In the process of remodeling our kitchen, we had to replace a nearly new oven. It was a wall oven and our new layout used a range. We planned to resell the oven on craigslist, but I knew it would need a good cleaning to get a fair price. Unfortuneately, it was covered with baked on grease and carbon residue.
Thankfully there is a homemade softscrub that is non-toxic and chemically formulated to relase grease and dissolve carbon. When the grime is baked on as well as in the example above, a scrubbbing pad makes everything go faster.
1. Mix baking soda and dishsoap into a paste that resembles cake frosting.
2. Spread the mixture onto the trouble spot. Wait a few minutes for the baking soda to react with the carbon and the dishsoap to react with the grease.
3. Use a scrubbing pad to remove the grime. If you have to walk away and it dries out you can lightly mist with water to reactivate the mixture.
As you scrub, the mixture will absorb the grime and turn brown. It will dry and roll up into a ball. You can sweep this up and toss it and wipe with a clean rag to remove the remaining residue.
Notice in the above picture how you can start to see the blue around the glass again. The window is becoming clear too. A lot of elbow grease left to use and it will look barely used.
It’s not scrub free, but it works well. Although it’s safe for hand contact, I found the mixture drying and liked to use gloves with it.
I’ve taken to wiping down my new oven after every use. I don’t want to clean anything this bad again!
I have a white ceramic cooktop range and it shows spills and stains easily and chronically! Shortly after we got it a couple years ago, I discovered quite accidentally that just baking soda and a moistened cloth and a small amount of scrubbing can turn a horrible looking cooktop into looking brand new. I haven’t tried adding dish soap to it, but I may have to do that with the tougher stains.
gotta try this!!
I use this exact same “recipe” as a shower scrubbing solution. It works great! I’ll have to try some on spots in my oven. Thanks for the idea!
Angela, I used your recipe to clean the round silver burner thingys and it worked great! I also have used this inside the oven and it was so nice not to have toxic fumes in my kitchen. Thanks for sharing this!