Ah, the oven, one of the biggest cleaning challenges in the home. Many people reach for chemicals believing that chemical oven cleaners are the only thing powerful enough to touch the burnt-on stains. However, bicarbonate of soda is an excellent oven cleaner.
You do need to mix bicarb with a touch of elbow grease. Still, if you have ever cleaned an oven without elbow grease, then you must be a superhero!
Here is a step-by-step guide on how to clean your oven with bicarbonate of soda. It is an easy process and will leave your oven sparkling.
How to Clean an Oven with Bicarbonate of Soda
- Remove the racks – Take out anything in your oven. Remove the racks, thermometers and anything else.
- Remove any loose build-up – To make life easier, remove anything you can with a scraper. Use a plastic scraper so that it won’t scratch the surface of your oven. You don’t need to remove everything piece of burnt-on food, just anything loose or willing to come away with a bit of elbow grease.
- Create a paste – Use bicarbonate of soda and water to create a paste. Mix 170 grams of bicarb and three tablespoons of water together. You may need to adjust this mixture if the water doesn’t create a spreadable paste.
- Spread the paste – Wear rubber gloves and spread the paste all over every surface of the oven. You can use a spatula or scraper to spread the paste if you prefer. Just make sure that the bicarb and water paste is covering every surface of the oven. Don’t apply to the heating element, though. If the paste gets a bit chunky or turns brown, that is fine, it means it is working.
- Leave the paste to work – After you have spread the paste, you need to leave it to work. Ideally, you want the paste in your oven overnight. If you need to be quick, you can leave the paste for about an hour. However, the longer you leave the paste in your oven, the better the results will be.
- Wipe off the paste – Use a damp cloth to remove the paste. Use warm water on your cloth and soak it regularly. You may need to put a bit of elbow grease into it to remove the most stubborn stains.
- Scrape the rest of the paste – If you’re having trouble removing all the paste, you can use a scraper. You can use the plastic scraper you used before or a spatula. There may still be some paste left on even after scraping, but don’t worry, the last step will sort that out.
- Finish the cleaning with vinegar – Using a spray bottle, coat the inside of your oven with white vinegar. This will cause the bicarbonate of soda to foam up. You can then remove any of the leftover paste.
Cleaning the Oven Racks
The oven racks are nice and simple to clean. Sprinkle some bicarbonate of soda all over the racks and then spray them with vinegar. This will get the bicarb foaming.
When this happens, submerge the racks in hot water and allow the racks to sit overnight. Give them a scrub in the morning, and they will be like new again.
And that is how you clean an oven with bicarbonate of soda. Bicarb is a fantastic natural cleaning product and a must-have cleaning product in the home. If you don’t have any at home, we’ve written a guide on where you can buy it.
Don’t forget to check out our list of the many uses of bicarb while you’re here. We love bicarbonate of soda, it makes the toughest cleaning tasks, simple and fun!
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