I tried Dawn's Power Dissolver, and was very pleased with it. There were no bad fumes, and it did a great job. I know it isn't listed for cleaning ovens, but it worked very well.

Ivamae, that is one of the most difficult jobs, isn't it?

I have self-cleaning. Turn it on to 500 or whatever it is.
Thanks for reminding me that I need to do it.

I also have a self cleaning oven. I cleaned it last Sunday..it takes more than three hours and really puts out a lot of heat, so I find a cold day to do it. It really does a good job.

My clock died on my Jennaire range w/self cleaning oven so mine is nasty. My previous stove was not self cleaning and I put a small dish of ammonia on one of the racks, with a scrap of cloth dangling over the side, making a wick, and let it set overnight. Amazing how much easier it was to clean. I never really liked using the spray cleaners although I did from time to time. My stove is so old that parts are not available. I need a center downdraft and they are few and far between or I would get a new stove. So far what I've found didn't work for me or I didn't like them.

jude

I bought a generic can of lemon oven cleaner. I used it on a warm oven as per directions. In my mind, I didn't want to wake up to a dirty oven, I wanted to clean it and get it over with.

I thought I would die, from the fumes doing it. From now on I'll spray it and go to bed and let it work all nite.

I'm surprised your Easy off damaged the ceramic walls IvaMae.

I was recently told that self cleaning puts serious toxins in your house air. I'd never known that - somethign about the heat mixed with the manufacturing materials..

Norwex products are expensive, but they claim to do the trick. I self clean and leave the windows open.

Was planning on cleaning my oven a few days ago so got out the manual to check time etc. It said- keep the kitchen well ventilated by opening the window. I sure didn't want to leave a window open for 2 or 3 hours when there is still snow on the ground.
Lois

Thanks everyone. Well, I did get it finished and it looks great. I used every cleaner that I could think of and a lot of elbow grease. Then my daughter suggested that I put some damp cloths over the soiled parts, turn the oven on real low for awhile. I did that and then shut it off for a half hour and went back to it. It had really helped soften the spots up. She also told me that the $ store has tin foil trays to put in the bottom so it won't get like that again. You can believe I'm going to try to get some. I used to put tin foil in the bottom but you have to be very careful that it doesn't touch the burner or it can short. Had that happen once, too.

Anyway, many thanks

Can you use regular oven cleaner on the self-cleaning ones? I have also heard that the self-cleaning ones put toxic fumes in the air.

You cannot use oven cleaner on a self cleaning oven. I am not too sure why, but the book says not to. It does put off a strong odor when it is cleaning. I don't know if it is toxic or not.

I worked maintenance in a large apartment complex for about 6yrs and one of my duties was cleaning ovens after the tenants moved out and we were turning the apartment around for new tenants.

Believe me, after you clean 10 to 15 ovens a month, most of which have not been cleaned since the tenants moved in for six years you learn all the hints, kinks & tricks and you go on to make up a few of your own.

The first problem we encountered was that most spray oven cleaners require you to preheat the oven, but in our case the tenants paid the electric bill, so there was no electric in the apartments when we were cleaning.

When I first started working there we were buying EasyOff oven cleaner by the case and it works okay, but it also requires a lot of elbow grease.

We next tried a commercial brand that is only sold to appliance companies and apartment complexes and I will say, it was a bit easier than the EasyOff, but not much, and it was about twice the price.

One day my helper came to work and he handed me a red can of generic oven cleaner. He said, try this one, my wife used it on our oven at home and it works great.

I tried it, and I must confess it was better than both the EasyOff & the commercial, but it still took a lot of elbow grease to finish the job until I found the trick by mistake.

One day I sprayed the oven and planned on letting it set for an hour like the directions said, but as luck would have it,before I could get back to it, I got called on a emergency maintenance call to fix an air conditioner. I did not get back to the oven until the next day.

When I went in the apartment and looked in the oven I thought, "OOH NO, look at the mess I have now!". The spray oven cleaner had loosened all the burnt on gunk then it dried in place again giving the entire oven cavity a black crinkle finish with a light white film on top, what a mess. I took out my trusty putty knife and attempted to scrape that mess off, but it would not budge so I thought to myself, what the heck, maybe if I spray some more of that cleaner on it will at least loosen that gunk; so I sprayed it again and waited about 30 minutes.

When I went back I began by lifting the door off the hinges and taking it to the sink counter where I could at least stand up and not be all stooped over while I attempted to clean that mess. To my surprise, as I was carrying the door to the counter all that goop started shifting like a thick creamy paste, and when I got the door to the sink, I used the sprayer to wet it down, so I thought, Instead of simply wetting it down, the sprayer actually rinsed the whole mess off effortlessly.

I then went back to the oven with a little bucket, a sponge and a roll of paper towels. To my surprise a quick wipe with a wet sponge and the gunk was gone, Dry it down with the paper towels and the interior of that oven looked good as new again.

I told my helper what I had done and he tried the same technique on another one, with the same results. Spray it down in the afternoon, let it sit overnight, then spray it again in the morning and simply wipe the gunk out.

I told my helper to ask his wife where she got that stuff because I wanted to buy a case of it today. He called her and she says, "They have it at the Family dollar store for $1 a can."

I told our manager and she went and got five cans, only the cans she got looked the same, but they were blue instead of red and that stuff was crap.

My helper then called his wife again and asked her about it. She told us that the Oven cleaner in the Red can is the regular oven cleaner, then they have a blue can and a green. The blue can is listed as some kind of enviromentally friendly stuff and the green cans are supposed to be scented or something like that. All I know is only the stuff in the red cans works good. After that I had a standing order at our Family dollar store for two cases a month.

I use Easy Off Fume Free on a warm oven,shut it off and let it sit overnight, then wipe out with a lot of wet rags. I do mine once a year, just before Thanksgiving. I do a lot of baking November and December,and I like to have a clean oven. In the past, my oven has been so gross and dirty it set off my smoke alarm! My oven has a self-cleaning feature, but I hesitate to use it because I once started a fire. Like I said, I use Easy Off.