Purchasing an oven with a self-cleaning program makes you wonder if there’s a reason for you to keep your oven cleaning products. I mean, the self-cleaning oven will, allegedly, clean itself by running a self-cleaning program.
This sounds an awful lot like my cat, who also has a self-cleaning program that he runs on a daily basis.
There’s a big difference between the way the self-cleaning program works compared to how an oven is cleaned traditionally, using cleaning products and other cleaning equipment.
So what’s the difference and is there anything you can apply to a self-cleaning oven from the traditional way of cleaning an oven?
You shouldn’t use oven cleaner when you clean a self-cleaning oven, there’s no need for them and they may damage the oven’s interior. The self-cleaning oven will instead blast high-temperature air or steam through its interior to remove hardened and burnt food. The self-cleaning oven can reach temperatures of 900-1000 degrees Fahrenheit when running a self-cleaning cycle, the heat will incinerate grime and leftovers without the use of strong chemicals.
It’s imperative that you only use either the self-cleaning cycle or a natural cleaning solution when cleaning an oven with a self-cleaning program. Vinegar, baking soda, and lemon are great choices for a natural toxin-free solution that’s somewhat effective.
Of course, these natural ingredients don’t perform the same kind of magic that the caustic chemicals do but they’re still a good option for those who don’t feel safe using strong chemicals in their household.
Why Can’t You Use Oven Cleaner on a Self-Cleaning Oven?
The strong chemicals found in oven cleaners, primarily sodium hydroxide, are corrosive. These products are designed to break down burnt food and make it easy to simply wipe it off the oven’s surface.
When used in a self-cleaning oven, the same product can harm the oven’s interior and make the self-cleaning system less effective.
Having a self-cleaning is beneficial because it spares you from using toxic household cleaners – and those used in the oven are among the most toxic.
All of them aren’t but a big portion of them contain pretty strong chemicals, which you’ll understand when you read the product label.
Most manufacturers recommend that you wear goggles and gloves to avoid direct contact with the cleaner. That’s an indication of the chemical’s properties and their strength.
If you still insist on using oven cleaner in a self-cleaning oven, any leftover oven cleaner residue in the oven may release toxic fumes the next time you’re running the self-cleaning program.
These fumes can damage the oven’s interior, cause etching and discoloration of the oven liner, and make the self-cleaning cycle less effective.
Be restrictive when it comes to using abrasives or oven cleaners in your self-cleaning oven. However, there are exceptions to the rule that are fine to use in a self-cleaning oven as they contain harmless ingredients in comparison to most commercial cleaners.
It’s important to understand why you should be careful when using strong products but it’s equally important to understand what kind of products you can and should use if you choose to.
Preparation is partly the key to success and doing research is definitely preparation. While cleaning an oven successfully isn’t everyone’s definition of success, rendering the oven useless as a result of a bad cleaning routine will most likely feel like a failure.
How Do You Manually Clean a Self-Cleaning Oven?
You may have read a bunch of articles that go against the use of the self-cleaning program, or you may not. Regardless, there’s a good portion of users who have reported that their self-cleaning cycle has damaged the oven.
The most common parts that can start malfunctioning as the oven reaches such high temperatures includes the following:
- Major parts such as the locking mechanism
- Thermostat
- Fuses
- Electronic Boards
- Wires
- Contact Terminals
- Interior components such as the heating element
Why is it that the oven’s own self-cleaning program can damage it’s components?
I researched the issue and got in contact with a local who repairs kitchen appliances for a living and he gave me more insight on the topic. The first thing that I was informed of was the change in design that ovens have gone through since the early 2000s.
Remember the old days when the heating elements were exposed and mounted on the top and bottom of the oven’s chambers? Remember accidentally burning your hand while removing or placing a dish in the oven?
That barely happens anymore because these days the heating elements in an oven are hidden over the ceiling or underneath the floor. In addition to removing the risk of burning your hands, it also cuts out the scorching of dripping ingredients.
But as great as it sounds, the hidden element feature comes at a cost that a few oven manufacturers still struggle with and that’s an inability to ventilate heat as the heating element is in a hidden compartment.
In addition to the negative impact that it has on the oven’s ability to circulate air, the hidden compartment-installation also makes it more difficult to fix the heating elements if they were to stop functioning.
The trickier the reparation, the pricier the repairman will be.
Not being able to properly ventilate an oven that’s heated to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit (537 degrees Celsius) sounds like a real issue to me and I understand why it can damage the oven’s components.
Still, according to manufacturers, the self-cleaning cycle is something that a lot of customers demand, and not being able to provide it will harm the companies.
This forces them to engineer something that’s quite hard to do flawlessly, and while they’re improving as time goes, there are still risks involved with using the self-cleaning cycle.
With that said, the risk of damaging your oven is quite small and can be minimized even further by running the self-cleaning cycle for merely an hour or two, rather than the full 4-6 hour cycle.
What Cleaner Can You Use on a Self-Cleaning Oven?
Our main goal is to avoid an oven cleaner with harsh chemicals. The self-cleaning oven comes with a liner that’s somewhat sensible to strong chemicals and will, if exposed to them, break down after long enough.
It can take years for the liner to break down, but it can also happen within a couple of months. Regardless, using strong chemicals will take a toll on the oven’s liner and that’s more than enough to keep me from using strong oven cleaners.
Instead, you want something that’s simple and contains as few strong chemicals as possible. I’ve been using Easy-Off Oven Cleaner for a while and I couldn’t be happier with the results.
Easy-Off contains no harsh chemicals, which makes it fume-free, but it still provides the same kind of deep cleaning that a commercial oven cleaner containing strong chemicals would.
Being able to achieve a somewhat similar finish with a much simpler formula is something that makes Easy-Off stand out.
According to the company, Easy-Off is safe to use in a self-cleaning oven but it was primarily designed for cold ovens. It shouldn’t be used in convection ovens. You’re not even required to wear gloves when handling Easy-Off, which sounds like a strong indication that there are few corrosive chemicals to worry about.
That’s what I would recommend primarily if you want to manually clean a self-cleaning oven with oven cleaner. There is a second option that I can vouch for, which has similar qualities.
- Carbona Oven Cleaner: Similar to Easy-Off, Carbona Oven Cleaner has a simple, odor-free formula but is still able to remove grease from an oven effectively just minutes after it’s been applied. It works very well for overall cleaning, spot cleaning, deep cleaning, tough stains, and baked in grease.
Can You Use an Oven After a Self-Cleaning Cycle?
As you start the self-cleaning program, the oven door will lock to prevent you from opening it as the oven reaches incredibly high temperatures during the self-cleaning cycle. The cycle then takes a couple of hours depending on how dirty the oven is.
Once the cycle has finished the oven will turn off automatically but you won’t be able to open the door. Remember, the oven is still extremely hot and needs to cool down before you can even consider using it.
When the oven has cooled down and reached regular baking temperatures, the oven door can once again be opened. You should now have a clean oven at your disposal, ready to cook.
What Happens If You Leave Racks in a Self-Cleaning Oven?
I’ve mentioned it a thousand times by now but considering the temperatures an oven reaches during the self-cleaning cycle, it wouldn’t be wise to leave the racks in the oven as the self-cleaning cycle runs.
The racks will be exposed to extreme heat which can cause discoloration, warping, and cause additional damage to the oven as they may expand or contract due to the heat.
Remove the racks from the oven before you start the self-cleaning cycle. Clean the racks manually instead. Soaking them in warm water and soap will go a long way.