Baking Power orBicarbonate of Soda?

Got the following email not too
long ago asking about the difference
between baking powder and
bicarbonate of soda:

Hello Ed

I am very interested in using
your unique method of oven cleaning.

I have a problem though we (here in
England) have baking powder
or bicarbonate of soda and I
am unsure which one I should be using.

Could you advise please.

Regards

C. Day

Baking soda and bicarbonate of soda are
the same thing. Use baking soda.

Do not use baking powder. While baking
powder often contains baking soda, it also
contains other ingredients.

For best results, use baking soda only.

Ed Abbott

Can Baking SodaBe Used Ona Self-Cleaning Oven?

Lately, I've been getting email from people
who have self-cleaning oven. It has slowly
dawned on me that these ovens have a different
interior surface that needs to be treated with
care.

Put the wrong chemicals on the interior surfaces
of your self-cleaning oven and you damage it.
This is what I'm hearing over and over again.

This begs the question: Can a self-cleaning oven
be damaged by baking soda? Is it safe to use
baking soda on a self-cleaning oven?

This web page seems to think it is OK. It mentions
making a paste with baking soda in it to clean your
oven:

Self Cleaning Oven Repair and Care

Here's another web page that seems to think it
is OK to use baking soda on a self-cleaning
oven:

How to Manually Clean an Electric Self Cleaning Oven

This web page seems to strongly favor baking
soda as a cleaning agent for a self-cleaning
oven:

Self Cleaning Ovens – Toxic For Humans or Only Birds?

I'll be looking at other sources to see if they
agree. I'm not an oven cleaning expert myself so
I depend on outside sources for better information
than I can provide.

Update: June 7, 2013:

Most oven manufacturers provide you with an 800 number
you can call for consumer level information. I'd call
them and ask whether or not you should use baking soda
on your oven.

Oven technology, like all technology these days, changes
so quickly that I'd be reluctant to make a definite
recommendation as to whether or not baking soda is appropriate
for your brand new oven.

Ed Abbott

Two Kinds of Self-Cleaning Oven

I received the following email yesterday:

I used a conventional oven cleaner
on a self cleaning oven.  What damage
did I do and what should I do about
it?  Do I need a new oven?  Replace
the inside racks?  Other.....?

I don't really have an answer to this
question. I'm starting to realize that
self-cleaning ovens are more complicated
than I thought they were.

I always thought that a self-cleaning oven
worked by generating a high temperature. End
of story.

Now I'm starting to understand differently. I'm
starting to understand that the interior of a
self-cleaning oven can have a special surface
that must be treated with care. See the owner's
manual that came with your oven for cleaning
instructions.

Today I've been reading about two kinds of
self-cleaning oven:

• catalytic self-cleaning systems
• Pyrolytic self-cleaning units

I read about these two kinds of self-cleaning
oven here after scrolling down:

Self-Cleaning Ovens

Perhaps this information will help the
person above who wrote in. I'm not sure.
I'm not an expert on ovens and oven technology.

Ed Abbott

Aluminum FoilStuck to Bottom of Oven

 
Just got the following email:

I have aluminum foil stuck to the
bottom of the oven. It almost looks
like it has melted there. Do you
have any suggestions as to how to
remove it?

I've heard this one before. Others
have written to me with the same
problem.

It seems that aluminum melts around
1200 or 1300 degrees Fahrenheit. That's
a fairly low melting temperature.

However, that may not be low enough to
melt ordinary aluminum foil in an oven.

Here's a web page that suggests there
may be something new called non-stick
foil that melts at a much lower
temperature:

Melted Aluminum Foil
 
This is something that is new to me.
Therefore, I do not know what to suggest.

Anyone have any ideas?

Ed

Can You Cook With the OvenBetween Spraysof the Oven Cleaning Solution?

 
Just got an email from someone
who read the oven cleaning article
I wrote. Here's the email:

I like your recommendation for cleaning
the oven; mine is extremely dirty  
with baked on grease and other stuff.  
My question is:  can I actually  cook
in the oven between sprays?  I like
the idea that it's not toxic and and I'm
eager to try this process.  Thank you.

Baking soda is quite safe. It does not
emit fumes or anything like that in my
experience.

The only problem comes when you spray
it on to a hot oven surface. You should
never do that. If you do, water turns
to steam and the baking soda goes airborne
to some degree. This has been my experience
in the past.

Taking baking soda internally does not seem
to be a problem. I've known people who have
taken it in quantity to reduce stomach acidity.
Not that I'm recommending this. I'm just saying
that if a little gets in your food it is no big
deal.

In the past, people have also used baking soda
to brush their teeth. Again, not a recommendation,
just a fact.

Currently there are toothpaste products on the
market that contain baking soda. Also, baking
soda is an ingredient is some baking powders
that go into cakes and cornbread recipes. If
you can bake with it, surely you can put it on
the walls of your oven safely and not worry about
it getting into your food.

You should be quite safe if you cook with the
oven between sprays. Just be careful that you
spray when the oven is completely and totally
cooled off.

Ed Abbott

Cloudy Film on Oven WallsAfter Oven Cleaning

 
Just received this email:

Help! A housesitter was doing some
home sitting for us while we were
out of town.  She had used our oven,
made a mess and wanted to take care of
it.  

She said she cleans hers by spraying
commercial oven cleaner on, THEN
turning on the self cleaning cycle and
it works like a charm.  Well, my oven
doesn't look so charming anymore. I
believe the self cleaning baked the
commercial oven cleaner into the
walls of my oven and now has a cloudy
film over everything.

After she left I tried using the commercial
oven cleaner the way the directions said
and its not getting any better.  We even
left it over night.  I tried vinegar and
water, baking soda and nothing is getting
the cloudy mess off.  I'm not sure if the
self cleaning would make the fogginess
worse or better, so I haven't tried
that yet.  Any ideas on what to do??

Thanks for your time,

Here's some information from the Easy Off
Oven Cleaning website. Note that they say
avoid using their Heavy Duty Oven
Cleaner on self-cleaning ovens:


Can EASY-OFF® Heavy Duty Oven Cleaner be
used on continuous or self-cleaning ovens?

Note that they also have a product that
they say is safe for self-cleaning ovens:

EASY-OFF® Fume Free Oven Cleaner

Could this product help you? I have no
idea.

Here's their Contact Us page:

Easy Off Contact Us

If it were me, I'd call their 800 number.
I'd ask if they have a product that will
work in this situation.

Best Wishes!

Ed Abbott

Oven CleaningProducts and Services

 
Occasionally someone will write me
telling me about their oven cleaning
service or product. It's a big world.

Being a big world, I've decided to create
a post where these people can advertise
their product or service as desired. Some
of these products and services represent
important alternatives to what is available
elsewhere.

Please post your oven cleaning product or
service as a comment to this post. It will
not be considered spam.

Note that I'm limiting this kind of comment
to this one post. I prefer that you not offer
your oven cleaning product or service as an addendum
to other posts unless it is somehow relevant. As
post moderator, I'll be the judge of relevance. My
standards are high.

I appreciate that you have a product or service
that you are offering to the world. Please leave
a message at the end of this post if you would like
others to know about your product or service.

Ed Abbott

Why Is There Streakingin My Oven Door Glass?

 
I received the following email
this week:

Hello

I love and have used your bicarbonate
of soda and water oven cleaning  
method.  Totally eco and very easy.

However ..... I now have on the glass
parts of my oven doors some  streaky
marks that look as though they are
internal bicarbonate of soda marks -
they are streaked from the top of the
glass on the oven to the bottom and
are spread across the oven door.

Could you let me know the best way to
deal with this if possible?

ANY advice would be great, as I don't
know how to deal with this.   They are
ugly great streaks of what looks like
dried on baking soda running across
the internal glass.  Visible from
the outside of the oven and inside
of the oven

Kind regards

Mary

Hi Mary,

Thanks for your vivid description
of the streaks of baking soda. It
sounds to me like your oven door has
two layers of glass. In other words,
it sounds like it is double-insulated.

I don't know this. However, using more
than one layer of glass is a common heat-
saving strategy when building houses. Each
extra layer of glass provides just a little
bit more thermal insulation than one layer
alone would provide.

Since modern ovens often have glass doors,
it would make total sense to me that the
manufacturers of ovens employ the same
strategy as manufactures of windows do.
That is to say, they use more than one
layer of glass to trap the heat inside
the oven.

I'm not an expert. However, this makes
sense to me. Layering the glass will
help keep the heat inside the oven and
help keep the glass cool and touchable
on the outside surface the oven door.

It sounds like you sprayed your oven
door and somehow the solution got between
the layers of glass. Again, I'm speculating.

Apparently you are not the first person
to have this problem. Here's what Whirlpool
says on their website:

Why is there streaking in my oven door glass?

The answer that Whirlpool gives seems to indicate
that it is the top of the oven door that is the
problem. They seem to be saying that care must
be used when cleaning the top part of the door.

I've just left my desk to check on our oven. I
was remembering that the top of the door on our
oven has vents.

I'm back in my chair and indeed, our oven does
have vents running across the entire top part of
the door. I suspect that these vents are the
problem. Getting water into these vents is a problem.

Our oven door is a door with a glass window and
it has vents on the top surface of the door. The
vents seem to vent air out of the top part of the
door just above the oven-door handle.

I suspect that this is the problem. These vents
are probably where the water solution entered
your oven door. Do you have vents on top of your
oven door too?

Whirlpool seems to be saying that the only solution
to the problem is to disassemble the door. Another
thing I notice about our oven is that we have philips-
type screws on the top of our door --- so it would seem
that this is possible.

Of course, dissassembling an oven door is not for the
faint of heart. Wisely, Whirlpool recommends that a
qualified person do this.

By the way, our oven also has some streaking between
the leyers of glass. However, it is not baking soda
as we now have a self-cleaning oven and have never
used baking soda to clean it. The streaking I see
is black and looks like some kind of carbon.

I live in a different house now under entirely different
circumstances then when I used baking soda to clean
my oven. I was in California when I cleaned my oven
using baking soda. I'm now back in the state where
I was born and grew up, which is Maine. Again, our oven
in Maine is self-cleaning, unlike the one in California.

I think it is worth noting that baking soda is not the
only source of this kind of streaking. Our oven door
glass is streaked with a black substance. I'm sure
other solutions can also streak the oven door between
glass layers too.

I'm thinking of rewriting the article and suggesting
that people not spray the vents at the top of their
oven doors with the spray bottle. What do you think?
This seems like common sense to me.

This is the first I've heard of this problem. Streaked
glass is something that never occurred to me. When I first
read your email, I was a bit confused. I was thinking,
How is this possible?

Please don't hesitate to post or write back, especially
if you find a solution to your problem.

Ed Abbott

Do You Spraythe Heating Element?

 
Just got the following question
via Email:

Do you spray it on the heating element also??

Certainly you do not try to spray
the heating element. There is no
need to spray the heating element
because any food that gets on the
heating element is going to be burned
up, carbon and all.

Typically, there is not any carbon
residue left on the heating element
after the oven has been turned on.

However, I know of no way to avoid
spraying baking soda on the heating
element. It is unavoidable.

So, I would not try to get baking soda
on the heating element but I would
not worry about it either.

Keep in mind that this is true of any
and all spray-on oven cleaning solutions.
All spray-on cleaning solutions are going
to get spray on the heating element. It
is unavoidable.

Also keep in mind that baking soda does
not burn. Baking soda is an ingredient
in some dry chemical fire extinguishers.
I'm not an expert but to the best of my
knowledge, baking soda does not cause
fires. If anything, it puts a fire out.

Ed Abbott

Chop Stick ClearsOven Cleaning Spray Bottle

 
Just received a suggestion for
clearing a clogged spray bottle.
Here's the email I received:

If the baking soda gets stuck
in the funnel, OR it clogs at
the bottom of the spray bottle
after shaking it. USE A
CHOPSTICK.

It will clear the funnel nicely,
and you can stir the clogged soda
at the bottom of your spray bottle
after shaking, later..

D. M.
Courtenay, BC, Canada

Ed Abbott

Is It OK to Turn the Oven On?

 
Just got an email from a lady who
wants to know if it is OK to turn
the oven on.

She asks:

One question:  I understand not
to start with a hot oven when spraying
the baking soda mixture in there, but
can you please clarify if it is okay to
heat the oven right after or while the
mixture is still wet in there?  I
don't want to blow up the kitchen.  ;)  

Thanks.

You should be able to turn the oven
on safely. That is my supposition as
well as my experience.

Baking soda is often baked into food,
so it should be safe to consume should
some of it get into your food.

Also, baking soda is an ingredient in
fire extinguishers that acts as a fire
suppresent. So, the baking soda should
not burn.

In general, baking soda is not something
that would explode either.

In short, baking soda does not burn or
explode. That's my understanding.

When I used baking soda to clean my oven,
I turned it on and did not have a problem.

It doesn't burn or explode or get hard
or anything like that. The only thing
that happens is the heat causes it to
dry out.

Note that I am a layperson, not a chemist
or an expert in fire fighting. I'm certainly
not a baking soda expert.

However, my common sense tells me that
turning on an oven that has baking soda
in it should be OK.

After all, each time you bake corn bread
that has baking soda in it, you are doing
something that is considered safe.

So why wouldn't a hot oven be able to
accommodate a little baking soda?

Ed Abbott

Cleaning Oven in a Commercial Environment

 
Here's an email from someone
asking about oven cleaning in
a commercial environment:

Ed,

We  are a cleaning  service.
Just a got a contract  with  
a school  cafe.

Want to  leave  as  little carbon  
foot  print  as  possible .  But  
need to  quick  clean .  Leaving  
the  Baking  solution on  is  not  
an opportunity .  Is  there one?

Thank you in  advance  for  for
help with this.

Good Cleaning,

I don't have any good ideas for
this person. Does anyone else?

Ed Abbott

Ratio of Baking Soda to Water

 
OK. Just got another email:

Hi Ed,

I read your article Eight Easy
Steps to a Clean Oven and am
anxious to try this process.  However,
I'm not sure what size spray bottle
to use.  

The article mentions using 3 heaping
teaspoons of baking soda, but I didn't
see any reference to the amount of water
to add.


Thanks.

Here's my reply to the above question:

I don't have a precise memory of how
much baking soda I added to the water.

It has been years since I did this.

A safe starting place would be one level
teaspoon per cup of water.

Seems to me I added more than this but
this will give you a very conservative
place to start.

As I recall, the extra baking soda will
tend to settle at the bottom of the bottle.

Therefore, a little extra probably does no
harm as long as it is not too much extra
and as long as it does not clog the bottle.

At this point in time, it has been about
10 years since I actually cleaned my oven
this way.

So, my memory, at this point, may not be
perfect.

Ed Abbott

Do YouTurn the Oven OnFor the Baking Sodato Work?

 
Just got the following question:

You say to Start with a cold
oven.  So, do you turn the oven
on for the baking soda to work??
You do not mention turning the
oven on.

No need to turn the oven on. No
need to keep it off.

Just use your oven as desired and
let the baking soda work.

See this post for more of the same:

Turn On Oven?

Ed Abbott

Cleaning Pots and Pans With Baking Soda

 
OK. Just burned dinner last night.
I burned red beet bulbs on to the
bottom of the pan.

I was watching TV and not paying
attention. That's an old story.

The new story is that baking soda
works great to clean the black stuff
that adheres to the pan.

I really did a good job of burning
the black stuff on this time. The
black stuff is carbon.

Anytime you have food that is burned
on to the side of the pan, it is called
carbon. This is especially true if it
is black.

How did I get it off?

I followed these steps:

1. I put some baking soda in the bottom
   of the pan.
2. I wet the baking soda just a little bit,
   just enough to make it a little bit sticky.
3. I finger-painted the baking soda on to the
   black stuff.
4. I let it sit like this for a few hours. Overnight
   is probably a good idea.
5. While I let it sit, I kept the top on the
   pan so that the little bit of water I put in there
   did not evaporate too quickly.
6. I tested the pan for readiness by finger-painting
   the baking soda again. If the black carbon rubs off
   on it's own, the pan is probably ready for scrubbing.
7. I then rinsed the pan. In my case, it came out clean.
8. Had the pan not come clean, I would have
   repeated the above steps. Sometimes you have
   to do this if the black burned-on carbon is too
   thick and has too many layers.

Here are tips that will help you be successful:

1. Be sure to give it enough time. It's a chemical
   reaction. Chemical reactions take time.
2. Don't use too much water. Just enough so that
   the baking soda can be finger-painted to the sides
   of the pan. If you use too much water, you dilute
   the effectiveness of the baking soda. At least, that's
   my experience.
3. Don't start scrubbing until at least some
   of the backed-on carbon comes off when you
   finger-paint it with your finger. Why scrub
   if you do not have to?

Hope this helps someone out there.

Ed Abbott

Does the Oven Need to Be Turned On?

 
Just got an email from a woman in
Canada who asks if you need to,
use the oven for the baking soda
solution to work?

By using the oven, I assume she means
turning it on.

No, I don't think it is necessary to
use the oven. Just keep the baking soda
wet. That's the key thing.

In other words, heat is not necessary.
Just moisture.

Whether or not heat helps, I don't know.
It might, as some chemical reactions speed
up in the presence of heat.

Baking soda taking the black stuff off of
oven surfaces has to be a chemical reaction
of some kind. That's my assumption.

To summarize: Turning the oven on is not
necessary. Whether or not it helps give a
faster result, I'm not sure.

Ed Abbott

Choosing A Spray Bottle to Clean Your Oven

 

OK. Just got the following email:

Good morning Ed

Belfast Northern Ireland calling - was
so excited to try your eco friendly oven
cleaning  method ie; with bicarboninate
of soda -  but the stuff won't spray out
of the bottle.  What am I doing wrong,
do I add hot water to the bicarbon soda
or cold?  I don't want to waste any more
as i've already used a whole pkt; with
cold water with no success.  HELP! please.

Yours sincerely  

Here's how I replied:

Hello,

This is a common problem.  Clogged spray
bottles are a common problem.

Here's the solution that I've found and that
others have found.

Be sure to buy your spray bottle empty rather
than using a spray bottle that is pre-filled.  Seems
that prefilled spray bottles are very application
specific and therefore cause problems.

For example, some pre-filled spray bottles are
pre-filled with a window cleaning solution.  These
bottles are a problem.

Since they are not designed to accommodate baking
soda, they will not accommodate baking soda.  Thus
the bottle clogs.

The bottles I bought were general purpose spray bottles.
The nozzles were adjustable and you could put all kinds
of things through the nozzle.

The nozzle could be set to produce a fine mist or
it could be set (with a twist of the ring on the
tip of the sprayer) to produce a stream of water
that did not mist at all.

In other words, the bottle itself was designed to
accommodate a lot of different situations and a lot
of different spray solutions.

Hope this helps!

Ed Abbott

Does Baking Soda Turn to Lye?

 
OK.  The email that I got below basically
asks the question, "Does baking soda
turn to lye?"

The answer seems to be, "no."

Got an email from the same guy
replying to his own question:

Here is the email reply:

No problem, Ed; I appreciate your reply.
I am certainly not suggesting that it does
produce sodium hydroxide---I don't know.
I was just curious.  There are many other
sites on the web that also recommend
using baking soda as a paste in a cool oven.
My only point of doubt is what happens
when you heat it up.  Took too much chemistry,
I guess (which was not very much).

In fact, this post
(post asks about a cheap way to make lye)
makes it clear there is no danger.

Regards,

Ed Abbott

Cleaning Your Oven With Baking Soda

 
This is my first post on a new
blog. This blog is all about oven
cleaning and baking soda.

Baking soda can be used to clean
an oven.

Just got an email from a man who
read this article on my website:

Eight Easy Steps to a Clean Oven

He wrote the following:

Interested in your web post as
a potential help to me.

But I've read that NaOH should never
be used in oven cleaning (even though
it's in many products) because it is
too abrasive and too toxic
(super-strong alkaline).

The baking soda does not turn into NaOH,
then, with high temps, water, salt, and
everything else that might be in there?

Thanks.

The NaOH that he refers to in his email is
also called Sodium Hydroxide or lye.

I remember lye used to be sold as a product
called Red Devil. I suspect that
Red Devil is no longer on the market.

It was a product that would produce a chemical
reaction that would create pressure enough
to clear a blocked drain.

It did this by producing heat and pressure,
as I recall.

I've purchased and used this product before
but doubt it is still available. I've not
seen it on supermarket shelves in years.

In any case, the above email indicates his
concern that baking soda might turn into lye
under the right conditions.

My instinct is that this is not very likely
but if anyone out there begs to differ, please
post your reply here.

Thanks!

Ed Abbott