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bmorepanic

How do you clean your gas oven (non-self cleaning)?

bmorepanic
9 years ago

I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping the oven looking decent with just wipe downs, but it's becoming time and I don't have any oven-domination theories or ideas.

My oven is not blue porcelain and not old. I kinda used to like easy-off.

Comments (7)

  • cat_mom
    9 years ago

    I use Easy-Off Fume Free Max in our Wolf AG range. It actually need so be cleaned. If you want to practice on mine before tackling yours.....!

    LOL

  • cat_mom
    9 years ago

    If I recall, we either read or were told we could use it in ours.

  • bmorepanic
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I was staring at "Good Luck Industrial Oven Cleaner" at the asian grocery but left without it. I'm not sure if that was a good choice or a poor choice as I could use the luck part right now. The lucky feeling evaporated when I realized that I couldn't read the instructions or even recognize the exact language. So I took the vietnamese ramen noodles (59 cents!), made using "authentic Japanese Process" instead. It was shrimp singing to dried chilis flavor with 4 mystery packets inside.

    The oven instructions said to build your way up the chemical chain - starting with the least chemically treatment and then go up a step when it doesn't work. I can't see myself trying to clean it 15 times. Vinegar, dish soap and pinesol didn't work. Neither did warming a slightly damp oven.

    Thanks for the laugh, cat_mom. Perhaps we shall be sisters of the can.

  • jwvideo
    9 years ago

    In the old days --- uh-oh, there's the chronic old fart warning klaxon -- we used to heat the oven to warm (about 200F), shut it off, put in a bowl with a cup of ammonia, and leave it sit over-night. Then, toss the ammonia down the sink, and scrub the walls etc. with a scrubby and dish detergent. There were commercial (i.e., restaurant and institutional grade) oven cleaners but they were incredibly caustic and a big problem for anything that was not stainless steel. (Old fashioned Lutefisk might have smelled worse, but it was a pretty close call!)

    The instructions for my NXR say not to use "commerciaL" oven cleaners and I'm pretty sure (and have been told) that this means the actual "commercial" products not the residential grade stuff like Fume-free Easy Off, I've used the latter several times with no apparent ill effects (basically after the massive cooking marathons of Thanksgiving and Christmas). "No ill effects" means that I have not stripped the shine off the oven lining. As I understand it it, the warnings about not using "commercial" oven cleaners refer to the restaurant/insitutional grade products, not the "residential" products like Easy Off. (Do be aware, however, that some Easy-Off products are pretty d@*& strong. So, during your stove's warranty period, you want to use the "gentler" stuff like Fume Free rather than the Extra-Strength.

    What I do most of the time is a modified version of what Whirlpool calls "Acqua-lift."Basically, I get the oven very hot and let a bunch of water vapor in. (Typically, by putting a CI pan of water in the bottom of the oven when I'm baking bread.) Once the oven walls have cooled past the too-hot-to-touch stage, I scrub the walls using Dawn and blue scrubbie. That usually takes care of the problem. When it does not, I use the Fume Free Easy-Off.

    This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 23:48

  • plllog
    9 years ago

    Hi! Trailrunner suggested baking soda and boiling water for baked on char. It works on pots, so should work on ovens. Method: sprinkle densely with soda, lay paper towel over, pour just enough boiling water to wet thoroughly, and walk away. Overnight is good. You can also make a paste of baking soda to slather on vertical surfaces, though that's not quite as efficient. If there was a big accident, it might need repeating. This is how I got a big layer of oops off my pizza stone, which can't be scrubbed (I let it dry for a very long time (weeks) to make sure there wasn't any trapped water).

    I've recently been inspired by lemon juice on stainless. I'm going to try it on my racks, next. I don't know that it would be different than vinegar, but possible.

    Did you try heating the vinegar in the oven, the way JWVideo said about ammonia and water?

  • bmorepanic
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hey, girl! Nice to run into you.

    I haven't tried "fuming" with anything, but it sounds good. I use vinegar a lot with cooked on grease and foods on pots - fill article with really hot water, vinegar and a little dish soap and let it sit a few hours to overnight. Generally, whatever it was comes right off.

    I've used a razor blade (paint scraper) on the pizza stone.

    So, I'll try the pan of vinegar solution, heated to mist, wipe out after cooling a bit and see what happens. Right after I give the gods a sacrifice of pears, or something, as a preventitive. Because Bad Thingsî seem to be frequently connected to oven cleaning.

    I'd be interested to know if the lemon works on racks.