Oven cleaning

[cjsmith]

Never truly had to do this before. May I say for the record that it is a major pain in the patootie?

1. Attempt self clean cycle. Minimal to no effect.
2. Repeat attempt (in the hopes that "minimal" was progress). No effect at all.
3. Buy oven cleaner and apply according to instructions. Gunk in oven is loosened but now the entire oven is gray-white and I can't get that off no matter how much rinsing and scrubbing I do.

At this point I would be happy to have the oven back in the state it was in before I started. Why do I try, people? Somebody, somewhere, tell me the answer to this fundamental question?

So now I'm doing something that I know is a not so good idea, but I'm out of options:

4. Repeat self clean cycle. Maybe it will burn some of this stuff off. (From the fumes, I can tell it's doing SOMETHING.)

Wish me luck.

Comments

[mrdreamjeans]

You have one other choice early on. It's my choice ... Never us your oven. :)

[cjsmith]

I should have opted for that, but it’s too late now!

[nosrednayduj]

I hope you did this with the windows open...

[cjsmith]

Oh definitely, and the vent fan turned high. The fumes were mildly annoying but not as awful as I feared.

[marahmarie]

Just for future reference, they sell a fume-free one (what I use; usually comes in a blue can; regular (fumes) comes in yellow). Highly recommend the fume-free.

[cjsmith]

Oh well. I doubt I’ll ever have cause to use this knowledge again. If all this results in a permanently unusable oven, then next time I have an oven that is dirty I will know that it is quicker and easier simply to buy a new one from the get go.

[marahmarie]

People don't generally buy new ovens each time the current one gets "that dirty" but hey, if that's an option then more power to you.

[cjsmith]

It is not even remotely an option. Also, this oven is not "dirty" but UNUSABLE. These two facts together are quite frustrating to me.

[marahmarie]

Oh, well I'm sorry to hear that. If I lived more nearby I'd be happy to poke my head in and think what could be done, if anything, but we live far, far away from each other (about 1,500 miles or so, I think), so.

I was only quoting you on the "dirty"part from your reply to me. I had no idea it was unusable as I thought you were getting somewhere with the vinegar (well, the last I saw on it, it sounded like you were, but that was last night). Really sorry to hear that. :(

[cjsmith]

Yeah, I was thinking NEXT time an oven gets dirty enough that I'd want to clean it, I would be wise to remember that this episode of "cleaning" resulted in an unusable oven, so I could (if I chose) skip all the effort of the cleaning attempt and just go straight to "looks like I need an oven". Sort of a send-up of "I need a new car because this one's dirty", except tragically too close to reality.

I may be getting somewhere with the vinegar. Three passes so far and it still reeks if it warms up. Maybe it reeks less. I dunno.

[marahmarie]

Regular maintenance will prevent it getting so dirty that it gets to that point for you (and is a lot easier/less time consuming to tackle). I've never run into an oven that's too dirty to clean (though I've run into a few that are impossible to return to a like-new, spotless state only because I don't know what people put in their ovens but yeah man, sometimes it isn't food!), and boy howdy, lemme tell you: I've seen some unbelievably bad ovens, as in, "Let me try to reconstruct this oven from what my memory of what ovens might look like, clean" - so lack of care is *not* an oven-killer, so to speak, but can take a few hours spread out over several days to get through (between letting the spray sit, scrubbing, letting it sit and scrubbing again) so patience is probably one's greatest friend there.

[cjsmith]

Hahaha I didn't mention HOW it got dirty. This wasn't exactly a long-standing thing. (The oven is two years old and my attempts to learn to cook are a lot more recent than that.) But a pie got poured into it... in retrospect, it's funny... :)

[marahmarie]

Yeah, it happens (and can happen quickly!) so don't feel too bad...

[cjsmith]

It sure did happen fast! Oh well!

[marahmarie]

Also, if you can afford it there's no need to do it yourself! You can hire someone off TaskRabbit or similar (I'd do that myself if I could afford it just for more free time, and I do it for a living). Housekeeping's time-consuming, which is my main thing against it, and super-annoying/frustrating/exhausting at times like these when something's just become a disaster, for another, so I wouldn't blame you (nor should anyone) for handing it off, not at all.

[cjsmith]

And with 20/20 hindsight I realize that this would have been a great idea. Sigh. Now, of course, it's far too late! Ah well!

Thanks for all your advice throughout... this one's a bust, but at least I learned something.

[marahmarie]

You're welcome and hey - you fought the good fight! We've all been there at one point or another, even if it was not with an oven. :)

[cjsmith]

Thanks for the solidarity! Yeah this one has definitely been... dispiriting. I had no idea I could do this much damage. Live and learn.

[marahmarie]

You're welcome! Guess what I did today? Totally, totally cleaned my oven...talk about online stuff bleeding into real life (after this convo I've got ovens unstoppably on my brain, now)... :)

[cjsmith]

LOL! I hope it sparkles! Go you! :-D

[marahmarie]

Oh yeah, it look great now after scrubbing - thanks!

[lcohen]

i wish you all the luck! (i am saved from this by the certain knowledge that encountering the chemicals that one uses to clean ovens would kill me at this point so my oven can just suffer in silence.)

[cjsmith]

Yes, I would definitely recommend you avoid a chemical oven cleaning. Maybe even the high heat cycle of a self clean should be done by a helpful friend while you’re out. *hugs*.

[zipperbear]

Gunk in oven is loosened but now the entire oven is gray-white and I can't get that off no matter how much rinsing and scrubbing I do.

I think that means your oven is clean, even if it's discolored.

Traditional caustic oven cleaner is mostly lye, and the newer "safe" versions are mostly baking soda. Heat and oxygen turn oils (and vaporized oils) into a brown glossy varnish (and if you add pigment to drying oils without heat, that's how to make oil paintings that last for centuries). Alkaline solvents will slowly soften the oven gunk, somewhat faster with heat. Lye is nasty but effective. Ammonia smells awful, and is somewhat less nasty, but the vapors are effective -- a small dish of ammonia and a large pan of steamy water or a spray bottle of water will work overnight in a sealed oven to soften the gunk, so you can wipe it up with plastic spatulas, sponges, and damp paper towels. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) is mild, but with a drop or two of liquid dish soap to make a paste it's gritty enough to scrub away the layers of gunk as they soften. Baking soda is less visible when it's wet, so white streaks or spatters may appear after things are dry, but just rinse and wipe again, and plan on doing laundry afterward. With enough water, baking soda dissolves completely, but when it dries it reappears unless you get rid of it. Ammonia evaporates completely with enough ventilation (which is why Windex includes it), but it stings your eyes because it readily dissolves back into any water nearby.

Ovens (including microwaves) are awkward to clean, but a long-handled dish brush makes it easier getting into the back corners and quickly scrubbing the big surfaces with less arm motion.

[cjsmith]

This one was lye based.

When I use water to try to get rid of the whitish stuff, I get some minimal sudsing and my paper towel gets some white-slightly-gray on it, which leads me to believe there is a substance I am removing. But then when the oven surface dries it looks no different.

So either there is a nigh-infinite amount of this substance or the surface of the oven has been permanently damaged. Neither seems easy to believe, but I suppose either one is possible.

[zipperbear]

Some self-cleaning ovens have a porous surface. The hose of a carpet shampooing machine might help scrub, rinse, and vacuum up the embedded residue. I've got one you could borrow sometime...

[cjsmith]

Perhaps I destroyed the finish on this thing. If only I could get the stinky stuff off it, at least I’d have an oven I could use! Trying vinegar on the bottom of the oven did improve it quite a bit. Maybe I’ll scrub all the sides with vinegar as well. This is turning into a serious project.

[hitchhiker]

http://www.easyoff.us/easy-off-fume-free-oven-cleaner/ says

5. Can EASY-OFF® Fume Free Oven Cleaner be used in a continuous-cleaning or microwave oven?
No, it should not be used in a continuous-cleaning or microwave oven. This type of oven surface is extremely porous. If the product is used it will affect the appearance of the oven; it will become gray or white in color after the product has been removed particularly on the oven floor.

NOTE: If used in a continuous-cleaning or microwave oven in error, we recommend rinsing the oven well with vinegar and water only to remove the product residue. This will not reverse the appearance of the surface (the oven may have the appearance of being gray or whitish after product is removed). Additionally there is a possibility that the continuous-cleaning feature will no longer be functional. There will be no effect on food/cooking or baking after the oven is rinsed.

[cjsmith]

Definitely not “continuous cleaning” but it’s possible this things status as a self cleaner put it into the no-lye category. This may be an expensive mistake. Sigh.

[zahraa]

I am scared of the oven's self-clean cycle.

[cjsmith]

As best I can tell, there’s no reason to be: it does nothing at all. :)

(Granted, on an old or very very gunky oven, beware the smoke and the possible subsequent fire alarm.)

[marahmarie]

It can start a fire (Googled that a while ago myself, as I have a self-cleaning oven, but have never used the feature, mostly for that reason). The oven can get, depending on make/model, between 600-800 degrees F on a self-clean, so it's sort of a tricky thing, you gotta watch it.

[cjsmith]

Huh. I’d be shocked if mine got that high in a cycle that lasts only 40 minutes (and does not finish with an extremely hot oven - there’s a lot of cool down). Maybe mine simply has the most useless self clean cycle in history.

[hitchhiker]

oh man, i hope the oven isn't permanently discoloured :(

[cjsmith]

At this point that’s the best outcome I can hope for.

[marahmarie]

I do this (clean things!) for a living. So. While I can't think what to do for your specific issue (I'd need a pic, as I can't imagine what the grayish/whitish would be except for what hitchhiker's suggested) I can maybe give you an idea how I clean (other people's and my own) oven(s). Maybe good for future reference?...

--I don't use the self-cleaning feature, period
--I don't always even use oven cleaner. If the build-up's light enough I'll 1) spray the whole inside with vinegar and let it sit for a few minutes, 2) wipe it out with a clean microfiber cloth, 3) determine what's still stuck-on, 4) scrub the stuck-on-ness with Brillo, 4) literally use my paint scraper on anything that's not budging, 5) vinegar/wipe down again
--If the oven's any dirtier than lightly stained I'll use a fume-free spray (I haven't yet run into a continuous-clean oven in my adventures, but I'll keep a look-out for those from now on, as not spraying them with fume-free is not something I knew about before), then let it sit overnight if I can (or at least a few hours if overnight's not an option), then do steps 2-5 above as needed (and I wipe the spray out with microfiber cloths I just toss out afterward).

Self-clean scares me (not to mention I've no idea if it figured into any possible damage going on there...).

I read you're using vinegar now and it sounds like enough of it might help...maybe try lightly scrubbing a small, inconspicuous area - if needed - with Brillo to see if that helps remove the grayish/whitish, as well.

I use my vinegar straight (white, but apple works too; I can't rule out that in desperation I haven't grabbed wine vinegar, as it's all pretty much the same) with no water in a spray bottle. It'll be just a teensy bit fumey straight, but the effects will be super-temporary while it (usually) works wonders.

Another thing I like to do (with my own oven, as I don't always get the chance or have the time to do this with other people's) is after I make sure the oven spray's wiped out really well with vinegar, I run the oven empty at like 350ish for an hour or so with the oven door cracked open, the windows open, the house fan and the hood fan running to bake off/suck out any leftover fumes, as the oven will tend to smell *just awful* right after an oven-spray, no matter how well you wipe it, and I worry those fumes might be absorbed by whatever food goes in the oven next.

[cjsmith]

If I ever own an oven again I’ll keep it in mind.