Best Oven Cleaners In 2022

Features To Look For In Oven Cleaners

Non-Toxic Fumes – No domestic oven cleaner produces fully-toxic fumes, but some oven cleaners do carry a nasty, caustic smell. You'll be in close proximity to the oven during cleaning, which means your nose and eyes will be close to the oven cleaning solution. This can result in you inhaling the fumes which can induce a headache in some people or make them feel nauseated. Look for an oven cleaner with non-toxic fumes that won’t give you headaches every time you clean your oven.

Powerful Formula – Baked on grease and grime can feel like cement all over the floor and walls of your oven, and it's almost impossible to remove. You want your oven cleaner to have a powerful formula that will penetrate even the most baked-on mess so you can easily wipe it away. This formula should be able to dissolve the grease, grime, and food particles to make cleaning a snap. Of course, some stubborn spots may need extra scrubbing or a repeat cleaning, but the right formula will remove the spot after one or two attempts.

Ingredients – For an oven cleaner to be effective at cleaning baked-on grease and grime, it needs to have some active ingredients that can penetrate these spots. Unfortunately, some of these ingredients can cause skin irritation if it comes into contact with you. Look for ingredients that are effective at removing stubborn grease spots but won’t cause you any irritation. You should also check to make sure that these ingredients will be effective and non-damaging to your stove surface.

Easy to Use – An oven cleaner is only useful if it can clean your oven with minimum effort from you. The last thing you want is a complicated oven cleaner that requires multiple steps and maximum effort. Some of the best oven cleaners are the simplest - simply spray the product on the oven surface and leave the product to do as much of the work as possible. Some spots you may be able to take care of in a matter of minutes, while other stubborn spots may require you to let the product break down the grease spots overnight.

Types Of Oven Cleaners

Corrosive Vs. Non-Corrosive – You need to pay attention to the labels when looking at oven cleaners as some can be quite corrosive. This isn’t a problem in most cases, apart from the fact that the smell isn’t pleasant, but if your oven is chipped or damaged on any surface you are cleaning, a corrosive oven cleaner may accelerate the damage. Corrosive cleaners may be more effective, but no sense in destroying your oven in the process.

Foam – Foam cleansers adhere to dirty surfaces and penetrate through baked-on grease, making cleaning a lot easier. Simply spray the foam over the entire interior of the oven or just focus on a single spot. You can then leave the foam to perform its magic for a few minutes or overnight if it's really dirty. Best of all, you can see when the foam has finished doing its job because the color will change. This happens because the foam will have penetrated, lifted, and absorbed much of the grease and grime.

Liquid – Some of the best oven cleaners are the simplest cleaners, and liquid oven cleaners are among some of the easiest to use. With liquid oven cleaners, you simply apply the formula over the affected areas, leave it on for the recommended time, and then wipe off the oven cleaner along with the grime. Some of the best liquid oven cleaners come in kits including scrubbers and scrapers to make short work of cleaning the oven.

Spray – Oven cleaners in spray form come in two different types of containers. You can choose from an aerosol spray or a trigger spray bottle. Both are effective depending on the ingredients. Whichever one you prefer, the main point of using a spray oven cleaner is its ease of use. These are the easiest to apply as you simply need to spray them over the surface you want to clean. Follow the instructions on the bottle as to how long you should leave the product on the grease, and the best way to clean them once the recommended time has passed.

Solid Paste – Some people really don’t like spraying cleaning solvents on their ovens and prefer using a solid paste. These pastes have grease-cutting ingredients that are incredibly effective at penetrating even the most stubborn spots in your oven. One of the best features of these pastes is that most of them have gentle ingredients. The only downside is that they need a little bit of extra elbow grease to properly clean the oven.

Multi-Purpose – Some of the best oven cleaners are those that can be used for a variety of different cleaning purposes. These kinds of oven cleaners can take care of ovens, stovetops, grills, range hoods, and other areas of the kitchen. They're also effective at cleaning barbecues, bathtubs, and other areas of the home. These are a great choice for people who don’t want to have a cupboard full of different cleaners and detergents for every household chore. Multi-purpose oven cleaners can replace all your other cleaners so you will have less clutter and save money on all those additional products.

Oven Cleaner FAQ

Q: How often should you clean your oven?

A: How often you clean your oven will depend largely on how often you use your oven. If you use your oven regularly to bake or roast, you should certainly give it a thorough cleaning at least 3 or 4 times a year. If you regularly roast in your oven, the grease spatter will be more frequent and this may mean you need to clean every 1-2 months. If this is not something you want to do, take care of spots as they happen and a quarterly general cleaning is all your oven will need.

Q: Why is it necessary to clean the oven?

A: Ovens see a lot of grease spattering and spraying, particularly when you roast meat in an uncovered baking dish. These grease particles stick to the walls of your oven and bake onto your oven walls. Over time, a build-up of this grease can not only affect the taste of the food you cook (like a cake that tastes and smells like baked fish), but the excessive grease can also become a fire hazard. By keeping your oven clean, your food will taste better, be more hygienic, and you eliminate the risk of a grease fire.