The top of a conventional oven is the easy bit. The best way to keep this clean is to wipe up spills as soon as they happen. The only "cleaning product" this needs is a bit of water. However, if you've spilt something right beside or onto a red-hot element, don't try wiping it up straight away unless you want a nasty burn - best to switch on the fan to remove the ghastly burnt smell and wait until the ring has cooled down before cleaning.
If you have the sort of element consisting of a coil with a sort of dish underneath, you will periodically have to clean underneath the element. This can be made a lot easier by lining the dish-type thing that usually sits in the cavity under the element with aluminium foil (this also has the advantage of making the element more efficient: the aluminium will reflect the heat back onto the bottom of the saucepan where you want it.
The rest of the top of an oven can be cleaned easily enough with the help of a bit of baking soda and a damp rag. If you have any burnt-on bits that are harder to remove, dousing them in water will soften them enough to remove. Baking soda will need to be used a bit more liberally if you need to clean off grease splatters (who didn't put a lid over the frying pan while frying bacon???). Enjo cloths - the special green grease-removing ones - are excellent for this job, and shift stubborn old bits of grease that even baking soda won't remove, such as the ones this writer had to deal with when cleaning up after her late and very slovenly grandmother.
You sometimes come across those stove tops that are flat and covered in a glass-cum-mica surface. This is theoretically easier to clean, but the manufacturers prefer you to use the "proper" commercial oven top cleaners and protectors, as well as a sort of scraper thing for removing burnt gunk. And it will start resembling the surface of the moon if you spill sugar onto it while making jam or toffee. If you're stuck with one of these or if you like them, you can get away with using plain old water and/or an Enjo cloth instead of the fancy cleaning products. The inside of a microwave oven is easier, and all you need to do is wipe it down with baking soda and a damp rag.
The glass dish down the bottom can be removed and washed along with your dishes - in the sink or in the dishwasher as you prefer. To clean off really stubborn grime inside a microwave oven - and to make the inside smell nicer - put a bowl of water in the bottom of the microwave and drop half a lemon into it (ora slice of lemon, if you're stingy like me). Zap the water for several minutes so the whole lot boils into steam. Keep the door shut and leave the steam to get to work loosening bits off. Then wipe down. Really stingy people can leave out the lemon.
Smears on the outside of the microwave can easily be cleaned off with a bit of vinegar. This is great for getting the glass gleaming.
The inside of an oven is a hell-hole and most people turn to those horrible chemical sprays when the time comes to clean inside the oven. However, it can be less of a hell-hole if you line the bottom with tinfoil to catch splatters (remove and replace the foil when it gets grubby), and if you cook wisely and cover anything that is likely to drip, splatter, spit or fizz while inside the oven. And you can clean the rest with natural cleaning products. The first natural house cleaning product to use is water - put a cake tin about one third full of water in and turn the oven on high until the water boils away. Then you get out the baking soda. Put a paste of baking soda on the walls and bottom of the oven and leave it to sit for a bit before getting scrubbing. This method requires quite a lot of elbow grease and lots of cloths, so you can probably skip going to the gym on oven-cleaning day. Enjo cloths also help.
The racks can be cleaned by smearing every rung with a paste of baking soda and water, then wrapping everything in tinfoil. Dip the wrapped and pasted racks into a bath of warm water and leave them for about ten minutes. The aluminium and baking soda will react to remove the gunk.
Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/home_improvement/article_5755.shtml by: Nick Vassilev
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/home_improvement/article_5755.shtml by: Nick Vassilev
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