Why You Shouldn't Clean Your Oven With All-Purpose Cleaner

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All-purpose cleaner is a very useful product in the home. The solution is gentle enough to clean all kinds of surfaces but can still get rid of a moderate amount of grime. The problem is that from time to time, the kitchen gets pretty messy — and nowhere is that more true than in the oven. The best recipes and oven hacks, like baking your frozen pizza directly on the rack, can lead to really tough, caked-in messes. If you tried to remove baked-on cheese with all-purpose cleaner, it probably wouldn't work because it's simply not formulated for such a difficult task. Its strength is in being gentle enough for everyday messes, not for tackling hardened grime or serious stains.

For cleaning ovens, your best bet is a product like Easy-Off, sold on Amazon. These cleaners are so effective because they use powerful chemicals to break down the tough, carbonized bonds of baked-on food, turning them into a substance that can be easily wiped away. Just be careful — oven cleaners get rid of grime effectively, but as a result, they contain a lot of toxic materials like caustic soda and ethers. They should be handled very carefully because accidentally turning on the oven while cleaning or inhaling some of the fumes can be extremely dangerous. On top of safety concerns, these products can be corrosive to most metals, so they should not be used every day — just for those really tough, infrequent messes.

For more regular maintenance, there are other solutions out there that can clean your oven while still being food-safe. A baking soda and vinegar solution works as an effective, grime-lifting paste. Other food-safe options include using a lemon steam bath to loosen grease or a salt and vinegar paste for extra scrubbing power. The lemon method uses the oven's heat to create a steam that softens grime, while the salt provides the abrasive texture needed for scrubbing. These solutions are great for handling light-to-moderate messes (and will keep baking pans sparkling clean), but they're often not strong enough for very tough, caked-on, or heavily carbonized grime.

With cleaning, sometimes it's best to keep it simple and not try to reinvent the wheel. We may think the solution is something unusual, but often the answer has been there all along. For example, wooden kitchen utensils are best cleaned with warm water and dish soap — and the most effective solution for a grimy oven is often a commercial oven cleaner or a DIY method.