How to Clean a Non-self Cleaning Oven

The oven in a necessary appliance for every kitchen. And like all appliances it gets dirty after some time of exploitation. Unlike some appliances, however, the oven is rather hard and time consuming to clean. Because of this fact we often leave the cleaning for last. If your oven has reached the point where it has become too dirty to ignore, just follow these easy steps to clean it. Remember that this article applies only for standard non-self cleaning ovens.

Before actually starting the cleaning process, remove the racks. Full up your sink with warm water and add a few drops of dish washer, then put your oven racks in it and leave them to soak. You can use either your sink or a plastic basin, if you have one.

Next part is to make a cleaning solution. For this purpose, fill a spray bottle with water and add 4 tablespoons (which is about 56.7g) of baking soda. Shake well the bottle so the baking soda would moisten and dissolve. If your oven is particularly dirty, add more baking soda when preparing the cleaning solution. In this case your solution would turn out to be more like paste than liquid, but the end result is still the same. Off the record, if you prefer or have already bought a commercial product, do not to let it go to waste. Just be sure to follow the exact instructions written on it, OK?

Now that your solution is ready, spray the interior of your oven. Focus on the stained and charred areas, until the carbon is completely saturated. Leave the solution you just sprayed your oven with to soak for at least an hour. After an hour check whether the charted ares have loosened or need some more time until the solution does its magic.

Get a scraper and start scraping the loosened carbon. You may want to wear rubber gloves for this phase, because otherwise your hands will turn black from the soot. As you go, you can spray the area with some more solution to make the loosening process easier. Use a small brush and dustpan to sweep out the debris you chipped off. To remove the remaining carbon, spray the oven interior with the baking soda solution again and let it to soak in for another hour. Then scrub away the remaining carbon. At this point the interior of your oven should be clean, so just wipe it down with a solution of half vinegar, half water. To avoid the smell of vinegar add a few drops of lemon juice to the solution

Scrub them in the soapy water, rinse them off and let them dry. After that, place them back in the oven.

Oven cleaning is a dirty and time consuming job, but somebody has to do it. If you think you might not be up to the challenge or just do not have the time, then maybe hiring an oven cleaning company is just what you need to do.