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kjonyou

Cleaning Oven Racks with Glides Warning

kjonyou
10 years ago

Ugh, so I finally got a new oven after 10 years. It has these new racks that have glides on the sides with ballerinas so the rack slides all the way out like a nice drawer. Its an Electrolux.

I cannot figure out how to clean these things. What is the best way to do this without destroying the finish?

I know one method is to leave them in during self clean but these new ovens have a sensor that will not let you do that. Self clean will not activate until the racks are out. Plus it will ruin the finish.

I tried soap and water, soaking in a tub overnight in laundry soap and the ammonia in a plastic bag and Barkeepers friend.

The problem is the glides. After soaking in the tub, it did knock off a lot of stuff, but it also made the glides squeak because it got rid of the grease put on by the manufacture. So I used a little cooking oil and they worked fine. That is until actually baked something. The oil starting baking on and dripping off creating a small mess. The glides are now yellow from burnt on oil.

I the tried Ammonia. Tested it on a small toaster oven rack and wow! That stuff is amazing, sparkling clean chrome. So I did the same with my expensive oven racks and now what? Dull stained chrome. I tried polishing it up with some Bar Keepers Friend and it did help somewhat but nothing near new. Definably a lot duller then the untouched one.

And to put insult to injury, I located the special high temperature lube for food grade part by the manufacture and a 4oz tube is almost $50! New racks are $150 each.

Anyone have suggestions on how to clean these without damaging them? Not sure why the Ammonia made them dull.

Comments (26)

  • erinsean
    10 years ago

    I would check with the place you bought the stove. If not them, go to the manufacturer and ask about the glides. The first place I look is the book that comes with the appliance....surely other people have had this problem.

  • sf7307
    10 years ago

    I would have no problem with a "patina" on the racks, but I'd definitely have a problem if gliding racks stopped gliding smoothly -- is that the case?

  • kjonyou
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Yes, I did check the manual from front to back, it just say make sure you remove the racks and clean them with soap and water. Went to the factory website nothing on it either other then soak a paper town with Amonia and let it sit on top of tough spots for 15 minutes. These are kind of newer thing to deal with.

    Any kind of soaking will eliminate the grease needed for the racks to slide. They have a factor lubricant they use for sale but like I said it $50 just for that. It has to be food safe and take temps of over 550F which most oils cant do.

    I looked for other brands but I cant seem to find an alternative since Electrolux has their brand name and part name on the bottle and nothing else. Dose not say what type of grease it is. If I call them I am sure the answer will be buy our product.

    It dose kind of smoke the first few times which they say is normal. But they will not tell me what kind of grease they use.

    As for clean, just curious if anyone else tried the ammonia in a bag over night trick and came out dulled finish almost like it was left in the oven during a cleaning cycle. It dose not seem like this should happen to chrome.

  • MizLizzie
    10 years ago

    FWIW, on my new Elux, I spot cleaned the gunk with 409 -- saturated a paper towel with it, and wrapped the gunky spots and left it on a couple of hours. Scrubbed it off with a ScotchBrite pad. Then soap and watered the whole rack and shoved it back in. Seemed to do okay. I don't care what my racks look like, but yeah, they have gotta glide.

  • eurekachef
    10 years ago

    That's one of the advantages of the GE Monogram -- you can leave the racks in during the oven cleaning cycle. But the GE also comes with a small bottle of lubricant. I think it's graphite, precisely for the reason that it's very hard to get an oil that can withstand the repetitive exposure to high heat. Agree with other people's comments too that you can't expect the get the racks back to gleaming new. The goal should be just to remove caked on debris that might smoke or give off flavors to future foods being cooked.

  • ginny20
    10 years ago

    You're supposed to clean the racks? :-)

    One tip I can add is that if you want a liquid to stay on a strange shaped or tight place, try using toilet paper instead of paper towels. It gets mushy, takes any shape, and sticks well. I do this around bathroom faucets, saturating the toilet paper with vinegar to remove hard water deposits or soap scum.

  • barryv_gw
    10 years ago

    I don't know what type of grease or lubricant the manufacturer supplies, but Amazon has a number of products from Utlralube Food grade , it has a flash point of 583 F to 620 F depending on which grade you get. The website gives you the flashpoint temperatures http://www.ultralube.com/Products/H1FoodGradeProducts/H1FoodGradeChainCableLube

    I bought some from Amazon and used it for my door hinges on my oven and am quite happy..

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ultra Lube Food Grade - Flash point 583 F

  • barryv_gw
    10 years ago

    This is the Ultra Lube grease which has a flash point of 619F

    Here is a link that might be useful: Ultra Lube Grease

  • kjonyou
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Thanks! That Ultra Lube is exactly what I was looking for. Most of the ones I found were not food grade.

    I am not paranoid but using some mystery chemical grease for car engines scares me because I sometime crank that oven up to 550f for pizzas. Burning mystery grease fumes is probably not a good idea.

  • donnaboyle
    8 years ago

    I think I must have the same oven as you. I too have struggled with cleaning these racks. In my opinion they are I,possible to clean. In the manual they tell how to clean the door, the Bolton of the oven but all that is mentioned about the racks is that they must be removed. I just spent two hours with an SOS pad and lots of elbow grease. Only about half of the gunk is removed but too bad I am not spending any more time cleaning an oven rack. Shame on you Electrolux. We have 6 Electrolux appliances that are about 4 years old and have problems of this nature with everyone of them. I will never purchase anything Electrolux again and I make sure to tell anyone who asks.



  • lozandjosh
    7 years ago

    I have these ovens and find that using soapy water works well. Then after they dry, use Cerapol with a scourer and it completely cleans them like new. Rinse and dry and all brand new again! :) Hope that helps.

  • Connie
    6 years ago

    I have a big problem. Not sure how it happened. I have a Thermador wall oven. The telescopic racks will not slide fully open and very very difficult to slide period. Ovens are new but self cleaned this one for first time and left racks in. Should not have caused this problem. Is there a lever or something I’m missing? My cleaning person may have done something?

  • plllog
    6 years ago

    If you're not supposed to remove the racks during self clean, they might merely have dried out. Try a squeeze bottle with a fine opening or injector (or even a Q-Tip) and avocado or peanut oil (high smoke point), and see if you can lubricate them.

  • kcdreams
    6 years ago
    last modified: 6 years ago

    You are NOT supposed to keep Thermador racks in during self clean! It can/will warp the telescopic racks, remove the finish and end up with the problem that you have Connie. (We were told that by sales person, it is in the book and on the site. So sorry that happened to you!) HOWEVER, you have got to try this product by DAWN called Proctor Gamble DAWN PROFESSIONAL POWER DISSOLVER. It used to be sold in stores years ago as Dawn Power Booster but you can buy it at janitorial suppliers or on Amazon. Pleasant smell and it does all the elbow work for you. Just spray and let sit (no trash bags outside for hours). I am retired chef and can attest that it works on bakeware, outside grill grates, etc.

  • HU-202099008
    5 years ago

    The company I work for sells oven slide racks that are porcelain coated like the liner of your self-clean oven. You can leave the rack in the oven during self-clean and you simply wipe off the ash after self-clean and the soiled slide rack is returned to show room look. The lubricant is designed to withstand self-clean temperatures. Nickel slide racks I have seen in the market do not come with self-clean temperature survivable lubrication and the nickel finish does not look like show room finish after the self-clean cycle. Next time you are in the market for a range or oven, ask the sales person for porcelain coated slide racks. Here is a video to illustrate the finish. http://theshelvingtons.com/moms-mess/

  • HU-714795135
    5 years ago
    last modified: 5 years ago

    I cleaned my Glide racks by soaking them in the bathtub overnight in Dawn detergent. Everything came off quite easily. The racks had stopped sliding very well with metal on metal noise, both before and after the cleaning.. i had no intention of spending $70 for a tiny bottle of lubricant. I had purchased a small bottle of AGS extra fine Graphite at my local ACE hardware store and decided to give it a chance.. I stood the dry racks on end so I could drop a little of the graphite into the end of each track that the ball bearings function in. I thumped the rack a couple of times on my work bench to extract any extra graphite. The two racks have been sliding perfectly for four months now. The graphite is odorless and non-toxic. And cheap!

  • Xio Daza
    3 years ago
    last modified: 3 years ago

    May I ask you if you used the whole bottle of AGS? my gliders are so rough and want to try this. I made the mistake of doing the oven cleaner with them inside, my sales person did not advise I couldn’t do that and they became so dull and squeky, then I did the oil as suggested and that burned and they don’t glide the same and I don’t want to spend 300 dollars on new racks. Iam hoping this method works.

  • HU-212779871
    3 years ago

    My wracks had seized solid. I disassembled them and used some grease and oil and whatever to free the glides and after about 4 hrs they were free but not sliding smooth. Checked electrolux and a little bottle was $148$$$$. Rediculous. Put them back in as they were and 6 months later the same thing but worse. Now clean the burnt stuff out that I applied.. Back to square 1. I think I'll try the graphite this round. Good luck to all.

    Are you still ok using the graphite?

  • Connie
    3 years ago

    I used the graphite and a meta kabob skewer to knockout burned stuff. I also read soaking racks in extremely hot water with dishwasher detergent and some regular dish soap would clean the racks. It said soak over night in bath tub. Did work so well still had to scrub. My kitchen sink is large enough to put racks in so I did that with the dishwasher pod instead of liquid or powder and dish soap. I soaked about 5 hours adding hot water. Surprise they came pretty clean without much scrubbing. Racks glide fairly well. I’m so upset I left them in oven during cleaning. The finish is ruined. Someday I’ll spend the horrendous price to replace my expensive racks

  • HU-212779871
    3 years ago

    Thanks for your input. I am going with the graphite. The wracks will be there until the wife decides she wants a different colour range. I was even thinking of removing the locks so the wracks would be like regular old wracks. I will not pay what they want for the wracks or the lubricant. Thanks again

  • dadoes
    3 years ago

    Seems the racks are pretty much wracked. :-)

    My grandmother cleaned her oven racks by placing them in a large-enough trash bag with some ammonia and leaving overnight.

  • JOSEPH MCCANN
    2 years ago

    The peanut oil worked to loosen up one glider that was siezed but still a bit rough compared to other side and other rack that never siezed...

  • HU-745352546
    last year

    I put my Bosch range to self-cleaning and I forgot to take out the telescopic/gliding rack.

    In the morning, the damage it was done. I got a shine rack, which was completely stuck and not moving in/out. I called Bosch and replacement was over 450 dollars. I fix it for 30 Canadian dollars.

    Step 1 was to spray inside WD40. Spray a lot and don't be scared. Be careful as it will drip on the floor at the other end. I sprayed both side.

    Then I went for some shopping and when I was back, I tried the rack. It did slide nice and smooth in and out. But I cannot use WD40 in the oven as it will catch fire or make smoke.

    Next, I tried to clean with Rubbing Alcohol 99% and a tooth brush.

    I let it stand for another hour.

    The last step, I used A LOT of SUPER LUBE multipurpose synthetic grease from Amazon.

    This reward me. I saved 450 dollars and my rack is like new, and more, is clean.

  • HU-501427931
    last year

    If you have the blue porcelain racks, you can clean them in the oven. I've been doing it for almost 10 years. I recommend removing the lower part with the slides and placing the upper part of the rack on another rack that doesn't have the slides when cleaning. Hand clean the lower part. It usually doesn't get very dirty.

  • Cheryl Bloom
    8 months ago

    HU-745352546…Your suggestion to use rubbing alcohol and Super Lube WORKED!!!! You save me $1,000 for the 2 telescopic racks I ruined. Thank you!!!!!