No one likes oven cleaning. Unlike mopping and vacuuming, both of which can be done leisurely while listening to music on your earphones, keeping your oven squeaky clean requires you to get down on your knees and really attack the grime head-on.
To make matters worse, the size of a typical oven prevents more than one person from cleaning it at a time, and cleaning it properly requires some serious elbow grease, so you can’t even get help from your kids. Leaving it for later isn’t acceptable either, as doing so can have a negative impact on your family’s health.
If you’re searching how to clean an oven, there are two answers depending on how bad it is. Light grease and a few crumbs: 30 minutes with steam. Black carbon that has lived there since a holiday you’d rather not name: an overnight baking soda paste. Both methods use things already in your kitchen, and neither involves a can that tells you to open a window.
What you need
Given how incredibly talented the average oven is when it comes to collecting dried-up spills and difficult-to-reach dirt, it’s hard to believe they are not sentient. Worse, the high temperatures inside the oven can cause any grease or food crumbs to harden and stick to its surface like glue.
The good news is that there’s a simple oven cleaning approach that uses common household items you likely already have in your kitchen. Buying a self-cleaning oven is also a great way to solve this problem for good.
- Baking soda (a full box, not the one that’s been in the fridge since 2019)
- White vinegar in a spray bottle
- Dish soap
- Rubber gloves
- A plastic scraper or an old gift card
- Microfiber cloths and a non-scratch sponge
- An oven-safe bowl and a lemon, for the quick method
How do you clean an oven quickly?
For a lightly used oven, or a maintenance clean between deep ones, steam does most of the work in half an hour.
- Take the racks out. Fill an oven-safe bowl with water, squeeze in a lemon, and drop the halves in.
- Set the oven to 250°F and leave the bowl inside for 30 minutes. The steam loosens grease on the walls and the citrus cuts the smell.
- Turn the oven off, let it cool until you can touch the walls, then wipe everything down with a damp microfiber cloth. Grease comes off in one pass.
- Hit any leftover spots with a baking soda paste and the scr
How do you clean the inside of an oven?
This is the overnight method for ovens that have seen things. Start in the evening so the paste works while you sleep.
- Remove the racks and anything else loose, including the thermometer and the pizza stone you forgot was in there.
- Mix the paste. Half a cup of baking soda with three or four tablespoons of water, stirred until it spreads like frosting. Double it for a large oven.
- Coat the interior. Gloves on. Spread the paste over the floor, walls, and ceiling of the oven, working it into the corners. Keep it off the heating elements and the gas igniter.
- Wait 12 hours. The paste turns brown as it pulls grease out of the carbon. That’s the point, not a problem.
- Scrape and wipe. Use the plastic scraper to lift the softened residue, then wipe with a damp cloth. Spray vinegar over any white baking soda film that’s left. It fizzes, the film dissolves, and you wipe it away with a clean cloth.
- Dry and check. Run the oven at 200°F for ten minutes to dry it out. If it smokes, there’s residue left. Wipe again.
How do you clean oven racks?
Racks are the reason people give up. The trick is soaking, not scrubbing.
- Lay an old towel in the bathtub so the racks don’t scratch it, set the racks on top, and fill the tub with hot water until they’re covered.
- Add half a cup of dish soap and a cup of baking soda, give it a stir, and leave them overnight.
- In the morning, most of the grime wipes off with a sponge.
- Anything left comes off with a ball of aluminum foil used as a scrubber.
- Rinse, dry completely, and slide them back in.
No bathtub? A large garbage bag in the sink works the same way.
How do you clean oven doors?
The door collects splatter on the inside and fingerprints on the outside, and it should not be cleaned like a window. Glass cleaner on a warm door streaks and can leave a film that bakes on.
Inside glass
Mix a quarter cup of baking soda with enough water to make a paste, spread it over the glass with a sponge, wait 20 to 30 minutes, wipe it off with a damp cloth, and buff dry with a paper towel. For burnt drips that won’t move, hold a razor blade at a low angle and scrape gently. Glass is harder than you think.
Between the panes
If there’s grime trapped inside the door, it got in through the vent slots along the bottom edge. Wrap a damp microfiber cloth around a thin ruler or a straightened wire hanger, feed it through the slots, and drag it across. If that doesn’t reach, most doors come off with two screws along the bottom, and the manual shows where.
Outside
A damp cloth with a drop of dish soap, then buff. Wipe stainless in the direction of the grain.
Should you use the self-clean cycle?
Sometimes. The self-clean cycle heats the oven to around 900°F and turns residue to ash you sweep out. It works, with three warnings. It produces smoke and fumes that are dangerous to pet birds and unpleasant for everyone else, so open windows and leave the house if you can. It’s hard on the oven: the heat stresses the door lock, the thermal fuse, and the control board, especially on older models. And never run it with the racks inside unless the manual says you can, because the heat strips their finish.
Wipe out loose debris first, never use it as a substitute for a real clean when there’s a thick layer of grease (that’s how kitchen fires start), and don’t run it the day before you’re hosting. Run it a week out.
What not to do
- Don’t soak the heating element. Water on a hot element cracks it. Keep paste and spray off it entirely.
- Don’t use steel wool or a metal scraper on enamel. It scratches, and scratches hold grease forever.
- Don’t mix oven cleaner with anything. Commercial sprays are lye-based and react badly with vinegar and bleach. Use one product at a time and rinse between.
- Don’t clean a warm oven with anything you’d rather not inhale. Wait until it’s cool.
- Don’t run the self-clean cycle with foil on the floor. It fuses to the enamel.
Rather skip the kneeling entirely?
Now you know how to clean an oven. Whether you want to is a separate question. If the answer is no, or you can’t find the energy, MaidThis connects you with screened, vetted cleaners in more than 40 US cities, from Los Angeles to Denver to Charlotte. Book a one-time deep clean or a recurring schedule, add the oven as a special request, and spend the evening doing something that doesn’t involve a scraper.
