Sunday, November 2, 2014

Cleaning Your Oven - An Experiment and a Lesson Learned

My oven was really dirty and I wanted to clean it. Naturally I went to Pinterest to find a recipe using household items because I don't like the harsh fumes of the store bought cleaners.  I found several ideas that were basically the same.  I thought I'd give it a whirl.
This is the picture of the oven AFTER I cleaned and scrubbed and waited 3 more hours.  More on that in a moment.
This is a picture of my nasty dirty oven BEFORE I got to scrubbing and waiting.
Um, eeeew!  I use my oven a lot and yes it gets dirty when you use it!
The filth spares no space, its not partial to just one area, its everywhere!
Yuck-oh!  This stuff is baked on good.  It's going to take some elbow grease to get this awful mess off!
The glass on the door is the reason I decided to clean my oven.  So much yuckiness that you cant even see through it to see what's happening inside the oven! Gosh!
Have you had enough of my dirty oven yet? Yeah, me too!  Let me tell you about my experiment now.
I used 8 tbsp dawn dish soap, 8 tbsp baking soda and 6 tbsp distilled white vinegar.
I mixed it in a large bowl and just to warn you, it will foam.....a lot!
I used my green and yellow scrub sponge and dipped it in the mixture and generously applied to the filth and scrubbed and scrubbed.  Wait 20 minutes and according to what I read on Pinterest it should wipe clean, just like that! Um No, no it didn't!  I scrubbed more and more and more and more!
What about the dirty oven racks you ask?  Well, there is a homemade remedy for that too!
Bounce and Dawn or Dawn and Bounce....either combination works...kind of!
Fill your bath tub with HOT water just enough to cover the racks.  Add 3/4 cup Dawn while water is filling.  Let stand for 8 hours.
Please be very careful when handling your oven racks, because they will cut you! Ouch!
This did work well to get most of the bits that were stuck on off.  Drain the water and use your Bounce sheet to remove any remaining grease.  Yes, this worked pretty well, not perfect back to new, but pretty well.
This is the AFTER picture for after I scrubbed and scrubbed!  Much better, but NOT clean!
This is how it looked after I used the self cleaning featuring on the oven and waited the 3 hours it took to clean it!
OMGoodness! So much better.  It's like new!  Why didn't I just do this first?  I don't know, but next time I will do this first.  I think the mixture above would have worked on an oven that wasn't very dirty.  But, if your oven is really dirty like mine, it DOES NOT work!
The moral of the story and the experiment is:  Use your self cleaning featuring if your oven has one OR clean your oven using the above mixture more often than not!

It doesn't have to be done all at once.  It is a slow process in the works! C-ya next time!

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13 comments:

  1. Good to know! My oven is MUCH worse than yours, and it's original to the house (early 80s), so I fear using the self-cleaning option. I guess I'll use a good Brillo pad...

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  2. I really need to clean my oven, and I can't tolerate the fumes from chemical oven cleaners, so I wasn't sure what to clean it with. I've used baking soda and water on the outside of it (it's a gas stove) but wasn't too sure about the inside. Being gas, there is no self-cleaning feature.

    Guess it'll be trial and error for me too!

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  3. At my last party you shared tips to clean an oven, hope you can come to todays party and share another great tip Thank Maria
    http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/fabulous-friday-party-4/

    ReplyDelete
  4. At my last party you shared tips to clean an oven, hope you can come to todays party and share another great tip Thank Maria
    http://www.simplenaturedecorblog.com/fabulous-friday-party-4/

    ReplyDelete
  5. I put 1 quart of ammonia in an open bowl in a warm oven and left it for 12 hours. Most of the mess wiped out readily.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Pat, sounds like it would be worth a try. Thanks!

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  6. Do you leave the oven on for 12 hours?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Lorraine! No, when using the self clean feature, it is all on a timer. Mine turns off after about 3 hours. :)

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  7. Be sure to put your dirty pizza stone in the oven when cleaning. It comes out all white and new!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there! What a great idea, thanks so much for the tip! :)

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  8. Hi there,
    I never knew about the self cleaning feature on the oven until my friend told me about it. It works so well and on top of that she told me to put in any pots that don't have plastic handles and those stains will also be removed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there! That is a great idea, thanks for the tip! :)

      Delete
  9. I have poured vinegar into a warm oven when done using it and let it sit overnite....wipes clean easily!

    ReplyDelete

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