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Petrified to use Self Clean on Electrolux Icon!

laurencp
9 years ago

After everything that I've read about the enamel problems, should I be afraid to use the self clean? Could anyone offer their experience? Thanks so much!

Comments (9)

  • dodge59
    9 years ago

    How old is your Elux oven?

    Gary

  • laurencp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Two months!

  • dodge59
    9 years ago

    The reason I asked, some earlier Elux ovens/ranges, had a problem with the thermal circuit breaker tripping during a self cleaning. That was fixed by adding a washer around the sensor, (as I recall)~~~probably a couple years ago.

    Myself, and I have an Elux Icon oven, (about 7 years old now), I never self clean it.

    At the present time, and even back in 2006, when I bought my oven, NONE of the manufacturers know how to "Properly design" a self cleaning oven.

    For those of you that have gas direct vent fireplaces, this is how the self cleaning ovens should have been designed, ~~~~~with the electronics at the bottom of the oven and out of the heat, and the actual oven cavity well insulated.
    I can run my gas fireplace all day long, yet the area below the firepit, (where the electronics are for the remote control and the gas valves, remains "Cool as a cucumber", that's how they should have designed the self cleaning ovens, but instead they just took the older designs, that did not have delicate electronics and added the electronics to those.

    So until I see a "Redesign" that makes sense, and protects the delicate electronics, I will clean mine, myself, which has NOT been a problem in the 7+ years we've had the Elux oven.

    We also see posts that "supposedly" have come from appliance service people that caution against self cleaning as they say it can damage the porcelain.

    HTH's

    Gary

  • laurencp
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks Gary. What do you use to clean it?

  • dodge59
    9 years ago

    "What do you use to clean it?"
    The Wife!

    We have had to clean it very little in the years we've owned it, but I will find out what the wife uses, and get back to you.

    Gary

  • Cavimum
    9 years ago

    Gary, please do tell us. I haven't found anything that won't scratch the enamel in our Elux Wave Touch and also removes the baked on crud.

  • dodge59
    9 years ago

    Ok wife wlll tell you all her secretes about oven cleaning.

    First on the lowest shelf of the oven she has installed a huge drip tray lined with tin foil. We rarely use the lowest shelf as our oven is below counter.

    If something does get on the sides or slips to the bottom, she usually just uses soap and water to clean it, ~~~as soon as it cools down```IE she does not leave the "Messes" in it.

    In the event she runs into a stubborn "mess", then she uses a dilute solution of simple green or 409 to clean it.

    The oven looks great after about 8 years now, but it is not "Pristine", as it might have to be, were it wall mounted and in full sight of "discerning eyes"!

    We haven't had the need to yet, but the bottom of our oven just lifts out, (like the new Wolfs will), and the bottom could be taken out to soak or whatever measures were necessary to clean up a "REAL MESS"

    HTH's

    Gary

  • Cavimum
    9 years ago

    Gary, thanks for the tell-all. Funny, a year ago I bought a big disposable aluminum tray that looks like a cookie sheet, thinking I would place it on the lowest shelf to catch stuff. I haven't done it because I was worried it would affect the heat getting past it to the item(s) above. Altered cooking times and all that..... Maybe I will place it in there, after all.

    Lucky you that your oven floor is removable!

    In the meantime, there is some Simple Green in our house (love it for cleaning gunk off iron sole plate in my sewing room!) so will experiment with it.

    Dawn Platinum w/enzymes soaking by paper towel on the oven floor didn't loosen the baked on stuff, nor has Clorox GreenWorks. If the Simple Green doesn't get it off, a self-clean cycle is next, then trying the liner on bottom shelf.

    Thanks again!

  • dodge59
    9 years ago

    We haven't had any problems with "uneven heating" with the "drip tray",
    (very similar to what you used), and I have done meatloafs, stuffed peppers, spaghetti pie, tamale pie etc in it, sometimes using convection and never bothering to turn the pot or container that holds "said food".

    But having said that, I have never tried to do 3 sheets of cookies in it, which seems to be a real good test for the eveness of the heat in the oven, and as I don't need the cookies at my age, It is "Unlikely" I will try this test.

    Gary