Our royal blue interior KA was probably bought in 2008. We mainly use it for cookies and bread and the occasional turkey. It doesn't seem to get very dirty. I only used the self clean two times (successfully) while under warranty and I have occasionally wiped it down with 409 or other regular household cleaner, and used easy off oven cleaner a couple times. I think the interior is easy to clean as it appears you found as well. It doesn't sound like you think the self clean cycle is really needed. If you use it, you probably have one of the newer models with the slightly larger cooling fan and will be all right. I have noted that my oven (and probably yours) gets cooling air drawn in thru the front bottom of the oven. Due to poor unpacking, we never found the decorative bottom trim cover plate. It was called a vent, but when we finally bought a 'replacement' I could see that it doesn't let all that much air in. If I ever do a Self Clean Cycle, I will remove the vent before turning it on (I never actually placed the two retaining screws in anticipation of a self clean; and the 'vent' rests in place without them). Thinking more about my own plan for the self clean: I think it would be wise to buy a backup replacement fuse for the self clean system in advance. The problem is that several years ago they cost ~$50. So I haven't bought one yet. KA 'thoughtfully' put this fuse on the outside back of the oven so you have to slide the oven out to get at it; gee thanks.

A suggestion for people who have had confirmed overheating problems, and perhaps for those who are running self-clean for the first time and want to avoid potential trouble -- When running self-clean, aim a portable desk fan at the unit. If it's a free-standing range with control panel on top, set the fan on a chair or stool and direct the airflow toward the controls and such that some air blows down behind it as well. If a wall oven, try to determine where is the intake grill and direct the fan there rather than at the unit's exhaust flow. The point is to get some additional cooling happening. Sure, this shouldn't be necessary, but it's a small concession to make for the convenience of self-clean. I've run self-clean on my GE Profile range several times to no ill effect. I typically set it to run at night so it's finished in the morn and thus had not monitored how much heat is involved. Last time I ran it during the day and found that the control panel did get quite hot. There is no cooling fan on my range, and although no problems had occurred as a result of previous runs, this time when I noticed the heat buildup, I set a small deskfan blowing at the panel and it cooled noticeably within a few mins.

Hi i have a kitchenaid gas range mod KGRA806PSS00.The first time i used the self cleaning option th gas regulator went on it .Now i just used the self cleaning option last night and the exact same thing happened as in the above link.I have looked on consumer affairs website reguarding this problem and there is over 50 people that have had this problem.I just called KA and they r sending out a repair guy tomorrow.They have never heard of this problem.I would like to suggest to all KA stove owners that we start an official written compaint to KA or Whirlpool since they r the owners,with all of our names and contact address on it.Also I think that if there is enough of us we should contact W-Five or Marketplace.

First of all, I absolutely disagree with anyone who says "don't self clean" - the vast majority of people self clean without any issues. I would, however, advise not self cleaning right before a time when you really need to use the oven and you won't be able to get a repair tech in for a while - for example, the day before Thanksgiving. It's not that self clean necessarily causes problems - but if it's on the verge of failing anyway, self clean will push it over the edge. Now, as for KitchenAid/Whirlpool. They used to have frequent self clean issues before 2009, but since then they have fixed the problem with design changes and better cooling airflow. Despite the problem being fixed, there are still isolated incidents of this happening, like with all manufacturers. Also, there are reasons that this can happen besides manufacturing defects or design flaws. One common problem I see these days is installers removing the protective cardboard cover on the bottom of the oven before putting it on the appliance dolly. Then, the ventilation duct at the bottom of the oven gets crushed. The oven gets installed, nobody notices, and everything appears to work fine at first. But once you get some serious heat, such as a self clean cycle, the oven will be unable to cool its internals properly and you will have issues.