I got an email from a man not too long ago
who stated that he had a big problem with
carbon build-up on the bottom of his oven.
His solution? Make a paste out of the baking
soda, and put it soaking wet on the bottom
of his oven for one hour.
One hour is not nearly enough! The baking
soda method of cleaning your oven works very
very slowly!
In addition to soaking with baking soda for
one hour, he went to the hardware section of
a store and bought some kind of paint scrapper
to get the black stuff off.
He said it worked and I suppose it would. Since
baking soda is a mild abrasive, using baking soda
with a paint scrapper might work.
For many different reason, I would be totally
unwilling to use a paint scraper on my oven. For
one thing, it could harm the oven surface. For
another thing, it is total overkill.
I wrote back to the man and suggested that soaking
the bottom of the oven with baking soda paste over
a 3-day period might make more sense. I suggested
that he re-wet the paste each and every day.
While 3 days is good, a week might be even better.
In any case, you are really not done soaking the
baking soda with water from a spray bottle until
the black carbon stuff wipes off easily with a cloth.
If it doesn't wipe off easily, you are not done yet.
That's my personal experience. Other people have
experienced the same thing.
Commercial oven cleaning solutions exist for a reason.
If you cannot wait a few days for your oven to be clean,
the best solution is probably to use commercial oven
cleaner.
Sometimes, when you are moving out of an apartment, you
do not have a few days to clean your oven. In that case,
commercial oven cleaner may be your best bet.
Every problem has an ideal solution. Baking soda is not
the ideal way to clean your oven if you only have 24 hours
before the job has to be done.
Ed Abbott
Friday, March 23, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Cleaning Oven Vents With Ammonia?
A woman wrote to me today about
her oven vents being dirty:
I'm going to suggest something I've not tried
myself: ammonia and water.
In browsing the web, I find several sites recommend
ammonia as a natural degreaser. It seems that ammonia
cuts grease.
My best understanding is that both ammonia and water
evaporate. I'm going to speculate that that is why
ammonia and water are frequently used to clean glass.
Glass is not really clean if there is any cleaning
residue left.
Since ammonia and water eventually evaporate into the air,
I'm guessing that this is why ammonia and water make a
good combination for cleaning glass. Since the cleaner
itself evaporates, there is nothing left to stick to your
glass and streak your glass.
The reason I'm leaning towards ammonia and water is
because the person who wrote to me describes their
oven vents as being greasy and sticky. It
sounds to me like her problem is largely a problem
of grease accumulation.
If this were my problem, I might gather the following
things to clean the vents:
I would wait until I've used up a bottle of
dish soap. I would then save the empty
bottle.
I would then put on my gloves and take the
empty bottle and pour ammonia into it. I
might only fill the bottle half full in
order to make it easy to work with.
I would then pour small amounts of ammonia on
my sponge and start cleaning the grease around
my oven vents. I would be careful not to do this
to a gas oven (natural gas, for example) as ammonia
can be explosive if it is heated to too high a
termperature.
I suppose I might feel at liberty to try cleaning
with ammonia if the oven's pilot light were off.
However, if I was not absolutely certain it was
off, I'd probably be better off skipping the use
of ammonia altogether.
In any case, I'd use as little ammonia as possible
to clean the vents. I'd probably make frequent trips
to the kitchen sink to wring out the sponge and get
the grease out of it.
The whole strategy here is to clean around the vents
without allowing foreign materials to enter the
vents. Since both ammonia and water are said to
evaporate, having a little bit of ammonia and water
enter the vents might not be as disastrous as having
other substances, including baking soda, enter the
vents.
A special concern I have with oven vents is that
they can be the gateway to the air layer that
sometimes lies between two layers of oven glass.
You don't want to clean your vents only to see
streaking on the inside layer of your oven glass.
The inside layer of oven glass is unreachable
from both the interior of the oven and the
exterior of the oven. The last thing you
want to do is to preserve streaks of cleaning
fluid forever between layers of glass.
All of this is speculation on my part. I've
not personally ever tried to clean my oven using
ammonia.
I would think you'd want to be especially cautious
if you have a breathing condition, such as asthma.
I've read that ammonia is quite irritating to both
the eyes and to the lungs. It is for this reason
that I'm suggesting that you use as little ammonia
as possible.
That, in part, is why I'm suggesting using an empty
dish soap bottle. Just as you use a dish soap bottle
to control how much dish soap you use, so you can use
it to control how much ammonia you use.
One more note of caution. Never mix ammonia and chlorine
together. If I understand correctly, the two together
form chlorine gas.
When I was in high school, my friend Charlie did this very
thing. He was mopping the kitchen floor at the restaurant
where he worked. He wanted to improve the ammonia formula
that he was using by also adding chlorine to his mop bucket.
If I recall right, his boss stopped him from doing this just
in the nick of time. Charlie telling me this story in high
school was the first time I learned that ammonia and chlorine
together form chlorine gas --- the stuff used to kill soldiers
in the trenches in World War I.
So don't do that. Don't try to improve your cleaning formula
with chlorine.
All of the above is pure speculation on my part. In searching
the Internet for solutions, I found no solution that addressed
oven vents only. It seems that oven vents are a very special
problem.
I would be disinclined to use baking soda on or around oven
vents. There is a danger of getting baking soda between layers
of oven glass. After this happens, it seems the only solution
is to disassemble the entire oven door to clean between the
two layers of glass.
Please be cautious if you try any of the above suggestions. This
is all uncharted territory for me. There's a big difference between
trying something that has never been tried before and trying something
that is tried and true. Consider the above suggestions as suggestions
only and as something that has not been tried before.
Ed Abbott
her oven vents being dirty:
Ed,
I thank you for the awesome advice on cleaning
the inside of my oven with baking soda. I hate
the toxic fumes that are left behind from store
bought cleaners.
I do have another problem, though. The vent holes
at the top of the door on my double oven are an
unsightly mess. I have tried toothpicks and
tweezers to remove the residue, but most of the
accumulation is greasy and sticky.
Any suggestions on what I can do to clean this
area?
Ruth
I'm going to suggest something I've not tried
myself: ammonia and water.
In browsing the web, I find several sites recommend
ammonia as a natural degreaser. It seems that ammonia
cuts grease.
My best understanding is that both ammonia and water
evaporate. I'm going to speculate that that is why
ammonia and water are frequently used to clean glass.
Glass is not really clean if there is any cleaning
residue left.
Since ammonia and water eventually evaporate into the air,
I'm guessing that this is why ammonia and water make a
good combination for cleaning glass. Since the cleaner
itself evaporates, there is nothing left to stick to your
glass and streak your glass.
The reason I'm leaning towards ammonia and water is
because the person who wrote to me describes their
oven vents as being greasy and sticky. It
sounds to me like her problem is largely a problem
of grease accumulation.
If this were my problem, I might gather the following
things to clean the vents:
- Gloves to protect my hands
- Ammonia purchased at the grocery store
- An empty dish soap bottle
- A cleaning sponge
I would wait until I've used up a bottle of
dish soap. I would then save the empty
bottle.
I would then put on my gloves and take the
empty bottle and pour ammonia into it. I
might only fill the bottle half full in
order to make it easy to work with.
I would then pour small amounts of ammonia on
my sponge and start cleaning the grease around
my oven vents. I would be careful not to do this
to a gas oven (natural gas, for example) as ammonia
can be explosive if it is heated to too high a
termperature.
I suppose I might feel at liberty to try cleaning
with ammonia if the oven's pilot light were off.
However, if I was not absolutely certain it was
off, I'd probably be better off skipping the use
of ammonia altogether.
In any case, I'd use as little ammonia as possible
to clean the vents. I'd probably make frequent trips
to the kitchen sink to wring out the sponge and get
the grease out of it.
The whole strategy here is to clean around the vents
without allowing foreign materials to enter the
vents. Since both ammonia and water are said to
evaporate, having a little bit of ammonia and water
enter the vents might not be as disastrous as having
other substances, including baking soda, enter the
vents.
A special concern I have with oven vents is that
they can be the gateway to the air layer that
sometimes lies between two layers of oven glass.
You don't want to clean your vents only to see
streaking on the inside layer of your oven glass.
The inside layer of oven glass is unreachable
from both the interior of the oven and the
exterior of the oven. The last thing you
want to do is to preserve streaks of cleaning
fluid forever between layers of glass.
All of this is speculation on my part. I've
not personally ever tried to clean my oven using
ammonia.
I would think you'd want to be especially cautious
if you have a breathing condition, such as asthma.
I've read that ammonia is quite irritating to both
the eyes and to the lungs. It is for this reason
that I'm suggesting that you use as little ammonia
as possible.
That, in part, is why I'm suggesting using an empty
dish soap bottle. Just as you use a dish soap bottle
to control how much dish soap you use, so you can use
it to control how much ammonia you use.
One more note of caution. Never mix ammonia and chlorine
together. If I understand correctly, the two together
form chlorine gas.
When I was in high school, my friend Charlie did this very
thing. He was mopping the kitchen floor at the restaurant
where he worked. He wanted to improve the ammonia formula
that he was using by also adding chlorine to his mop bucket.
If I recall right, his boss stopped him from doing this just
in the nick of time. Charlie telling me this story in high
school was the first time I learned that ammonia and chlorine
together form chlorine gas --- the stuff used to kill soldiers
in the trenches in World War I.
So don't do that. Don't try to improve your cleaning formula
with chlorine.
All of the above is pure speculation on my part. In searching
the Internet for solutions, I found no solution that addressed
oven vents only. It seems that oven vents are a very special
problem.
I would be disinclined to use baking soda on or around oven
vents. There is a danger of getting baking soda between layers
of oven glass. After this happens, it seems the only solution
is to disassemble the entire oven door to clean between the
two layers of glass.
Please be cautious if you try any of the above suggestions. This
is all uncharted territory for me. There's a big difference between
trying something that has never been tried before and trying something
that is tried and true. Consider the above suggestions as suggestions
only and as something that has not been tried before.
Ed Abbott
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Is Baking Soda
the Same Thing
as Baking Powder?
Baking Soda is NOT baking powder. Do
NOT try to clean your oven with baking
powder!
Yesterday, a woman sent me an email that
tells her tale of woe of mistakenly using
baking powder instead of baking soda:
Here's how Wikipedia describes baking powder:
Baking Powder
According to Wikipedia, baking soda is definitely not baking
powder. Instead, baking soda is an ingredient of baking powder.
The above article seems to say that baking powder generally consists
of 3 things:
For the purposes of this discussion, an inert substance
is a substance that doesn't do anything but act as a
filler. The article mentions corn starch as a possible
filler.
I'm going to guess that the starchy filler is what can
get you into trouble. Starch is mostly carbon I'm
going to guess. After all, starch is a carbohydrate.
The very name, carbohydrate, implies carbon.
Therefore, if you try to use baking powder, instead of
baking soda, to clean your oven, you end up baking carbon
on to the sides and floor of your oven instead. This is
what I"m guessing happened to the woman who wrote the above
email. She ended up baking starch on to the walls of her
oven.
All of this is pure guesswork on my part. I've never made
the mistake of trying to clean an oven with baking powder,
so I don't know for sure.
I'll further guess that the problem can be solved by going
back to using baking soda (not baking powder!) as the cleaning
agent. Since it may be carbon that has baked on to the sides
of her oven, baking soda may solve the problem.
Again, this is all guesswork on my part. However, if this were
my problem, I'd probably try baking soda first.
Ed Abbott
NOT try to clean your oven with baking
powder!
Yesterday, a woman sent me an email that
tells her tale of woe of mistakenly using
baking powder instead of baking soda:
Hi,
Have been reading your ideas and dashed off to
sort oven. Made a big mistake as used baking
powder, not soda.
Worse, made a paste as had not yet got the bottle!
Now have stinky oven with brown powder-paste!
I now have the bottle and the soda. Will it get
rid of the stinky smell and the paste and carbon?
Look forward to your ideas!
Best wishes,
Sue
Here's how Wikipedia describes baking powder:
Baking Powder
According to Wikipedia, baking soda is definitely not baking
powder. Instead, baking soda is an ingredient of baking powder.
The above article seems to say that baking powder generally consists
of 3 things:
- baking soda
- an acid
- an inert starch
For the purposes of this discussion, an inert substance
is a substance that doesn't do anything but act as a
filler. The article mentions corn starch as a possible
filler.
I'm going to guess that the starchy filler is what can
get you into trouble. Starch is mostly carbon I'm
going to guess. After all, starch is a carbohydrate.
The very name, carbohydrate, implies carbon.
Therefore, if you try to use baking powder, instead of
baking soda, to clean your oven, you end up baking carbon
on to the sides and floor of your oven instead. This is
what I"m guessing happened to the woman who wrote the above
email. She ended up baking starch on to the walls of her
oven.
All of this is pure guesswork on my part. I've never made
the mistake of trying to clean an oven with baking powder,
so I don't know for sure.
I'll further guess that the problem can be solved by going
back to using baking soda (not baking powder!) as the cleaning
agent. Since it may be carbon that has baked on to the sides
of her oven, baking soda may solve the problem.
Again, this is all guesswork on my part. However, if this were
my problem, I'd probably try baking soda first.
Ed Abbott
Monday, January 30, 2012
How Long
Does It Take
to Clean Your Oven
With Baking Soda?
Just got the following email:
I'll start with the easy question first. How often do
you spray? The answer is as often as you like.
That's the beauty of this cleaning technique. When I
did it, I sprayed the oven each time I walked by it and
happened to think of it.
I'd say once a day should be sufficient. Twice a day is
even better.
How long does it take? About a week. Of course, that all
depends on how wet you keep the baking soda.
Let's say you managed to keep the baking soda wet for 4 hours
a day, after which it dried out. At the end of the week you
would have kept it wet 7 X 4 = 28 hours.
That's 28 hours of chemical reaction causing the hard carbon
material to soften up and turn to dust. That's literally what
happens. You'll see tiny black flecks of carbon hidden inside
the baking soda, if you have really good eyesight and you check
very carefully. You'll find little tiny bits of black buried in
all that white stuff if you look carefully.
Here's the key thing. You are making no progress whatsoever
unless the baking soda is wet. Dry baking soda does not react
with the black carbon at all. The only time you are getting a
chemical reaction is when the baking soda is at least a little
bit wet.
That's OK. With this technique, you make progress in fits
and starts. You start to make progress each time you wet the
baking soda with the spray bottle and you stop making progress
when the baking soda is entirely dried out.
Over time, the little slices of time that you've spent spraying
the inside of your oven start to accummulate. Not only that, but
black carbon dust (well hidden inside the baking soda) starts to
accumulate at the bottom of your oven too.
Again, a week is a good rule of thumb, assuming you work at this
a little bit each day. After a week, you should have made substantial
progress. If anything remains at all, it will be some very very stubborn
spots that you can work on using the same technique all over again.
Eventually, this technique causes all carbon deposits to fall and
crumble --- literally.
As for when to know you are done spraying, try wiping off a
sample spot. If it comes clean, you are getting very close
to being done.
If it doesn't come clean, don't give in to compulsion and start
scrubbing. You don't need to do that. When I say that the black
stuff wipes off, I literally mean it wipes off. It wipes off with
a few swipes of a damp cloth and nothing more. Anything that requires
more work than this means you are not done yet.
As for microwave ovens, I'm hesitant to say anything as I've never
ever tried this technique on a microwave. More and more, I'm
finding that oven technology is changing, and that the words I wrote
10 years ago may no longer apply in quite the same way.
For example, some ovens now have some kind of high tech coating on
the interior surface. I've written about this here:
Two Kinds of Self-Cleaning Oven
In general, I'd be very cautious about dripping water in places in
an oven where water might not be welcome. For example, oven doors
can have vents in them. You don't want to drip water into these
vents. I've written about this here:
Why Is There Streaking
in My Oven Door Glass?
In general, I'd avoid electrically sensitive areas such as oven
light bulbs when spraying a solution in your oven. If you do
get a little water on the light bulb, you may want to wait until
this water dries before risking getting any more water on the bulb.
Water and electricity mix very poorly. I never turned off
the circuit breaker for the oven when I used this technique
10 years ago.
I might do so today. Turning off the circuit breaker is not
a bad idea. Everything is so much more complex these days
that I'm not precisely sure what I'd do other than to exercise
due caution.
Whatever I did, I'd be sure to avoid dripping water into unseen
places and also avoid dripping it on electrical contacts such
as light bulbs.
The one exception to this is the heating elements. I felt
comfortable spraying my heating elements as long as I avoided
spraying the electrical connection where the heating element
plugs into the back oven wall. Again, a little common sense
goes a long way.
Ed Abbott
Hi Ed!
How often and for how long would one need to spray
the baking soda/water mixture on? How do you know
when you're ready to wipe all the grime off?
I'm EXTREMELY pumped to try this. I hate the thought
of cleaning the oven --- and so I haven't really --- in
2 years living here. I've done some wiping but no deep
cleaning. I've just found it too daunting and also haven't
wanted to expose myself/baby to the fumes of traditional
oven cleaners.
Also --- any hints for cleaning the microwave? Would the same
principal work?
What about the elements on the top of an older stove?
Thanks!
Emma
I'll start with the easy question first. How often do
you spray? The answer is as often as you like.
That's the beauty of this cleaning technique. When I
did it, I sprayed the oven each time I walked by it and
happened to think of it.
I'd say once a day should be sufficient. Twice a day is
even better.
How long does it take? About a week. Of course, that all
depends on how wet you keep the baking soda.
Let's say you managed to keep the baking soda wet for 4 hours
a day, after which it dried out. At the end of the week you
would have kept it wet 7 X 4 = 28 hours.
That's 28 hours of chemical reaction causing the hard carbon
material to soften up and turn to dust. That's literally what
happens. You'll see tiny black flecks of carbon hidden inside
the baking soda, if you have really good eyesight and you check
very carefully. You'll find little tiny bits of black buried in
all that white stuff if you look carefully.
Here's the key thing. You are making no progress whatsoever
unless the baking soda is wet. Dry baking soda does not react
with the black carbon at all. The only time you are getting a
chemical reaction is when the baking soda is at least a little
bit wet.
That's OK. With this technique, you make progress in fits
and starts. You start to make progress each time you wet the
baking soda with the spray bottle and you stop making progress
when the baking soda is entirely dried out.
Over time, the little slices of time that you've spent spraying
the inside of your oven start to accummulate. Not only that, but
black carbon dust (well hidden inside the baking soda) starts to
accumulate at the bottom of your oven too.
Again, a week is a good rule of thumb, assuming you work at this
a little bit each day. After a week, you should have made substantial
progress. If anything remains at all, it will be some very very stubborn
spots that you can work on using the same technique all over again.
Eventually, this technique causes all carbon deposits to fall and
crumble --- literally.
As for when to know you are done spraying, try wiping off a
sample spot. If it comes clean, you are getting very close
to being done.
If it doesn't come clean, don't give in to compulsion and start
scrubbing. You don't need to do that. When I say that the black
stuff wipes off, I literally mean it wipes off. It wipes off with
a few swipes of a damp cloth and nothing more. Anything that requires
more work than this means you are not done yet.
As for microwave ovens, I'm hesitant to say anything as I've never
ever tried this technique on a microwave. More and more, I'm
finding that oven technology is changing, and that the words I wrote
10 years ago may no longer apply in quite the same way.
For example, some ovens now have some kind of high tech coating on
the interior surface. I've written about this here:
Two Kinds of Self-Cleaning Oven
In general, I'd be very cautious about dripping water in places in
an oven where water might not be welcome. For example, oven doors
can have vents in them. You don't want to drip water into these
vents. I've written about this here:
Why Is There Streaking
in My Oven Door Glass?
In general, I'd avoid electrically sensitive areas such as oven
light bulbs when spraying a solution in your oven. If you do
get a little water on the light bulb, you may want to wait until
this water dries before risking getting any more water on the bulb.
Water and electricity mix very poorly. I never turned off
the circuit breaker for the oven when I used this technique
10 years ago.
I might do so today. Turning off the circuit breaker is not
a bad idea. Everything is so much more complex these days
that I'm not precisely sure what I'd do other than to exercise
due caution.
Whatever I did, I'd be sure to avoid dripping water into unseen
places and also avoid dripping it on electrical contacts such
as light bulbs.
The one exception to this is the heating elements. I felt
comfortable spraying my heating elements as long as I avoided
spraying the electrical connection where the heating element
plugs into the back oven wall. Again, a little common sense
goes a long way.
Ed Abbott
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