While cleaning your oven before its busiest season seems like a good idea, your holiday dinner could depend on how it’s cleaned. Are you wondering how to clean your oven or if you should use the self-cleaning oven feature before a big holiday or event?
While it may be easy, this feature can cause malfunctions when you need your oven the most. Learn about common self-cleaning oven dangers and how to avoid them with a natural oven cleaner.
How to Clean Your Oven Safely Before the Holidays
While the self-clean feature is supposed to make oven cleaning easier, there’s nothing easy about the risks that come with it. How do self-cleaning oven dangers jeopardize an important dinner? How to clean your oven safely? Understanding how this function works can illustrate some of the concerns.
How the Self-Clean Feature Works
An oven’s self-cleaning function uses high heat to burn away stains, food particles, and grease. This heat goes well above typical cooking temperatures and times, reaching upwards of 800℉ for up to three hours. Once the cycle is complete, and the oven has cooled, any ashes or residue are simply wiped away.
Given these high temperatures, is it safe to use self-clean oven feature? We recommend remaining at home for the duration of the cycle to address any immediate malfunctions. We also suggest turning your range vent on and opening kitchen windows for adequate ventilation of heat and fumes. However, this high heat can cause other concerns, making the self-cleaning function especially risky before a big event.
Should I Use Self-Cleaning Oven Feature?
Part failures are one of the biggest reasons to avoid your self-cleaning oven feature before the holidays. Lengthy exposures to high heat can cause multiple malfunctions just when you need your oven to work at its best.
Self-cleaning oven dangers include these part failures:
- Thermostat: While the thermostat monitors typical oven temperatures, it can break when exposed to high heat for long periods. Unfortunately, thermostat malfunctions are often discovered only after a meal emerges under or overcooked.
- Control board: This computerized board governs all oven functions but can also become damaged when exposed to high heat. If this happens, the oven won’t heat up or respond to any touchpad commands.
- Wiring: Your oven’s wiring is sheathed in rubber insulation that protects it from normal cooking temperatures. The self-clean feature’s high heat can melt this insulation, leading to wire damage that halts oven function. This is one of the many examples of self-cleaning oven damage you want to avoid.
While these part failures require a professional fix, there’s no guarantee your appliance repair service is available during this busy time of year. If you must use the self-cleaning feature, do it well in advance of a holiday or event to better ensure a timely repair.
How to Clean Your Oven With a Natural Oven Cleaner
What’s the best way to avoid these self-cleaning oven dangers? Using a natural oven cleaner with baking soda and vinegar can make your oven shine without risking its function. Wanting to use a DIY oven cleaner instead?
Follow these steps to clean your oven with a natural oven cleaner:
- Scrape away large food particles: Remove the oven racks and use a scraping tool to remove any larger pieces of debris.
- Mix cleaning paste: Combine baking soda, coarse salt, and dish soap to create a thick but spreadable paste.
- Apply paste: Spread the paste in a thick layer across the oven walls, avoiding any heating elements. For best results, allow the paste to sit overnight or at least several hours.
- Wipe down the oven: Use a dampened sponge to wipe down the oven walls, rinsing the sponge repeatedly until all the paste and debris are removed.
- Spray with vinegar: Using a 1:1 mixture of water and white vinegar, spray down the oven walls. Wipe them down one more time to remove any lingering paste and debris.
While being aware of self-cleaning oven dangers can help avoid malfunctions, especially before the holidays, not every breakdown can be prevented. When you need a professional fix, call RD Appliance Services for an expert repair.
