’t really need to try and scrub debris and food from the oven.
4. Ventilate & Run the Cleaning Cycle
Before running the cleaning cycle, make sure there’s sufficient ventilation. Open the windows, switch on the overhead fan, and try not to go into the kitchen while the cleaning is underway.
It’ll most likely get quite hot around the oven, and you might even notice a bit of smoke along with an unpleasant smell, depending on how dirty the inside of the oven is. Ventilation is important since you don’t want the smoke to linger inside the house or in fabrics like your curtains, stick to the walls, or set off alarms.
In case you have pets, make sure you keep them away from the kitchen. In fact, you shouldn’t leave your pets (and even your house) unsupervised when you switch on the self-cleaning cycle.
Once you start the self-clean cycle, the door will be locked so that you don’t hurt yourself by opening it while the process is underway. So, if you hear a click and the door refuses to open, there’s nothing for you to worry about.
The process itself takes a few hours. The oven will heat up to very high temperatures, and whatever’s present inside turns into white-gray ash, much like what’s left over after a campfire.
Once the cycle is done, the door will stay locked until the oven is cool enough to open without you getting hurt. Once it’s safe enough to open, quickly wipe the whole oven with a damp microfiber cloth.
Make sure you thoroughly rinse all surfaces to get rid of all the ashy residue. When you’re done, put the drawer and oven racks back in their place.
5. Finishing Touches
In some cases, you might notice that the inside of the oven door is dirty even after the self-cleaning cycle is complete. Luckily, you can easily get clean the door with some elbow grease.
Add a little bit of baking soda to the glass and sprinkle a few drops of water to make a paste. Rub it over the glass and allow it to sit for at least half an hour.
Then, wipe off the baking soda with a sponge. This should help remove any grime, build-up, or grease left behind on the door. Just make sure you don’t sprinkle too much water. If the water somehow makes its way through the barrier present around the window, it’ll leave behind permanent drip marks.
If there are any stubborn stains that still refuse to come off, you can try to clean them with an enzyme cleaner.
Tips to Remember
To get the best results from your oven’s self-cleaning cycle, keep these tips in mind:
- Don’t use any kind of commercial oven cleaners while running the self-clean cycle.
- If you spill something in the oven, make sure you clean it up as soon as the oven cools down to make cleaning easier.
- Double-check to make sure that there are no utensils, oven liners, or bakeware in the oven before you start the self-cleaning cycle.
- Don’t forget to read your oven’s instruction manual to understand how you can clean the oven racks. In most cases, you’ll have to remove them if you want to run the self-clean cycle.
- Remember that the self-cleaning feature won’t be able to get rid of thick layers of caked-on food in one go. It’s better to scrape off the burnt food before starting the cycle for more effective results.
How Long Does the Whole Process Take?
Depending on your model, the self-clean cycle can take anywhere from one to five hours, so make sure you run the cycle when you’re sure you won’t need the oven.
Can I Manually Clean a Self-Cleaning Oven?
If you’re still not comfortable using the self-clean cycle, you can clean the interior liner of the oven by hand. Here’s how you can do that:
- Make a solution of water and dishwashing liquid and use that to wipe away some of the debris. You can use things like plastic pads, sponges, or cloths to clean the food and other debris present inside. But if there’s a lot to clean, it’s better to run the self-clean cycle to clean the oven thoroughly.
- You can use a scouring pad made of plastic or steel wool. Lightly rub the soiled areas so that you don’t scratch the oven liner surface. Make sure you don’t use any scouring powder.
You can also use household ammonia when cleaning your self-clean oven by hand. Put half a cup of ammonia in a pottery container or a glass with a shallow base. Let this sit in the cold oven overnight.
The fumes from ammonia will help loosen the caked-on food and grease. Just make sure you don’t switch on the oven while the ammonia is still present inside. - To get rid of any stubborn caked-on stains that haven’t been eliminated, you can use a non-abrasive cleaner like Bar Keepers Friend (on Amazon) and apply that with a cloth or sponge.
- Once you’re done cleaning by hand, thoroughly wash the oven liner. If there’s any soap residue left behind on the liner, it can lead to discoloration or staining the next time you use the self-clean cycle.
You can use the same steps for the inside of the oven door, just make sure you don’t clean or rub the door gasket.