Cleaning your oven racks

By mudlark • October 24th, 2008

Q from Anna: I need to clean my oven and it seems like food is baked into the enamel. My cleaning person wants to use easy off but I don’t. I read you can use cider vinegar and baking soda and it will clean it. Others say put your racks in a bath tub with dishing washing detergent and everything will come off. Can you suggest a nontoxic product or home made remedy? I have a self cleaning oven but I am afraid that it will embed into the enamel.

Thanks, Anna. I applaud you in not wanting to use Easy Off. It has acute health risks (acute meaning immediate, upon exposure). In fact, according to the MSDS the health risk is a 3 on a scale of 4 – ingestion, touch, and inhalation are all risks. But it also contains glycol ethers, a volatile organic compound (VOC) and developmental and reproductive toxicant.

As for what you can use… my all-time favorite product is Shaklee’s Scour Off. It’s made from cherry pits and it’s amazing. It has a light, natural cherry smell that just makes you want to clean something. Better yet, it’s a very mild abrasive and it cleans everything from the inside of your oven to stainless steel, laminate countertops, and tub and tile too. Baking soda, similarly, is a mild abrasive, only you’ll need to scrub a lot more with baking soda than you will with Scour Off.

I like the idea of pulling out your racks and soaking them in the bath. If you do, you’ll need something that cuts grease in the water. Dishwashing detergent would probably do the trick, but adding some Borax detergent booster would probably help too. I’d suggest scrubbing with a mild abrasive before you soak – something like Scour Off or baking soda, then soak, scrub again, and soak again. The scrubbing will help loosen what’s baked on and help the detergent penetrate through it.

If you’re worried about the actual oven (which you can’t soak in the tub), I’ve found that the greenest cleaner that makes it easy to clean an oven is Simple Green. As far as green cleaners go, it isn’t perfect, but it’s way better than any ‘oven cleaner’ on the market. If you don’t want to buy a big bottle of it look for it in the ‘travel size’ department of your supermarket. I keep a small bottle on hand just for my oven.

I hope this helps!

Comments(6) Cleaning tips, Health, Kitchen

Comments

By Roger Hamilton on October 24th, 2008 at 11:54 am

Wow great post! It will definitely help me a lot . Thanks for the useful information. Hope to see your new posts soon.

By Dennis on October 24th, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Actually, Simple Green is great for cleaning ovens and other greasy/grimy/dirty messes. And it is better for the environment than most other products you can use – both non-toxic and biodegradable, it is considered a mild eye irritant in its concentrated form. Buy in large bottles and dilute for customized cleaning all over your home!

By mudlark on October 24th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Ah, “Dennis,” the game would have been more interesting if you’d commented from a remote site instead of your computer on the Simple Green network… Check out the link in the post as to why we consider Simple Green an ‘imperfect’ green product. Yes, it’s leaps and bounds better than Easy Off or any other oven cleaner on the market, but I have a problem with the 2-butoxyethanol issue. Thanks for your participation here though – that’s what makes this a fun dialogue!

By Bowtrol Reviews on October 29th, 2008 at 7:40 am

Thanks for this useful information, I think it will help women to do this hard work, because for me it is always very hard to clean oven. Once I used vinegar and baking soda, but the results were not so good. So thanks for helpful advice.

By Pete Loans on November 11th, 2009 at 11:24 am

Great post! Very informative.. I have learned something from here. Thanks for posting!

By Adam Cleaner on January 6th, 2010 at 5:20 pm

try astonish oven and fryer cleaner. seriously it’s the best thing for cleaning ovens, paired together with a decent steel scouere it’ll get most things off. even better it’s eco friendly, just how i like it