Monday, November 29, 2010

Oven Door Vents
Are Behind Handle
and Very Hard to Clean

I received the following email
yesterday:


Obviously the person who designed
my oven door did not have housekeeping
in mind. My oven door has the vents
immediately behind the door handle.

The space is too narrow to clean
with a toothbrush, or any other
type  of brush. I've tried
everything.

I wipe the stove top and oven
face using a glass cleaning product
after each use, even if I just heat
water for instant coffee

The buildup over time drives me nuts.
It takes hours and patience to get
these tiny vents (on a white door) to
look clean.

I will keep this in mind when I purchase
my next appliances, but that will be a
while since the ones I have are in good
condition except for the crap on
the vents that I cannot clean daily.

-- D




Thank you so much for the email. I had
not realized that oven door vents are so
important until recently.

Apparently an oven door needs vents or
these vents would not be there. However,
these vents can be a problem.

One problem that has come up is the
possibility of water getting into these
vents. The water then streaks its way
down the interior surface of the oven
door class. At this point, the oven
door glass becomes impossible to clean
because there is no way to reach between
the layers of glass.

I've never heard of oven door vents being
behind the door handle. I can see where
this would cause cleaning problems.

I can also see why an oven designer might
put the vents there. It makes it harder
for people to spray cleaning solution into
the vents. If no cleaning solution reaches
the vents, no cleaning solution can get
stuck between the layers of oven door
glass.

However, you seem to have discovered a
distinct disadvantage and that is that
the vents are hard to clean around.

Maybe someone will invent the removable
oven door handle. If this were done, the
designer of the oven could still protect
his precious vents from water getting into
them. At the same time, cleaning up around
the vents would be possible.

I'm not sure what the answer is. It sounds
like a typical design problem. Design problems
are often centered around trading one problem
for another.

Life is like that. You trade one thing for
another. As we get older, life becomes a
series of trade-offs. Some of the trade-offs
are not so bad.

Ed Abbott

5 comments:

  1. just linked this article on my facebook account. it’s a very interesting article for all.


    Baking Oven

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have the same on my oven door. Slatted oven vents. I took an old towel cloth and soaked it in hot soapy dish water. Folded it twice over a butter knife and ran that repeatedly along the vents until they were as clean as I could get them. The minuscule grime about the width of a hair can be also cleaned off with one of those little bristle cleaners used to clean icing sugar tips. They look like miniature bottle brush cleaners you can buy in cake decorating supply stores/departments. And I did unscrew my oven door with help - I removed the handle, pulled the top vents off. At this point and extra pair of hands is helpful because the interior side of the door will want to spring back to the oven. It let the glass separate so I could wipe the surfaces down. I needed a pair of hands to hold and support the outer glass door. Once done the two pieces of door need to be held together again while reassembling. Not hard to do. I only undid the screws at the top where the handle was. It was enough. I recommend having someone else to assist with this. Now I know how easy it is my glass door will get cleaned whenever it is dirty.

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  3. Oh yeah, would I ever buy a self cleaning oven again? No. I also have a friend who is a retired repair man. He's seen first hand how often the self cleaning feature can ruin the oven when it burns out - many times on the second use. And now given the cost of hydro I cannot afford to run the self-cleaning feature.

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  4. To the original author. Thanks for nothing. You offered zero solution to cleaning the vents behind the oven handle. Zero Assistance.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My stove has the same problem! NOTHING will fit between door handle and vents. The closest I can get to cleaning them, is a mini nipple brush. I have to bend it to even come close, and even then, you can't get into the corners! I agree with the original comment--- never!! will I buy another stove made like this thing !!

    ReplyDelete