Capital does have a self-cleaning gas oven as does DCS. I have the DCS range and the self-cleaning works fairly well. You can also use COLD oven cleaner which doesn't produce fumes.

I have DF Wolf range....Have had for 2+ years, and just cleaned oven for first time. Self-cleaning oven, and the oven looks brand new. I am very impressed at how well the oven cleaned.

I'm very careful to quickly wipe up oven spills, etc., to minimize baked on food residue. And that enabled me to wait so long before I cleaned the oven.

I despise cleaning any oven but when I bought a 36" DCS AG, I promised myself that I would not let it look like my old oven so I make a point of washing it with a scrubber sponge after every (well almost every) use. After 4 years, I've not had to pull out the oven cleaner yet & it looks almost new.

After writing this, it sounds like I'm a clean freak (I'm not - believe me) but wiping out the oven doesn't add much work to the usual stovetop cleaning routine & IMO a daily/weekly wipe is much easier than waiting until the grime builds up & bakes on like enamel.

Isn't that what housekeepers do? I never thought of cleaning the oven....heck I didn't know how on the old one and I'm certainly not going to learn on the new one. (I'm actually more like antiquesilver...when I use it and make a mess I wipe it right down...there's no need to clean if you do that).

Having self-clean on a range was high on my list of priorities when we were choosing our appliances. We also wanted all gas and 6 burners. This led us to our Jade range, which, in addition to having a number of problems/issues, also had a very loud, and long running cooling fan (to protect the range's electronics, keep the door cool, etc.). When we knew the Jade was going to be returned via a buy-back, and began our search for a new range, we knew by then that we'd want to avoid one with a loud cooling fan and that it was highly unlikely we'd find a gas range we'd want with self-clean.

For the few times a year (at most) that I ever even ran self-clean on our old range, we realized it was much more important to get a range that we really liked for the other 360 some odd days in the year than one with self-clean.

Yes, using self-clean is EASIER than scrubbing off burnt on grease, etc., but I still had to scrub the door on our old range, and wipe out (and sometimes scrub) the ashes and gook left behind on the oven floor/walls after running a self-clean cycle. Since I was going to go with AG no matter what, the self-clean would likely not leave the new oven in pristine condition anyway.

I'll use the Fume Free Max oven cleaner when I need to, try to wipe out splatters and spills after they occur so there isn't too much build-up, use a little more elbow grease while wiping the oven out than I would with a self-cleaning oven, curse a little more (or a lot more!) while doing so, but have a range that I enjoy using for it's cooking abilities and features. That was the trade-off that worked for us.

I make a greasy mess of my oven when I high temp roast or broil. Unlike, say, a casserole spillover, this is not the type of grease that wipes up easily. It seems to me that if you are using your oven mainly for baking, you don't need a professional range. I am planning on getting the GE Monogram for it's combination of power and ease of cleaning for the home cook. Why would I want to go back to cleaning an oven when I can get cooking features and self-clean?

We were back and forth on the self clean issue. Seems like some newer ovens we read about are having issues after using self clean. Of course,some work great. In the end we looked at advise here etc. and chose a range more on performance, features and ease of repair if needed. Ours is not a self clean it is a DCS AG 36".

We just make a habit of wiping the range and oven down after each use. Oven wise only if needed. Grease can be a bit of a pain, but for the most part it comes up fairly easy with a damp sponge with a dab of soap. So far the only really horrible cleaning job was when I cooked a ham. I like ham with a really crispy skin so I used a semi shallow pan and raised the ham on a rack ham cut side down using convection bake. Ham cooked beautifully, but oven was horrible! Grease had heavily spattered out of the pan etc. and was all over the bottom, sides, door, top and back of the oven. Just incredible the thick grease everywhere! Luckily on the DCS the rack support rails come out as does the bottom of the oven so that made cleaning a bit easier. I cleaned it as best as I could using soap and a pad, but in the end we did have to use some cold oven cleaner as it was just too much and too thick in spots. Just burnt on. Cold oven cleaner cleaned it up like new again! Was pretty simple to use. You just have to not spray the temp probe and lights. So happy with the result as it truly looked awful before. Anyway, was not that much work at all to clean and we didn't have that hours of cleaning cycle smell and heat to deal with.

So, lesson for us on the story and choice is that it turned out not to be a big deal. I say choose what you like for cooking features, look, reliablity, warranty etc. and if it ends up having self clean well okay. If it doesn't no big deal.
Cheers

The stove I own now, a Lacanche Cluny, is not self clean. About every three or four months I clean the ovens with the most potent version of easy-off I can find. I would have to say, I don't see this as any kind of big deal. Just spray & wipe. Active time, start to finish 10 minutes.

I've had self clean ovens in the past. You always seem to have to wipe them down after and the window never gets clean. Also, the idea of having something running that hot for that long never did appeal to me.

As others have said, buy for how it cooks.

Joe

We're planning on getting a Wolf 36" range and I'm starting to question whether we will need it since we're also getting a single wall oven and microwave. I love the look of a range, but is there also a practical reason for getting one? Are they better for cooking certain types of things? When do you really like using your range? Thanks very much!

I love the infrared broiler on my Wolf AG range for finishing steaks and broiling pork chops, tenderloins, fish, etc., and my gas oven does a superior job roasting vegetables and meats, baking bread, etc. (IMO) The only thing I might suggest is that unless you really need the cavernous 36" oven, go with a 30" range (4 burners) or 48" (if you need more burners or a griddle/grill) as all 36" ovens take a long time to preheat because their oven cavities are huge. I wouldn't want to live with only a single wall oven but I think a double wall oven and rangetop is also a good combination if you don't do a lot of broiling/roasting.

Despite my ill-tempered post above about cleaning pro-ranges, I opted for the Bluestar instead of the Monogram. Kind of wish I had ordered the 30" instead of the the 36", but we are a family of 7 and the extra burner capacity seemed like a good idea. We'll have an extra 30" wall oven for the everyday jobs.

WOW ! I just saw this one busted the 150 limit and is going into round two. The IKEA posters better lookout.

Calm down, antss, this is an old thread.