Here's how often you should clean your oven

If baking pasta and cookies are life to you, then your oven does a lot of heavy lifting. Accumulated dirt, sauce splatters, built-up grease, and burnt food in the inner layers affect the taste of the food and your health. You want to have routine maintenance and clean it as necessary. But how often should you clean your oven? Details come next.

Regular cleaning is essential- here’s why!

A dirty oven won’t perform as it should and cause a weird taste to your food. Excess residues built up in the oven make the food less tasteful and your oven will struggle to cook or bake the food to the perfect temperature. When your oven works through grime, grease, and other build-up, it will develop severe problems such as oven failure or grease fire, and its lifespan will shorten.

The frequency of cleaning is important

Professionals recommend oven cleaning at least once every three months. That means you need to soak burners and grates in hot, soapy water before removing debris. Don’t forget to clean the grates as well. You can take out of the oven and soak the grates in a tub filled with dishwasher detergent and boiling water. Let the grates soak for a couple of hours and use a stiff brush to scrub them. Rinse and dry the grates entirely before placing them back in the oven.

Many people switch from chemically-loaded cleaners to natural cleaners, as they don't pose any risk for health and are just as effective as chemical products.

Is it necessary to clean the oven after every use?

You don't need to clean the oven after each use; truth be told, most of us will find it tricky to manage the dirt and grime build-up and postpone the cleaning as much as possible. Some people wait for a couple of years until they clean the built-up grime. We don't recommend you wait for that long; a dirty oven will strive to function and become dirty and smelly. It will also ruin both food and comfort inside the house.

If you like hosting big family dinners in the holiday season, chances are you will do a lot of cooking and baking. You don’t want your guests to open the oven door and notice the unsightly grime collected on the door and everywhere inside the oven. As a result, you should clean the oven as often as possible for aesthetic and hygiene reasons. A clean oven always works better than a dirty one.

If you use the oven regularly, you should deep clean it every month. It’s the best way to keep your oven nice looking, hygienic, and durable. Monthly cleaning helps your oven cook and bake your meals for many years.

Lingering smells, strangely smelling food, and excessive smoking indicate that your oven needs a deep clean. Some recommend cleaning the oven every 12 weeks or whenever you notice smoke or stains of burnt food. The more you use the oven, the more often you should clean it. If you use the oven for cooking for large families, you need to clean it every two weeks.

Are you at the end of the tenancy? If so, we recommend you hire professionals for the perfect deep cleaning of the oven. It's expected that landlords have high standards on clean ovens and you might not be able to reach those demands cleaning the oven on your own. Hiring professionals ensures you will get all the deposit money back.

Use the self-cleaning function of your oven!

You have many ways to clean your oven, and you should choose the method based on your oven’s type. For self-cleaning ovens, you need to stick to the manufacturer’s instructions on cleaning. It’s common for modern models to come with a self-cleaning feature, which spares you the efforts and time for cleaning. Typically, such ovens heat to 800 degrees and turn the burned-on grime into powder ash that you can easily wipe away with a damp cloth.

Even if the self-cleaning feature is great for users as it spares them time and effort, professionals don’t recommend using it too often. The feature is strenuous for the oven, so it should be used accordingly. Clients should use the self-cleaning feature only when the mess inside is mild. If the oven has a lot of built-up residues, the feature could cause a fire.

Steam is excellent for oven cleaning

Some ovens come with the steam-clean option, so it’s easy for users to keep their ovens clean and shiny. Users need to add water for such models and run the steam-clean function to remove the food residue. The water will boil and add moisture to the oven cavity. It will be effortless to wipe away the stuck-on debris.

Clean textured ovens with elbow grease

A little bit of elbow grease can help you clean textured ovens. Also known as continuous cleaning ovens, these ovens present surfaces specially made to burn spills off gradually as you use the oven. They still require regular wiping with a damp cloth. It’s essential to stay on top of cleaning by regularly wiping the residues and messes. Don't ever use scouring pads, abrasive cleaners, and oven cleaners with textured ovens.

Can you keep the oven clean all the time?

As long as you never use the oven, it will be immaculate at all times. Joke aside, you can prevent grease and food build-up by wiping and cleaning the oven after every single use. For instance, after frying, you notice fat and grease on the hobs. No matter how tired you are, you should find the energy and wipe them down after usage. You need to do the same after cooking inside the oven. Cleaning requires time and energy, which most of us lack with the busy lifestyles we have. In addition, fat and grease spills aren't always easy to notice, so having a spotless oven at all times sounds a bit unrealistic for most.

That doesn’t mean that you should give up on removing food spillages as often as you can from the inside of your oven. Should you leave the food spills inside for a long time, your oven will produce unpleasant smoke. This can set the fire alarm off and travel all around the house, ruining both the food and the lovely family dinner.