General Chat

There is no reason the bottom pf the oven sides could not be recessed to accommodate a wide, slide-in tray.

Unfortunately the size of tray you'd need to soak the shelves would have to be larger than the racks. It wouldn't fit in the bottom of the oven. :-0

Someone on another thread soaks her shelves in her bath using a biological detergent & occasional goes and gives them a rub.

I'm with the Ovenpride brigade! We did pay for someone to do it this year and were very impressed with the result. It was far better then anything we've ever achieved and in half the time.

I had an AGA once. I'm not saying it was antique, but the 'controls' and heat were determined by what you put on it, whether the lids were up or down, or the door open or closed!
We had a selection of logs of different woods and coal (some burn faster, some hotter), and soon worked out Aggie's likes and dislikes.
Many a roast was cooked in that oven, and many a black, burned rice pudding was discovered in the oven the following morning.
Much as I like rice pudding 'skin' - this was too much - even for me.
I'd put the pudding in for tea - and forget about it :-S

It never needed cleaning out - I'd just get it very hot - and the gunk burnt off :-D :-D

Elizabeth, I regularly get recorded calls offering to clean my oven.
Unfortunately, the man reading the message sounds like a caricature of a rough Cockney villain!! :-S :-S :-D

The day after my grand-daughter moved house she appeared on Facebook asking for professional oven cleaners! She instantly got two enthusiastic references to the same local firm - with "amazing" and 'looks like new'. They have quoted her £40 which I think is reasonable for a real crisis - try googling Household Cleaners for your area.

One of our ovens is an Aga def immovable with a facility for raising bread much beloved by cats. It is very rarely cleaned. My favorite as it has no complex controls.

The others are "built in" and thus immovable too. They are alledgedly self cleaning. OH certainly never cleans them. Maybe that us why they are replaced more often than the Aga.

Sharron!!!! What have you started. The sides of our oven are self cleaning but the shelves are not. I hate cleaning the oven, daren't look now!!!

Isn't that why God invented self clean ovens??

I suppose it's too far gone for a paste out of baking soda and water? Paste it on leave it and then wipe clean then curse cos it's just as bad as before.....

Not looking at my oven as I know it needs cleaning, start that then you notice the drawers need wiping then you move the oven out to clean behind it....and it goes on....it would drive you to drink....

I may try the shelves in a bag tomorrow - or later.
As I haven't got any (by now pretty ancient) oven cleaner (I'm full of good intentions) that is suitable for a bag, I shall try my 'wonder cleaner' -

*gets up to see what it's called, gets harassed by the cats because their food has been down for over 10 minutes and apparently needs 'refreshing'/replacing*.

OXI fabric stain remover!! One pound from Poundland!
It's been amazing on all sorts of things that have undergone a 'spur of the moment' (but I don't have the right stuff) clean!!

Edit: Just like to say, Sharron's bright idea has made me shift my bum tonight, and look into cupboards I forgot existed!!

This is not a thread about cleaning ovens, It is about my brilliant and world changing idea!

I have tried the oven cleaner in a bag thing but it didn't do mine that well. Then again, it didn't promise miracles!

Lol

O.h. bought that Oven Pride pack years promising he would clean the cooker for me!
It's never happened. I can't kneel down to do the oven but do clean the top and eyelevel grill etc. I couldn't manage without the eyelevel grill, so easy to stay standing and be able to glance at anything cooking.

Don't put non-stick items in the plastic cleaning bags, it ruins them!

Lizx

Sharron!!!!!
You've started something now!!!!!! :-|

I feel pressurised into cleaning my oven :-P

..and I bet, within a month of cleaning the oven - the cooker breaks :-P :-P :-P :-P

Good ideas, though. :-D

The oven cleaner in a bag makes short work of the oven shelves .you leave them in it to soak and the gunge just dissolves off

You can also use it on the oven base but you need to wear gloves to protect your hands .

Saves all the hard work rubbing each slat and not getting completely in the joins

It's called Oven Pride

I did have one of those sheet things you put on the bottom of the oven but not in this one. I will probably get one for this one now I am almost human again.

A nice big tray that was part of the oven would make a good place to soak the shelves though wouldn't it? Then, once they were all clean. they and the tray could all go back in the oven.

*Goes to look at oven*
I have a tray in the bottom of my oven - probably an old roasting tray (non Teflon coated), put there by me.
Sort of works (I think) - cleaning ovens isn't my forte - as Quentin Crisp said, after the first 4 years, the dirt doesn't get any worse.
However, as the tray isn't as wide as the shelves, they can't be soaked in it.
It also means there's a fine build up of gunk around it :-|

Curse you for making me look at my oven :-P :-P :-P :-P

Edit: but a shelf that sits on the bottom, and slides into the same (or slightly deeper) grooves as the shelves is a good idea :-D :-D :-D :-D

I am getting back to doing a bit at last and, while I was getting stuck into a bit of the kitchen, I had an idea.

The bottom of my oven needs shot blasting and the shelves need some sort of nuclear reaction to get the brown gum off them now. So, I will have to get down and crawl about on the floor to do the bottom of the oven and it is anybody's guess how I am going to set about the shelves. They need soaking but I can't currently think of a suitable receptacle.

If the bottom of the oven was a removable deepish tray, it could be cleaned at the sink and used to hold the shelves while they soaked in washing soda or whatever does the job.

I know you can buy a tray specific to the job of cleaning oven shelves but, if you buy one of those you need somewhere o put a big tray. So much easier to have it as part of the oven.