explain oven cleaning to me

[Anonymous]

how do you do it?
how often do you do it?
how long does it take? i know it puts the oven to a super-high heat, so i'm assuming i should stay home throughout.
has anyone's smoke detector ever gone off during an oven cleaning? (ours is quite sensitive to heat and smoke)
is it safe t odo with kids home - i just read on the other thread that there are flames inside the oven during the clean function - does the oven door become hot?

[Anonymous]

Ours will not clean without us first locking the door.

We turn it on and it heats up super high. It goes for about an hour-ish. We turn it off and wait for it to cool.

A few hours later we wipe the inside with a damp sponge to pick up all the ashes and residue left behind.

Voila! Clean oven!

[Anonymous]

It will smell bad for an afternoon or so. Try to plan around that. Like clean oven in the morning and them leave the house in the afternoon, while airing it out.

Read your manual or find it online if you can. Your oven will not unlock until it cools down.

[Anonymous]

our oven door automatically locks when you set it to clean. also, remove the racks. I forgot this once, and it discolored the racks.

for whatever reason, ours takes 4 hours from the time you set it to clean to the time it is done. it does smell, so I close off the kitchen and go to another room. you could also open a kitchen window.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't recommend leaving the house during the cleaning cycle. Do open windows and leave the kitchen.

I had an oven short out during the cleaning cycle recently, and could have been disastrous had we left the house when we set it to clean.

[Anonymous]

Are you doing the cleaning it does the oven have a self clean cycle?

[Anonymous]

It scares me. we have an older house with an older electric system.

[Anonymous]

I did it myself without the self-cleaning feature. It was surprisingly easy. I made a paste with water and baking soda and applied it all over and let it sit for awhile and then wiped it up... worked perfectly and was amazing to see it come so clean with so little elbow grease.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did it myself without the self-cleaning feature. It was surprisingly easy. I made a paste with water and baking soda and applied it all over and let it sit for awhile and then wiped it up... worked perfectly and was amazing to see it come so clean with so little elbow grease.

My oven does not have a self cleaning cycle and that's how I do it. It's very easy.

[Anonymous]

I can't remember the last time I cleaned my oven, although I probably only use it a couple times a month.

[Anonymous]

self-cleaning. We do it less than once a year, but we don't make a huge mess in the oven, either.

Removing the racks is optional. I don't really care if mine are discolored.

Ours takes 4+ hours from start to cooled and unlocked. The smoke alarm did go off. Turning on the hood fan and opening windows helped. The ideal is probably to do it while you are home, but not in the kitchen. Playing or working in the yard might be a good place to be.

The water + baking soda is intriguing. We need to clean the gas grill. Might do that instead of Easy Off.

[Anonymous]

also, OP, I think my manual says not to use products like Easy Off. Not sure why but it might muck up the self cleaning feature. If you want to clean it yourself the baking soda route might be a good option.