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I've been doing a lot of baking lately, so that means I've been using my oven more. The other day while I was baking cookies, I turned on the interior light to peek through the glass door to see how they were coming along. . .and. . . I could see nothing. That's why I'm sharing a tutorial today on how to clean the inside of your oven door. Because, just wait until you see what mine looked like!
Now, let's just get something straight. I'm not talking about cleaning "between" the glass - I'm just talking about cleaning the crusted-on grime that sits on the inside of the glass door. Sometimes for years. Cough. Cough. I will admit that I tried some store-bought cleaning products at first because I thought they would be more effective and take care of my problem quickly. No luck. It still looked like this (see the horrid photo below).
Now thankfully, I didn't have any grease or grime between the panes of glass on my door. If you're not as lucky, most ovens have slots at the bottom of the oven door where you can stick cleaning wands up inside the door to clean the glass. Or. . .you can start taking the door apart.
I would actually suggest the first method I mentioned before you run out to the garage, get your toolkit and start taking apart your oven door. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure many of you out there are very handy, but the "stick something up the slots method" sounds a bit easier to me and something I would attempt before disassembling a major appliance in my home. But that's just me.
Alright, back to my mess. Are you ready for this magic recipe? Baking soda and water. Yep. Surprise!!
You'll need about ½ cup baking soda and then just add enough water to form a thick paste like in the photo above. This my friends, is magic "clean oven" paste. Oh, and you'll want to grab an S.O.S. Steel Wool Pad, too. My mom always had these in the house years ago and I've found tons of uses for them in my house today!
Alright, so take the paste and schmear (is that a word?) - smear (I like to pronounce it with the "ch" in it) it all over the interior glass of the oven door. Now we wait. Like 30 minutes. If you have something else to do, I totally get it - please don't mind me. If you're looking for some downtime, let me share a quick tip while we wait.
I bet you spotted that aluminum foil I have there in the oven. I always keep two pieces of foil overlapping each other on the bottom of my oven to catch spills, food particles, etc. I know they sell actual oven liners for that, but my method works just fine. When the foil gets yucky and grimy I just toss it and replace it with two new sheets. Tah dah!! Looks like that's the next thing I'll need to take care of, huh?
Okay, is our time up? Back to cleaning the oven door. So, now you take your S.O.S. pad and start scrubbing. I used a circular motion and lots of elbow grease. The white paste started turning brown and I knew it was starting to clear up the dirt and grime.
Keep scrubbing until you feel just the smooth surface of the glass. No more grit. Get some damp paper toweling and start cleaning up dirty suds until you're left with this! Now, how beautiful is that?
Just look at this clean glass! I even scrubbed the frame around the glass and got MOST of the grime off from there. Scroll back up to the top and take a look again at that before photo. Yikes, right. But what a difference that baking soda makes!
Some may say I'm a cleaning machine! I actually love to clean because it's so rewarding. You start with something pretty ugly (that can, even at times, stress you out) and after a little cleaning, you're able to turn that ugliness into something bright and shiny again! It just makes me feel good!
Don't forget to check out my other cleaning tips and two of my most popular cleaning posts on the site that can be found below. Happy cleaning!!
Dori
you saved my day! We remodeled and got an industrial size stove with two ovens and it is NOT self cleaning. Mom is coming for xmas! You know how that is. I had to clean the oven. THANK YOU!
Sara
I absolutely know how it is when Mom comes to visit. I always want everything looking sparkly clean as well. I'm so glad this worked for you. I hope you and your family enjoy your time together over the holidays!
WausauSue
My husband and I tried this paste for the first time on Wednesday. It worked GREAT and my oven windows have never looked cleaner. I thought it would be wise to clean the windows before the remainder of the oven so that the "window crud" wouldn't get baked on further during the self-cleaning oven feature. (Smart idea, right?) Wellllll, after we turned on the dual self-cleaning ovens, it was roughly two hours later (halfway through the our dual oven cleaning process) that the beeping started and the word "locked" started flashing. Long-story-short, the ovens LOCKED and DIED. Little did we know it is VERY hard on ovens to use the self-cleaning feature, and our locally-owned hardware/appliance store told us that 90% of service calls on ovens are due to use of the self-cleaning feature. Who knew?!?!? So I have a pair of dual ovens on order.... and they won't come soon enough. We now have an easy way to scrub our oven door but will never use our self-cleaning oven feature again!
Sara
Oh gosh, Sue! That's horrible about your ovens. Who would have ever thought the self-cleaning feature would have caused the damage it did. Glad you have new ones on order. I wonder if they would have covered it all if you were still under warranty? I would hope so!
Chelseaarea Shepherd
This totally worked! Huzzah!
I tried several methods & products and the brown-ish red spots would NOT come off. Took about 15 minutes of scrubbing after the soaking and now the glass is so shiny 🙂
You are amazing-- thanks for posting!
Sara
Yay! Thanks so much! And so glad this worked for you!
b
Think schmear is a word in German, but we have one that comes from old English spelled smear
Sara
Very possible! My heritage is German and Polish!
Bobbi bailey
Might be silly, but when you said you love cleaning becouse you like the reward of transforming something ugly to some thing nice.. . I like that. Im going to use that for inspiration.
Sara
It really does feel good when you see that transformation. Let me know how it goes for you!
Jan
Guess what? It even works when the oven is hot! I found your site when I heated up the oven, and then realized that the glass was oh-so-dirty-grimy.
I followed your instructions, even with the oven at over 300 degrees. You have to be careful of the hot glass, and use hot water to clean the surface, but it works. The glass is tempered so it can handle the temperature gradient between very hot water (maybe 180 degrees) and the actual surface (maybe 300 degrees). I could SEE what was in the oven afterward!
Sara
Isn't it amazing?! Thanks so much for your comment!
Gr8pl8ts
Do not leave foil at the bottom of your oven. The heating element could be down there. The foil attracts the heat and could pop/break that heating element. That’s an expensive repair. Place a larger sheet pan under the pan you’re using to bake with.. (put your pie pan on a rimmed cookie sheet and bake.). You will save yourself from an expensive repair later.
This info came from the man who repaired MY oven when the heating element blew.
Laurie Chaffe
If you do use aluminum foil in the bottom of the oven, be sure to make sure that it is absolutely flat and doesn't the element. If the foil and the element touch, it could cause an arch and blow your stove...or worse!
Peggy
I always use Magic erasers they are amazing getting out the grim from inside and out of the oven doors!!! Great post, thanks for sharing 🙂
Kathryn
Won't the steel wool (SOS pad) scratch the glass?
Sara
The SOS pad will not scratch the glass.
bett
Don't use oven liner. I had mine catch on fire and the fumes were toxic. it ruined the inside of my oven !
Sara
Good to know about oven liners. I guess I'll just keep using my good ole' aluminum foil!
LaVonne
I used a thinner aluminum foil to line the oven of a rental we were at a few months ago. Big mistake! It stuck to the oven and it took a lot of work and time to scrape it off. Now I just place a sheet of heavy duty foil on the bottom rack, not taking that risk again.
Jewell
Hi!
Love this tip!
I'm fairly certain it's baking soda you are using, I even polish my silver jewelry with it!
In the paragraph next to the cleaned oven glass you mention baking powder.
That could be confusing for some readers.
I love your postings, just signed up for your posting notices!
Keep up the good work!
Sara
Thank you for your comment and you're right! I did say powder! I went in and fixed that. Thank you for following along. It's so appreciated!
Turenne
Cleaning the oven door to peep in clearly! That's cool! I do find cleaning as rewarding as you do. It always feel like I'm giving myself the wonderful gift of neat space and views. Plus, I love easy tip like this one. Thanks!
Sara
I'm glad to meet a fellow "cleaning" buddy! I'm so glad you liked the tip. I hope you try it!!
Maryanne LaCorte
sos pads have soap in them. Are those the ones to use?
Sara
Yes!