Introduction
Cleaning remains an important part of oven maintenance routine. How often do you clean your oven? After every few months or so? Professionally, an oven should be cleaned at least two to four times in a year. That is after every three to six months. Yet many people will not clean their oven for years due to laziness, but most importantly, not knowing how to go about it.
Attempting cleaning without knowing what you are doing can easily result in significant destruction of your oven. That is the reason experts recommend professional oven cleaning services. But if you are a DIY fanatic; still no problem, here are a few dos and don’t when it comes to cleaning this essential food warming or baking appliance.
Dos:
Use Homemade Cleaners If You Like
Homemade oven cleaners are just as good as their store bought counterparts. If you are a budget conscious homeowner, you can opt for a good homemade cleaner without worrying about the possibility of it damaging your kitchen appliance. A mixture of baking soda and white vinegar is an example of a good homemade cleaner.
Remove Racks & Other Detachable Oven Components
Sometimes you might want to avoid tampering with any component of your oven when going about a DIY cleaning routine for the first time without basic appliance maintenance skills. What you should know is that it is ok to take out the detachable components of your appliance during a cleaning routine. After all, those components are designed to be detached during such routines. Feel free to remove the rack, tray and other detachable parts to clean them separately from your oven.
Soak Individual Oven Components In Advance to Reduce Cleaning Time
Sometimes an oven that has not been cleaned in a long time may contain stubborn food particles, grim and grease stains on its surface, requiring many minutes of heavy-duty scrubbing. The best way to go around this is to pre-soak the individual parts of your oven. You can place the detachable components in the sink after filling it with cleanser solution. For the undetectable components, just rub their surfaces gently with a soft cotton cloth after wetting it with the solution.
Call a Professional Oven Cleaning Service
It is never too late to call a professional oven cleaning service, even halfway through your DIY oven cleaning project. If you change your mind, do not even bother putting back the components together. Just call a trustworthy professional near you to come help finish the job.
Don’ts
Do Not Attempt to Clean Your Oven While It Is Still Plugged
Never attempt cleaning any electrical appliance while it is still plugged into the power outlet. In addition to safety, unplugging your oven beforehand minimizes the risk of property damage due to an accidental trip over the cord, pulling the cable out of the appliance.
Do Not Engage the Self-Clean Feature Too Often
Some modern, high-end ovens come with a self-clean feature that enable users to clean their oven with a press of a button. While this feature is convenient, it should not be engaged too many times as doing so could result in a serious damage to the oven. This is because releasing high steam or heat blasts throughout the interior of an oven courtesy of this feature could burn out a heating element or short a thermal fuse if this is done frequently. In a year, you should engage a self clean feature of your oven no more than 5 times.
Do Not Attempt To Turn Your Oven to Dry It Faster
As dumb as it sounds, some individuals would attempt to turn on their oven to dry faster after cleaning, if the idea crossed their mind. A few years ago, I had a neighbor who attempted this. The result was a huge explosion, which almost burned down the entire block. Do not be in a hurry to use your appliance immediately after a cleaning routine. Let it dry fully before plugging it back.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know the dos and don’ts of oven cleaning, what are your thoughts? Is a DIY project really worth it or would you rather call a professional oven cleaning service? Feel free to comment below and let us know your thoughts.
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