5 Tips to Keep Your Oven Clean Between Professional Cleans

After a professional oven clean, your oven looks and performs like new. The question is — how do you keep it that way for as long as possible?

The truth is that a few simple habits can make a significant difference. You do not need to spend hours scrubbing every week. These five tips will help you maintain your oven between professional cleans and make the next clean far easier when the time comes.

This is the single most effective thing you can do. When food or grease spills in the oven, it is relatively easy to wipe away once the oven has cooled down. Leave it until the next time you cook, and it bakes on — becoming much harder to remove.

Get into the habit of giving the oven floor and walls a quick wipe with a damp cloth after each use, once it has cooled. It takes two minutes and prevents the gradual build-up that leads to a heavily soiled oven.

What to use: A damp microfibre cloth works well for fresh spills. For slightly tougher marks, a small amount of washing-up liquid on the cloth is usually enough.

Prevention is better than cure. Placing a roasting tray or baking sheet on the shelf below whatever you are cooking catches drips and splashes before they reach the oven floor.

Oven liners — thin, reusable sheets that sit on the oven floor — are another good option. They are easy to remove and wash, and they protect the oven base from the worst of the grease and burnt-on food.

A word of caution: Do not place liners directly on the oven floor of a fan oven if it blocks the fan vent. Check your oven's manual, or place the liner on the lowest shelf instead.

Oven shelves accumulate grease and burnt-on food just as the oven interior does, but they are much easier to clean because you can remove them. Soaking the shelves in hot soapy water for 30 minutes and then scrubbing with a non-scratch pad will remove most build-up without any specialist products.

Doing this every month or so — rather than waiting until they are heavily soiled — keeps the job manageable. It also means your oven interior stays cleaner, because dirty shelves drip grease onto the oven floor every time you cook.

The rubber seal around the oven door is easy to overlook, but it plays an important role. A clean, intact seal keeps heat inside the oven and prevents grease from accumulating around the door frame.

Wipe the seal gently with a damp cloth to remove any grease or food residue. Avoid harsh chemicals or abrasive cloths, which can damage the rubber.

If the seal is cracked, torn or no longer making a good contact with the door, it should be replaced. A damaged seal lets heat escape, which means your oven uses more energy and cooks less evenly — and it is a relatively inexpensive repair.

The oven door glass tends to get overlooked because it is not inside the oven itself, but a dirty door makes it impossible to check on your food without opening the door — which lets heat escape and affects cooking.

For light grease marks, a paste of bicarbonate of soda and a little water applied with a soft cloth works well. Leave it for 15 minutes, then wipe clean. For tougher marks, a specialist oven glass cleaner is more effective.

Note: If the grease has worked its way between the panes of glass, it cannot be cleaned from the outside. This is something a professional oven cleaner can address as part of a full clean.

Even with the best maintenance habits, grease and carbon build-up will accumulate over time — particularly in the areas that are hard to reach, such as behind the elements, around the fan and inside the door cavity.

A professional oven clean every three to six months (depending on how often you cook) will keep your oven performing at its best and extend its lifespan.

At My Oven Guy, we use eco-friendly, non-caustic products to deep clean every part of your oven — including the door glass, shelves, side runners and elements. Most cleans take between one and two hours, and your oven is ready to use straight away.

We cover Bicester, Banbury, Brackley, Buckingham and the surrounding Oxfordshire area. Call us on 07775 920 172 or get in touch online for a free, no-obligation quote.