In the old days --- uh-oh, there's the chronic old fart warning klaxon -- we used to heat the oven to warm (about 200F), shut it off, put in a bowl with a cup of ammonia, and leave it sit over-night. Then, toss the ammonia down the sink, and scrub the walls etc. with a scrubby and dish detergent. There were commercial (i.e., restaurant and institutional grade) oven cleaners but they were incredibly caustic and a big problem for anything that was not stainless steel. (Old fashioned Lutefisk might have smelled worse, but it was a pretty close call!) The instructions for my NXR say not to use "commerciaL" oven cleaners and I'm pretty sure (and have been told) that this means the actual "commercial" products not the residential grade stuff like Fume-free Easy Off, I've used the latter several times with no apparent ill effects (basically after the massive cooking marathons of Thanksgiving and Christmas). "No ill effects" means that I have not stripped the shine off the oven lining. As I understand it it, the warnings about not using "commercial" oven cleaners refer to the restaurant/insitutional grade products, not the "residential" products like Easy Off. (Do be aware, however, that some Easy-Off products are pretty d@*& strong. So, during your stove's warranty period, you want to use the "gentler" stuff like Fume Free rather than the Extra-Strength. What I do most of the time is a modified version of what Whirlpool calls "Acqua-lift."Basically, I get the oven very hot and let a bunch of water vapor in. (Typically, by putting a CI pan of water in the bottom of the oven when I'm baking bread.) Once the oven walls have cooled past the too-hot-to-touch stage, I scrub the walls using Dawn and blue scrubbie. That usually takes care of the problem. When it does not, I use the Fume Free Easy-Off. This post was edited by JWVideo on Fri, Apr 25, 14 at 23:48

I have a gas self-cleaning oven on my DCS range - it works reasonably well. The only issue is that the lower front area by the door doesn't get hot enough to self-clean so I have to be careful to always wipe that area clean. Other than that, it's fine.

The new Capital Maestro Oven is 30 inches and it is self cleaning. Hey Trevor, Capital needs to do a better job describing that oven on their web-site--(I actually had to download the "Operator's Manual" to confirm that it is indeed self cleaning, and it tis--You can see the "Clean Mode" on the control knobs. This Oven comes as both a single and a double 30" oven/ovens. Lotta Nice Features----See for your self using the Link I put there for ya (Below) I love my Elux Icon Elux Oven, but if I didn't, I would buy this Capital Oven/ovens from Trevor at Euro Stoves. Good luck on your decision. Capital is a California Company while not sure what Viking is (Didn't they enter into some kinda "Mutual Back Scratching Arrangement with LG--who is a Korean Company? Gary Here is a link that might be useful: Capital 30

The discussion reminds me again how personal these choices are. I remember a wonderful phrase from a book (by Booth Tarkington, I think) which went something like this: a mild unpleasantness for one young man may seem the sheer brink of hell to another. That's applicable here as you can see from the posts above. For some of us, a self-cleaning oven is on the list of stove "must-haves." A stove won't even be considered without it. For others, like me, it was on my list of "wanna-haves" rather than "must-haves." (IOW, I miss having a self-cleaning oven but think I can live without it). Others, such as Nunya, are completely indifferent to self-cleaning; seemingly, he wouldn't use it if he had it. I say all of this because opinions here at GW can sometimes sound like dogma -- because I think X, you should, too, and your contrary thoughts are mere subjective preferences. It has to be said that subjective preferences are important. They are none-the-less valuable for being subjective. Your own preference absolutely must be part of the process of choosing a stove. Just because I find manual oven cleaning is "not too bad" does not mean you should find it that way, too. So, hopefully, the range of opinions is taken as helping you sort out our preferences rather than as telling you what to so. There is only way to get better informed than this exchange of opinions and that is by actually cleaning an oven in a stove you are considering. But, even if you live someplace where dealer showrooms have operating stoves you can test out, do you think they'll be demonstrating that aspect anytime soon? ;>) When I bought my NXR, I really had no idea how easy or how onerous "myself-cleaning" would be. That's one of the reasons I bought it from Costco. If "myself-cleaning" turned out to a royal PITA, I could simply return the stove for a full refund and get the self-cleaning induction range that I otherwise would have purchased. So, when you go shopping, it may be helpful to be up-front with the vendors about your uncertainty on this issue and to have a back-up candidate.