Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I just did both ovens last year and it scared me so bad I may never do it again. I'd not done it before and I had made a mess in the one downstairs, so I bought some oven liners and set about doing it in preparation do put the new liners in. One caught fire (the one with the mess) and the other one smoked heavily.
I had a friend on the phone talking me through it and telling me just to let it finish, that the fire would go out...and it did, but man I was going up and down the stairs for 3 hours that night checking on them. Dumb idea to do them at the same time like that.
I just did both ovens last year and it scared me so bad I may never do it again. I'd not done it before and I had made a mess in the one downstairs, so I bought some oven liners and set about doing it in preparation do put the new liners in. One caught fire (the one with the mess) and the other one smoked heavily.
I had a friend on the phone talking me through it and telling me just to let it finish, that the fire would go out...and it did, but man I was going up and down the stairs for 3 hours that night checking on them. Dumb idea to do them at the same time like that.
Yeah, you have to wipe the oven out well with a wet paper towel or rag before you start the self clean function or it will smoke like crazy and the grease inside could even catch fire. You've got to clean the oven before you can clean it, lol.
Look it up. Turns out it's extremely dangerous/bad for your stove, etc.
Yeah, that worries me but we had some build up going on inside of the oven and I feel better taking care of that annually. It cleans up nicely.
Looking at it today as I was wiping it out it made me wonder if we should be doing this consistently twice a year rather than just once a year. But I think I'll stick to once a year and just wipe it out more frequently.
Look it up. Turns out it's extremely dangerous/bad for your stove, etc.
Add expensive to that list.
We found that out when we tried to heat-clean our oven because we were listing our home for sale 4 years ago.
Heat cracked the glass front of the oven and we had to replace the whole unit. Grrr.
We are definitely wary of doing that again except that our current stove top/oven is very low end (contractor grade) in the home we moved to so.... when we know what oven/stove model we'd like to buy new AND it's available to install THEN we might turn the "clean" function on the oven.
Currently we have a broken microwave (3 months now) so are using the small back up microwave we bought 5 years ago--sometime around the time we broke the stove the microwave also decided to die. Oh what fun times those were :-)
I cook a lot and we're getting along just fine with our uncleaned oven and baby microwave.
Only when needed. That is, when there has been a spill and the remains cause a smoke problem while cooking or limits the temperature to avoid smoke. The catch being is that the self clean feature causes its own smoke which causes the alarm company to call the house to say they got an alarm that the house was on fire.
Add expensive to that list.
We found that out when we tried to heat-clean our oven because we were listing our home for sale 4 years ago.
Heat cracked the glass front of the oven and we had to replace the whole unit. Grrr.
We are definitely wary of doing that again except that our current stove top/oven is very low end (contractor grade) in the home we moved to so.... when we know what oven/stove model we'd like to buy new AND it's available to install THEN we might turn the "clean" function on the oven.
Currently we have a broken microwave (3 months now) so are using the small back up microwave we bought 5 years ago--sometime around the time we broke the stove the microwave also decided to die. Oh what fun times those were :-)
I cook a lot and we're getting along just fine with our uncleaned oven and baby microwave.
We'll be likely selling our current home within the next couple of years. The last thing I want to do is burn out any of the appliances!
As it turns out, my oven does have a steam clean option. I'm going to look into how to use that and I'll use that to maintain my nice clean oven. It looks brand new after the self cleaning.
Only when needed. That is, when there has been a spill and the remains cause a smoke problem while cooking or limits the temperature to avoid smoke. The catch being is that the self clean feature causes its own smoke which causes the alarm company to call the house to say they got an alarm that the house was on fire.
After reading everyone's experiences and thoughts on this thread, I think that wiping up spills regularly and using the steam option as needed is the way to go.
Once a year, if that, and it has to be in the dead of winter so I can open the windows, it is a terrible smell, terrible. then the smoke alarms go of, and it becomes a small nightmare.
I also wipe as much as i can before i do the self clean. I am not comfortable with it, I live in an apartment building on the top floor, and it scares me for an over to get that hot.
I wipe as necessary, and it has to be pretty bad for me to use that feature.
I think all ovens come with it, and id be happy if I didn't have it.
I don't feel that I clean an oven that much that it would be a "must have"
My mother used easy of for decades back in the 70's, she survived.
Luckily, we don't really use the over all that much, we don't cook roasts and things like that. maybe broil a steak, or BBQ chicken, but that's really about it
I always remember my mother telling me that if inside the oven goes on fire (and it has happened) to NOT open the door, it will adventually go out on its own.
Just DO NOT open the door, I cant say that enough, DO NOT open the oven door if it is on fire.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
