Mama Kat Thursday: Experiments in Pinterest Oven Cleaning

The Mama Kat prompt today was to share my experience with trying a Pinterest tip, but it's not food or crafts this time, it's oven cleaning.

I decided to clean my oven the other day while it's still cold out.

I say that every year about this time, then forget about it until spring weather is too warm to have an oven on.

This year, I finally did it.

I have a gas stove. It was installed about 7 years ago when we redid our floors.
I've never cleaned it before now and really it's not terrible as you can see in the photo.
If you consider I mostly bake just during winter months, which in Florida is about 3 months a year and multiply
7 x 3, that's only 21 months, relatively equal to only 2 years of use.

However, I didn't want to use the chemical sprays, because I have a respiratory sensitivity to smelling certain chemical aerosol vapors. 

Also I didn't want to use the self-cleaning feature because that's actually not in the best interests of the oven--the high heat is very hard on the metal and shortens the stove's life. The installer recommended against it. Plus it will smell and be super hot.

He recommended "steaming" by baking a pan of water at 250F for about 45 minutes, letting it cool 30 min, then wiping the oven out. He said that's what his wife who cleans condo's did.

So, okay, that's the first method I tired this week.
It didn't work.I think my oven has a convection fan so it didn't really allow any significant steam action. All the grime stayed dry and wouldn't "wipe up." I even tried steaming it longer at a higher temp, but it was simply a no-go.

So, now I consulted Pinterest for ideas.

Basically, cleaning without chemicals boils down to some combination of vinegar, baking soda or salt and Dawn. Sometimes lemon juice. Steaming, of course, too.

So I tried a vinegar, baking soda & Dawn method of soaping up the inside and leaving it overnight. Results:

Eh, not much.
Wiping "the grime away" with a scrubby sponge as instructed didn't work. I just now scrubbed over the sides, back and bottom with a SOS pad and scrubbed off most of the brown grime, but the blacker spatters remained resistant.

So added a touch of Dawn to the soapy SOS pad and wiped everything down again leaving it slightly soapy, then closed the oven to let it soak overnight.
I'm still scrubbing and scraping the next day.
I really don't know what all those Pinterest pins about just combing vinegar, baking soda or lemon and Dawn and water and "you'll get a spit-shine oven" are even talking about.
It doesn't seem to matter whether leaving on 30 minutes or hours and my oven wasn't even as bad looking as most of theirs!

A blade scrapper and SOS pads and a little elbow grease still prove to be the best fall-back tools for ultimate oven cleaning.
Even when I've used chemical sprays in the past, I've still had to fall back on scraping and scrubbing.
The scrapper did work wonders on getting up the two patches of black, burnt-on spots on the oven floor. It was also great for cleaning the glass.
I mean, I have used Oven-Off in the past and it doesn't get everything off completely by itself either.

The Pinterest Dryer Sheet Method for Cleaning Oven Racks:

Oven racks are a difficult cleaning problem, but I tried this dryer sheet method and it actually worked pretty well. 
It didn't completely eliminate scrubbing, but what needed further scrubbing came off super easy.
It's the fabric softener in the dryer sheets that breaks down the stuck on grease.
You should use a secondary bath tub as the racks have to soak overnight and it leaves a mess in the tub.

Steps:

Lay about 7 to 9 dryer sheets on bottom of a bath tub. 

Place the two oven racks together on top of the dryer sheets.

Fill the tub with enough hot water to cover so the racks are completely under water.

Squirt in a little Dawn dish detergent. (It also breaks down grease)

Leave overnight.

The next morning a bunch of the grease will have floated off to sink to bottom of the, though some of the finer grime will still be there.

Leaving the racks in the tub, wipe down any remaining grease spots using a dryer sheet. 

(So the blogger's Pinterest directions said.)

However, I found an SOS pad quicker then dryer sheets at scrubbing off what stubborn grease spots remained and, thanks to soaking in those dryer sheets, they cleaned up really, really easily.
 The racks look like new now.

(I bet you could just use a cap-full of any fabric softener in the tub for the same effect as dryer sheets.)

This photo is my tub afterwards. Everything that came off the racks plus tiny shards of SOS steel wool, of course. 

I put a dryer sheet over the drain so that crud wouldn't go down my tub drain.
and I'd suggest doing the same, if you try this.

I decided to let the crud dry, so I can vacuum it up easily. 

This mess is why I say you should use a secondary tub.
Using this method also means sitting on your knees next to the tub to work on cleaning the racks, so that could be a problem for some people. I used a foam kneeling pad that I have for gardening.

*****

I have a spray bottle of fabric softener mixed with water that I keep out by the washer---maybe I should try spraying some of that inside the oven to see if that won't work some of that grease-removing  magic overnight?

It worked great on the racks.
Update: Fabric softener/water spray didn't help. I have some Greased Lightning on hand. (Which doesn't smell). I'm trying that. I'm going to keep spraying it on and wait till tomorrow to work on it again.
What finally worked: The Greased Ligthening, after being allowed to soak a little, and a plain steel scrubby (the kind that doesn't shred or have soap in it). That took the little burnt-on black spots off pretty easily. 
Rinsed, dried and now baking at low temp to evaporate any moisture. Done.

As-You-Go Tricks to Keep Ovens Clean
* Keep a ammonia-based spray on hand to spot clean spills right away.
*  Use inexpensive aluminium foil cookie trays under casserole dishes while baking to catch spills.

Thanks for Visiting!