Remove Cooked on Grease: The Oven
To be perfectly honest, my oven was not that bad. It had enough grease that I considered cleaning it when I finally had enough time. Saturday I decided I had enough time because I saw a homemade soft scrub on Pinterest; my motivation to do really cool projects, sometimes. Deviating from the recipe a little I created my own soft scrub from dish soap and baking soda and called it good. Now to remove cooked on grease from the oven, follow the instructions below. 🙂
Mix up your soft scrub to a paint like consistency. You’ll want it to be runny enough to spread easily but thick enough to not drip down too much.
Use a pastry brush to “paint” the homemade cleaner all over your oven. My cleaner ran a little but coated nicely. Yes, that is a belt holding the bottom coil up. It was much easier to cover the bottom of the oven that way.
Don’t forget the top; see not too thin and not too thick (those droplets do look threatening). Now for the fun part, let it sit for a few hours. Go do a project or something. Husband and I drove around the boonies with the windows down and got ice cream.
If you decide to check on it while it’s sitting and it’s looking a little dry, spray it down with a water/vinegar mixture After a few hours, scrub it down. Use a kitchen scrubby wand thingy to loosen any stubborn grime. Rinse the brush as needed to start removing the soft scrub. To remove the soft scrub completely, I used two wash clothes to wipe it out, rinsing excessively after each wipe. I used a third dry wash cloth and the vinegar mixture to identify and remove any additional soft scrub. Removing the soft scrub/soap took the longest, 30 minutes to get it all out, including rinsing the wash clothes between wipes.
Every time I look at this picture, I can hear the oven say “Ping!!” I am quite impressed with how much stubborn grease came off with the soft scrub. I realized there is still some grease up at the top and that is due to human error; failure to actually scrub there. I’m positive that I can remove that grease by putting more soft scrub on it and scrubbing for 5 minutes total. By the way, this scrubbing is light to medium not get your arm work out for the day. I’ll post more pictures after I get the rest of the grease off. 🙂
Happy Cleaning!!
Angela
What are your methods to remove oven grease?
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Wow! What a difference! My (electric) oven desperately needs cleaning and I will try your method. I have a (silly) question, please: Is it safe to put the cleanser on the electric coils or should I clean around them?
Thanks for all your help and tips!
Pat F.
Las Vegas, NV
I had some drop onto the coils and it was just fine; I mostly cleaned around the coils. I would be careful where the coils connect to get power, I wouldn’t get that area wet because you don’t want to short it out.
Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m happy I could help. 🙂
What a huge difference! I hate cleaning the oven – does anyone like doing that? This is a great solution and I love that it is not as caustic as oven cleaner. Thanks so much for sharing it at LWSL this week!
Thanks so much for stopping by! I do get a little thrill from cleaning when I compare the before to the after. 🙂
Cleaning the oven? I thought if the oven was dirty enough, it was just time to get a new stove. Seriously, this looks like a good use of non-toxic cleaner…commercial oven cleaners scare me
It really is and works just as well as the commercial oven cleaners, minus the nasty chemicals.
Awesome idea! Will use next time my oven needs cleaning. Thanks for sharing!
Selene @ Restoration Beauty
My oven is a mess! I will definitely be trying this…when I have time:)
It’s easy and totally worth it, but a little time consuming.
Great tip! You will be one of the features tomorrow at the Sunday Showcase from the Make it Pretty Monday party at The Dedicated House. Pop on in and grab a Sunday Showcase feature button for your blog. Have a great Sunday. Toodles, Kathryn @TheDedicatedHouse
Thanks so much Kathryn; I stopped by and checked out the feature. I’m so happy and grateful you featured me.
Fabulous! This is a great tip. I can’t wait to give it a try. My oven could definitely use a cleanup. Pinning this right now. 🙂
Yay! Thank you, I hope you find it works well. 🙂
Is it safe to use on a gas stove?
Yes, however, I would be careful with how much liquid you put inside your oven. I would be aware of where the flames come out and have minimal liquid in that area. You’ll want to be very thorough in removing the soft scrub.
I have self-cleaning ovens, but the racks can’t be cleaned in the oven. Did you use this on the racks too? If so, did it work, if not, why not?
I have used it on the oven racks and it kind of worked. Because the racks have such a small surface, the soft scrub slid off and couldn’t work as well. I ended up soaking the racks in the bath tub with hot water and baking soda then scrubbing them with a green scouring pad and magic erasers. I’ve concluded that I should stop burning things in the oven, but doubt that will ever happen. Did I answer your question well enough for you? 🙂
how do
you make the soft scrub?
Hi Peggie!
You can see how I made the soft scrub here.
I have asthma and have to have someone else do my nasty oven twice a year with oven cleaner. Now I can do it myself with this awesome idea. I’d say thanks but did I mention I can do it myself now lol? seriously a great alternative to those horrendous caustic cleaners.
Thanks! I really liked it just because I already had this stuff in my kitchen. You could pretend that you didn’t see this and still have someone clean you’re oven for you. 😉