Cleaning the oven is often a daunting task that many of us put off, making our ranges look like the grimiest place in our kitchens. Our worktops, floors and other appliances may all look sparkling clean, but when we have dinner guests, the state of our ovens can cause us to feel embarrassed, and did you know that a clean oven can even make your food smell and taste better so here are Premium Cleans top tips on how to clean a filthy oven.
Products and Materials
First, look at all the products and materials you will need to complete your oven clean so that you are fully prepared.
- Safety equipment – Safety Glasses, a Mask and Rubber Gloves (these are essential as chemicals can cause burns on our skin – there is more on the safety of cleaning your oven below)
- Some old rags, a non-scratch scour pad, an old toothbrush and a clean microfibre cloth to finish.
- Your oven cleaning product – we will go through the options in detail below, and you can decide which is best for you and your oven.
Oven Cleaning Products
Many commercial oven cleaning products on the market are highly effective at removing a build-up of grease and grime. We recommend using one of these for a heavily soiled oven. The downside of shop-bought products is that they are usually full of chemicals which are not always the best for us and our houses, mainly if you are an allergy sufferer or have pets. Suppose you would prefer a more natural and gentle oven cleaning product. There are several different homemade pastes or liquid cleaners that you make yourself. These may require a little more hard work and scrubbing than chemical cleaners, so they may not be the best options for heavily soiled ovens, but you can use these every few months to avoid your oven becoming soiled again. Here are three of our tried and tested favourites:
- Mix three tablespoons of baking soda with 1.5 tablespoons of water and stir them together. Apply this to your oven, let it sit for around 20 minutes, and then wipe clean.
- Stir together three tablespoons of baking soda, one tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide, and one dishwashing spoon.
The above two options also work great with some antibacterial lemon juice and smell nice, but if you are after a pleasant smell, you could add a couple of drops of essential oil.
The below option works best for your oven door only.
- Sprinkle your oven door with 2.5 tablespoons of baking soda, then spray it with white vinegar until it bubbles.
SAFETY MEASURES
As mentioned above, please do not attempt to clean your oven without using Rubber Gloves, as chemical cleaners can cause burns to the skin that are very painful and often scar. None of us want to absorb these chemicals into our skin if it can be avoided. We also do not want these products to get into our eyes, so we recommend using plastic safety glasses if you do not already wear glasses. A filtration mask is also a good idea to minimise the amount of product breathed in.
Please be careful not to use too much of your oven cleaning product – always follow the instructions on the label and also be careful not to spill or splash any of the products onto other areas in your kitchen, such as the worktops or floors as the chemicals could cause damage or discolouration to these areas.
The process of cleaning the oven
Pick the right time to clean your oven – ideally when there are no children or pets around and if the weather is nice that is a bonus so that the room you are cleaning can be well-ventilated with open windows and doors. Begin by turning off the oven at the socket and ensure you have all of your equipment and products to hand (you may also want to have some plastic bags nearby that you can put the used rags etc. in), put on your safety gear and cover the kitchen floor beneath the oven to prevent any drips damaging the flooring. You will then need to remove all the trays from the oven and place them to the side. Apply the cleaning product to the inside of the oven, as per the manufacturer’s instructions. Be careful that you do not get to apply the effect on the heating elements or gas vents but ensure that the whole rest of the inside of the oven is evenly coated, and then close the door and let the cleaning fluid work its magic. This can take up to a couple of hours for a very heavily soiled oven, but it is always best to follow the instructions on the label.
While waiting, you can apply the product on the racks. We recommend doing this outside, if possible, in case of any spillages, and once the trays are fully covered, place them inside the bag provided with the oven cleaning product or a large bin bag and leave them to soak.
Once the waiting time is over, take a damp cloth or sponge and wipe down all surfaces of the oven and racks, continually rinsing your sponge with clean water until the oven is sparkling. You may need to use an old toothbrush to scrub off any old burnt food or grease patches.
Lastly, don’t forget the hob or extractor fan. We recommend that you keep cleaning your hob every time it is used so that the grease doesn’t build up, as this would make it harder to clean. If your hob is kept relatively up to scratch, we find that glass cleaner with a kitchen towel or a microfibre cloth, glass cleaning wipes or even baby wipes can bring it up looking shiny and new with minimal effort or scrubbing. If your hob has not been washed for a while and is covered in tough grease, you may need a more robust product, such as a spray-on grease remover.
Extractor fans usually have removable parts that you can pop in the dishwasher (on the hottest cycle). Again, you could stick them in regularly with your oven trays to avoid a build-up of dirt and grime. For the external parts of the extractor fan, most types of kitchen cleaner should work depending on how dirty it is.
Once your oven is in tip-top condition, we recommend cleaning it roughly once every three months – it will be much easier than scrubbing a heavily soiled oven if you keep it on top of it. Still, we understand that it can be challenging to make time to clean the oven. It is also a good idea to wipe the oven door with a piece of kitchen roll after every use, always use a baking tray, and not place food directly on the oven shelves. We hope that with our oven cleaning tips, your oven will look as good as new, providing you with lots of tasty, clean cooking.
