"As Natural as it gets" Oven Cleaner Review with Recipes

Oven cleaning is a tricky business.  You have to have something that is strong enough to cut through all the splatters and spills, and all the baked on messes.  But do you really want to be using chemicals that smell and probably aren't healthy to breath in; not to mention you are putting it where your food goes.

I am guilty of using the commercial chemical oven cleaners, and every time I do...well, I feel guilty.  I don't like spraying stuff in the house that has such a strong odor when I have little ones running around breathing it in.  But, what's the alternative?  Not cleaning the oven?  I've tried that and well if I want food that is "well smoked" and setting the smoke detector off every time I open the oven door, I will go that route.

An oven has to be cleaned, so I set off on a mission to find a safe and healthy option.  I looked through all kinds of different oven cleaner recipes to find the right one for me.  There was one important factor besides being natural.  I wanted it to be easy.  I needed it to have just a few ingredients that were easy for me to find at the grocery store and also reasonably priced.  I finally found 3 different oven cleaner recipes for 3 different purposes:

• Regular "Everyday" Cleaner
• Stubborn Stain Cleaner
• Super Heavy Duty Cleaner

I used all three cleaners on my oven.  Luckily, my oven was 3 different kinds of dirty....

Regular "Everyday" Cleaner

Ingredients:

1. 5 Tbs. of Baking Soda
2. 3 Drops of Dish Soap
3. 4 Tbs. of White Vinegar

~ ~ ~ Mix Ingredients together until they form a thick paste.  Apply to inside of oven and scrub with sponge.  Wipe Clean and rinse thoroughly.

 I used this on the sides of the oven.  They weren't very messy but still needed to be cleaned.  This is definitely a very good "everyday cleaner" which I think would be good to clean other things as well.

Stubborn Stain Cleaner

Ingredients:

1. Lemon Juice
2. Salt

~ ~ ~ Use equal amounts of lemon juice and salt (I used 1/3 Cup for both).  Apply paste to stubborn stains and allow to sit for 3-5 Minutes.  Scrub with a scrub brush and wipe clean.

I used this on the door.  It has some stains on it that I couldn't even get off with commercial cleaner.  And this stuff failed at taking it off too.  I left it on for 5 minutes and scrubbed it really good with a scrub brush; not really anything happened.  The lemon/salt mixture was slightly dingier looking than when I started so I know it helped clean a little bit...but all the stains were still there.  Maybe it just needed the Super Heavy Duty Cleaner...

Super Heavy Duty Cleaner

Ingredients:

1. 1 Cup Salt
2. 1 Cup Baking Soda
3. 1 Cup Water

~ ~ ~ Mix everything together and make a paste.  Apply to oven.  Heat oven to 500 Degrees for 60 Minutes.  Allow to cool and wipe using a moist cloth.

I used this on the oven floor and on the door.  I applied it thickly all over the bottom of the oven.  The oven was pretty messy because of all the food drips.  As I'm applying it, I'll be honest, all I was thinking was, "I hope this works" and "I hope this doesn't catch my oven on fire".  I was afraid that it being so thick on their and being so close to the part that heats up that it was going to start a fire.  So much so that right when I got done applying it and turned the oven on, I ran to the computer and looked up, "How to put out a fire in your oven".  Here's what I found so if you try this and are scared of the same thing, you won't have to go look it up.

Oven Fire Tip:  If a fire starts in your oven, don't panic and simply just shut the door and turn off the oven.  With the door closed and the oven off, the fire will not have any oxygen to keep going and it will burn out.  Also, you could throw baking soda on it but never throw flour or water on a kitchen fire as it will just make it worse.  All educated? Feel safer? Ok, back to the review...

After about 5 minutes of it being on there, the baking soda mixture was sizzling.  After about 10 minutes, it actually started smelling good, like something was baking in the oven.  However, after about 30 minutes, I started to smell the old commercial cleaner that I had always used.  Hopefully, this natural cleaner was cleaning all the chemicals away.

After 60 Minutes were up, I opened the oven and the paste was now all dried out and I could actually pick up big pieces of it.  No oven fires either! :)  After the oven cooled off, I started wiping the mixture away from the door first.  Again...it didn't work.  I don't know what is on there but all I know is...it's not coming off.  Then I started to clear away the cleaner from the bottom of the oven.  And what I saw underneath was disappointing.  It was black.  I was kind of upset because I had done all that work and nothing.  Luckily as I started wiping more away, I saw in some places it was clean.  After I got everything wiped off, only about 40% of the bottom of the oven was clean.

To say, I am disappointed is saying the least.  I was hoping to have found a great alternative to the yucky store-bought cleaners...and I still had a dirty oven.  I did however find a great "everyday" cleaner but I still have a damn dirty oven.

Well, to me, finding a natural oven cleaner is important, and even though it's messier and may take a little more scrubbing, it's something that I want to continue to do.  I just have to find the right oven cleaner recipe.

If you have a natural oven cleaner recipe made from household items that actually works, let me know in the comments.