How To Clean Your Oven

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Oven Cleaning Tips

If you’re cooking something that you know has the tendency to overflow and cover the floor of your oven, prevent the spill from ever reaching the oven floor. Place a cookie sheet covered in aluminum foil on the rack under the one on which you’re cooking. If you’re using all of the racks, you can put the aluminum foil directly on the floor of the over. Just be careful to ensure that the foil isn’t touching any of the heating elements.

Take Care of Spills

If you do have a spill in the oven, pour a healthy amount of salt on the spill immediately. The salt will prevent the spill from catching fire and will allow it to be wiped up more easily once the oven has cooled. Another great use for common table salt!

Use Self-Clean

This seems intuitive, but industry surveys indicate that more than half of the people who have a self-cleaning option on their oven don’t use it to clean! It’s not a perfect method by any means, but it is easy and requires little or no scrubbing on your part. Be sure to read the manual for your oven, and we recommend turning on a fan or opening a window to ventilate the area well. Once the oven shuts off and is cool, use the hose of your vacuum to remove any large quantities of ashes. Then use a clean, damp sponge and wipe out the oven floor.

An important note: if you have a greasy spill in your oven, do not use the self-clean option before you can wipe as much of the grease out as possible. The self-clean feature raises the temperature to extremely high levels that can start a grease fire even without a flame. Let the oven cool, salt and wipe out the grease, and then turn on the self-clean feature.

Look for an Overnight Cleaner

There are many commercial oven cleaners on the market today that work overnight. You simply coat the oven with the cleaner before bed, and wake up to an oven that needs to be wiped down. We recommend that you put a large sign on the front of your oven to remind yourself that the cleaner needs removing. A clean, damp sponge will wipe away the mess, and leave you with a great looking oven!

Always Wear Gloves

Oven cleaners are, by nature, quite harsh. If you’re going to clean your oven, always wear a strong pair of rubber gloves. Your hands will thank you later!

Soak the Racks

To help prevent the need to scrub your oven racks, soak them overnight in extremely hot water and dish soap. If you have a laundry or utility tub, this is a great place to do the soaking. If not, place old towels in your bath tub and lay the racks on top to prevent scratching the porcelain veneer on the tub. Your oven racks will be clean in no time.

Watch Your Floor!

If you choose to use a spray oven cleaner, make sure that you cover the floor around your oven before spraying. The spray can damage the finish of your floor permanently. Newspaper is a quick and easy way to do this. If you have a wall oven, we recommend not using a spray cleaner, as the damage it can cause to the surrounding wall and/or cabinetry is quite severe.

Cover Food in the Microwave

If you’re microwaving food, make sure that you cover it to prevent splatters. You can buy a variety of covers designed especially for this purpose, or you can use a piece of paper towel. But preventing the splatter in the first place can save you tons of time by not having to clean it up later.

Steam Clean your Microwave Oven

You can steam clean your microwave and make the need to elbow grease on baked-on splatters much lower. Take a wad of paper towel and get it thoroughly wet. Then place it in the microwave and cook for 30 seconds. You’ll need a pair of tongs to remove the paper towel and put it in the sink to cool prior to throwing it away. Then wipe out the interior of your microwave with a clean, damp sponge. Those food splatters should wipe right off!

A clean oven will cook your food more efficiently and without any unpleasant burning odors. Cleaning your oven isn’t the most pleasant task on your chore list, but it’s more than worth the effort.