Someone has to Clean the Oven…Even if you have a self-cleaning one.
I’d read on the greenie sites that” Self-cleaning ovens are equipped with additional insulation to hold heat in the oven, so it doesn’t leak out into your kitchen and make your home cooling system work harder.” I liked the other features on the oven, so when got my Kitchenaid I thought the self-cleaning feature would be handy. But when I found it took about 3 hours at 900 degrees, didn’t do the racks, was a danger to small animals, and then you still had to wipe it down — it just didn’t seem worth it. Especially because my oven didn’t seem that dirty.
A friend recommended Carbona oven cleaner – fume-free, bio-degradable in a non-aerosol can. It wasn’t foam like others I used – this was a gel, and they said you could use it in self-cleaning ovens.
Well, it didn’t work so well in mine — seemed like I had to do a lot of scrubbing on my own. However, I didn’t not leave it on overnight.
But I took it too a friend’s so I wouldn’t waste my $4. We forgot about it for the weekend (didn’t even pre-heat) and the old oven looks like new. I was amazed. I see they also have a rack cleaner — I’m tempted to try it, too.