When Was the Last Time You Cleaned Your Oven?

on May 19, 2009 at 10:36 AM

My dirty little secret is ... my dirty little oven. I'm not sure why it's so grimy, it's supposed to be "self-cleaning" after all. Does my oven not understand what that means?

Okay, so I'm joking—in part. My oven is dirty and it is self-cleaning, but I'm obviously supposed to be doing something to start that process. At least I think I am. I'm just not sure what.

Mr. Cafe Suzanne and I both like to cook (and eat) so we use our oven quite a bit. In the past, we've had gas stoves (my dream one is pictured here), which I avoided cleaning because the only oven cleaners I know of are the ones my mom used while I was growing up—they were stinky and probably toxic and I don't want my family to breathe that in. I did try a mixture of vinegar and baking soda once, but that did basically nothing. Now, we have an electric stove, which I don't like at all, but renters can't be choosers. The only upside is that it's supposed to be self-cleaning, but I have yet to figure out what that means or how it works. Can you help me?

When was the last time you cleaned your oven? What did you use to clean it? How often do you clean it? Do you know how to get a self-cleaning oven to self clean?

About the author Suzanne Murray

is the Parenting & Political editor at The Stir/Moms Matter 2012.

Filed Under: kitchen

Comments (11)

jns131

on May 19, 2009 at 10:50 AM

I have a self cleaning oven. No sweat there. Pull the lever and turn on the unit. Bake till done.

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Annsscreenname

on May 19, 2009 at 11:00 AM

omg! your suppose to clean it? I've never done that.

Thankfully it's self-cleaning and I think dh did it once...I'm horriable I know, LOL

decafsis

on May 19, 2009 at 11:13 AM

Oh I don't like to clean the oven, so I don't. If I have to and I do it kicking and screaming how unfair the world is and Why do I have to do it when there are others in the house that could get off thier lazy butts and do it. About every year. I just got a brand new stove and I have decided that if the self cleanng doesn't do it like it should then I am going to leave it, because the oven must like it that way and I am not going to make the oven unhappy.

ThaMCE

on May 19, 2009 at 11:49 AM

I've never done that. I wanted to buy the stuff for it with my coupon on Sunday when we went shopping, but since DF hates shopping, I was rushed out of the store and didn't get it.

Scorpio359

on May 19, 2009 at 12:15 PM

I just did it last week but I have a self cleaning one too.

Cafe Cynthia

on May 19, 2009 at 1:26 PM

The oven gets really hot and smelly during the self cleaning process. Basically, you're putting the oven on as hot as it goes till basically every little crumb, grease spill and petrified pasta noodle disintegrates into dust.

MomIWant

on May 19, 2009 at 1:35 PM

I have a self-cleaning I turn on about once a year only because of shame. It freaks me out to use the self-clean because it gets so hot and it smells. I don't like the spray on oven cleaners (because they smell AND burn your eyes) ...if you give me enough time, I can come up with 20 more excuses not to clean my oven. LOL

LuminousMom

on May 19, 2009 at 8:25 PM

I self clean it every 6 months or so, and then use the cleaning spray on it for spot clean messes! I love the ceramic cooktop.. I used to HATE cleaning the little catch things under coil cooktops..

ToddlerBrain82

on May 19, 2009 at 8:35 PM

We clean our oven on the self-clean cycle about once each season, so about every 3 months or so. It's very easy, we just set the dial to "clean" and slide the lever on the door shut. It heats up to a very high temp and it's on a timer, so the whole thing just shuts off when the cycle is done. After it cools off, all I have to do is wipe out just a tiny bit of ash at the bottom, but everything else is spotlessly clean.

On a related note, we've discovered that the secret to getting stains out of our pizza stone is to leave it in the oven during a self-clean cycle.

cheriV

on May 19, 2009 at 9:15 PM

Thanks for that information! I have a self-cleaning oven too,but I haven't cleaned it yet because it stunk when I tried it the first time~There is some big black blob of something i spilled in bottom over the holidays n that i suppose I'll eventually have to clean up! I quit using my pizza stone because of the stains~now I might just get rid of the big black blob of goop and clean my stone at the same time~yay!!! Thanks for the smart moms club here!