The holidays are coming up, and that may attract different reactions depending on whether you’re a happy attendee or a stressed host.
Decorating your house in festive cheer, prepping and cooking a feast – it’s a lot. The last thing you’d want to happen is your oven (such a crucial tool in your cooking process) to all of a sudden stop working. Frankly, that’d be a holiday nightmare! Already we’ve been seeing this happening to our customers this month, so here are some tips we’ve compiled for oven maintenance. After all, your oven needs some holiday (really all-year) love too!
- Alright, time to break out the scrubs and gloves. Your oven needs to be deep cleaned at least twice a year. If you tend to use your oven more on a daily basis, it’s recommended to deep clean it every few months. Otherwise, all that burnt food crusted on your oven will make it run less efficiently and can pose a fire hazard. To make the deep cleaning easier on you, clean it off with wipes every time you use it!
- Some tips for when you do deep clean: make sure your oven is completely cooled down, remove racks to soak and wash them, unplug your oven if you’re planning on getting in there with your hands, and soak the harder areas to clean before wiping.
- Most ovens nowadays have a self-cleaning option! Dust off that manual and follow the instructions on how to activate the self-cleaning mode. Once the oven cools down, be sure to wipe it off and DO NOT leave your oven unattended during this mode. One more caution – do not use this option like crazy. Your oven goes up to 500-600 degrees in order to break down the debris, so this should be used only for really dirty ovens or ovens that haven’t been cleaned in a while. Running it more than you should even cause damage to your oven in the long run.
- Regularly inspect your burners/heating elements. You are probably familiar with the occasional oil platter or those few pieces of carrots falling out after trying to do a fancy pan trick. Don’t worry, we’ve all been there – just make sure to clean it right up! Also, be on the lookout for any deformities or certain spots that are glowing brighter than the others because this may mean you’ll need to replace it.
- Inspect your door gasket! This is the rubber sealing that lines the door in order to keep the heat in the oven. Over time, this can deteriorate and fail to keep that heat inside, posing issues for you.
- Your oven needs some air flow in order to work properly. Cleaning underneath and behind the oven will be essential.
So, there you have it, some tips that will clean and maintain your oven’s status. Happy holiday cooking, and if your oven needs repairs, give us a call back at (425) 312-6767.