It’s always hard trying to decide when is the best time to clean your oven. Sometimes it feels the same as wanting to brush your teeth after every meal!
Typically we suggest having your oven professionally cleaned at least every 4-6 months or 2-3 times per year. The best times to have your oven cleaned would be before or after a major event such as Christmas, where the oven usually takes a lot of punishment.
The problem is that cooking habits are different for everyone, so oven cleaning is typically a do-when-you-must affair. There are however, a few tell-tale signs to look out for which will let you know when it’s time to bring in an oven cleaner.
Do you have smoke pouring out of a hot empty oven?
If you pre-heat your oven and then open the door to a cloud of smoke, chances are you need your oven cleaned. The smoke is typically caused by the remains of food splatter that continues to burn around the edges of your oven, most notably the floor of the oven itself. The smoke can come and go depending on what you are cooking but if it’s consistent then you’re going to need to get scrubbing (or call the professionals).
Can you see through the glass?
Silly one I know, but if you can’t see through the glass, what use is there to having a glass-fronted oven? If you can’t peak through to see if the roast potatoes are crispy or the Yorkshire puddings are rising then you have a problem. The last thing you want to be forced to do is to open the oven door and end up with flat Yorkies.
Are the lights inside the oven not bright enough?
After a long time without being cleaned, your oven bulbs, although heat resistant will become coated with soot and other baked-on food materials. A good clean is in order, and Revive & Shine always clean the bulbs if we get a chance. It’s possibly to clean these bulbs yourself but it does mean a bit of DIY with some ovens.
Are you embarrassed to open your oven in front of other people?
Here’s the real tell, in most cases a dirty oven is just par for the course, you can’t clean it professionally every week so no doubt it’s going to build up over the coarse of a few days. However if you find yourself shielding the oven from view when you open the door, glancing over your shoulder to make sure nobody has spotted the yellow grease smears on the oven door, then you’re probably in the right mind-set to get it cleaned.
Are you the one using the oven? Or do you rent out your property?
There are some things that everyone takes for granted when moving in as a tenant. Is the bathroom clean? Is the oven clean? As a landlord it’s a major positive to make sure that between each letting the oven is spick and span, just a few hours of cleaning will make the decision much easier for a willing tenant to make. Oh, and make sure that toilet bowl shines too.