How to Clean the Inside of a Stove
To clean the inside of your stove, first fill two medium-sized heatproof containers with three parts water and one part ammonia or vinegar. Second, preheat your oven to 200º Fahrenheit. Then, place the containers in your oven for 20-30 minutes and turn the oven off. Leave these dishes in your oven overnight. In the morning, all you need to do is wipe the inside clean.
Pretty simple, right? If you would like more detail on how to do this, keep reading. We’ll answer all your questions below.
Cleaning burnt food, baked-on grease, and tough stains from inside your stove can be time-consuming, especially if you don’t know what you are doing. Unless you are inspecting the inside every day, it’s easy to forget to clean it too.
But we have a solution for the toughest stains. You won’t need to waste time and energy scrubbing just to lift your sponge and realize you’ve made no progress.
Anyone can use the following method; it’s completely DIY and requires only some basic, everyday household cleaners. Read the steps below to learn how to clean the inside of a stove.
But that’s not all we’ll cover. We’ll go over this process in detail and then discuss:
- What is the best cleaner for your oven?
- What’s the easiest or quickest way to clean an oven? (with a bonus strategy included!)
And we’ll also discuss some more specific questions:
- How do I clean the worst oven?
- How do I clean bacon grease out of my oven?
- How do I clean the bottom of my oven?
What You Need
- 1 cup of household ammonia
- A couple of towels
- A bottle of dish soap
- 3 cups of boiling water
- Two oven-safe containers
How to Clean the Inside of Your Stove Overnight (8-12 hours)
There are several methods to clean the inside of your stove overnight. These all involve household cleaners including ammonia, vinegar, and baking soda – as well as lemon from your refrigerator.
The prep should only take 20 minutes – then, wait in anticipation as the chemicals do the work for you.
Check out this quick video to get started.
How to Clean an Oven with Ammonia
- Fill one of your medium-sized oven-safe containers with about three cups of water. Fill the other container with one cup of ammonia. A baking sheet or oven-safe bowl works great.
- Set the dishware with ammonia on the bottom rack and the dishware with water on the top rack.
- Preheat your oven to about 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Let the water and ammonia heat up for 20 to 30 minutes. The water won’t quite boil, but half an hour is enough to create steam that will break down the tough grease stains. The ammonia will eliminate any harsh cooking odors.
- Keep both containers inside overnight. This will break down the tough grease, dirt, and baked food in your oven.
- In the morning, wipe the inside with a damp cloth and a small amount of soap. You can purchase #1 best selling dish soap from Amazon here. After one night breaking down the dirt and grease, your entire oven should become clean with the wipe of a cloth. If you still have some difficult-to-remove spots, simply repeat the process.
If you don’t want to use the same strategy, don’t worry! You can try some of the other techniques outlined later in this article: the self-cleaning feature on your oven or cleaning with baking soda paste and vinegar.
Clean Oven with Vinegar Steam
To clean your oven with vinegar steam, replicate the process above. But, fill the container with 1 cup of vinegar instead of ammonia. After letting the water and vinegar sit in the oven overnight, simply wipe all the grime away with ease.
Buy vinegar from Amazon at this link.
Best Oven Cleaner
There are thousands of cleaners to choose from. Click on this link for some of the most popular. Using cleaners is a quicker method since it won’t require you to wait overnight.
Depending on your cooking style and how long it’s been since you've cleaned the inside of your stove, you'll want a more heavy-duty solution.
What is the easiest way to clean an oven?
Now you know how to clean the inside of your stove. But don’t leave just yet. We have several other helpful strategies for you to clean your stove efficiently. The easiest way to clean it is to use the self-cleaning feature. If your range has this feature, keep reading! If not, skip this section!
Use the self-cleaning feature.
Most ovens are required to have a self-cleaning feature. These work by locking your oven door at a very high temperature, usually over 500 degrees Fahrenheit. Self-cleaning takes a few hours, but it will completely melt all the baked-on and burnt food off, turning it all into ash.
When using the self-cleaning feature, be sure that your house is well-ventilated. Open multiple windows and doors before turning on this feature. Otherwise, your house will become exceptionally smoky.
If your oven is really dirty, don’t use the self-cleaning feature; it could produce dangerous levels of smoke in your home. Instead, try one of our other strategies.
Since the oven will be operating at over 500 degrees, it may get hot in your kitchen. Keep everyone out of the kitchen while self-cleaning is enabled, just to be safe.
If you own a ducted range hood, run it on low while your oven is cleaning itself to help vent some of the fumes out of your home.
How to Clean an Oven Quickly
If you don’t have the self-cleaning feature on your oven, just clean your oven with ammonia and let it sit overnight: it’s the first strategy we discussed; check it out if you haven’t! The ammonia will do all the work for you.
If you prefer to not let the ammonia sit overnight, this will take a little more effort. But there are ways to make this process simple as well.
First, you can save time by soaking the surface with warm water or spraying it with a multi-purpose cleaner or degreaser, like this high-rated product from Amazon.
Second, if you have access to a degreaser, this will make your job easier. Warm water will eventually break down the tough stains, but a cleaner will be much more efficient.
We took our 15+ years experience in the kitchen and reviewed eight of the best degreasers on the market – check out our detailed article here.
Third, remove your oven racks before cleaning. This way, you won't have to navigate around them as you try to clean the rest of your oven.
These tips will help you get the job done faster. Before you head over to your kitchen, we have one last bonus tip for you on how to clean an oven quickly.
Bonus Strategy - How to Clean Oven with Lemon in 2 Hours or Less!
This technique will eliminate harsh odors that permeate through your entire kitchen. It’s not optimal for removing the toughest grease and stains, but it’s certainly one of the quicker methods, especially if you clean your oven regularly.
- Take out a bowl safe for use in your oven.
- Fill with two to three cups of water.
- Grab a lemon from your fridge and cut it in half. If you are especially concerned about your oven odor, you can add a second lemon, also cut in half.
- Place the lemon(s) in the bowl.
- Preheat your stove to 250 degrees.
- Once preheated, put the bowl into your oven and let it run for 1-2 hours.
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How to Clean the Worst Ovens
We’ve finally made it to a couple specific scenarios; thanks for staying tuned in!
The following technique is one of the most thorough, but it will also take the most work: baking soda and vinegar. Baking soda and vinegar are great to clean a wide range of surfaces: counters, sinks, stovetops, microwaves, and much more.
Here’s what you do.
- Make a paste with baking soda and water using a 3:1 ratio (ex. 3 cups baking soda, one cup water). You’ll need enough paste to cover the entire inside of your range. Also, if you plan to clean the oven racks, make some extra paste to coat these as well.
- Remove the racks.
- Coat them in your baking soda paste. Use a wall paintbrush from Amazon to spread the paste.
- You can also use the self-cleaning feature to clean your oven racks. Just set them inside and push the button!
- Coat the inside of your oven and the door with your baking soda and water mixture. Only coat the appliance itself and, to be safe, don’t cover any holes inside your oven.
- Let these coated parts sit overnight.
- In the morning, spray the coated area with vinegar. They will fizzle; then wipe them clean with a damp cloth. Depending on how dirty your range is, you may need more than one towel. And you might need to do this step two times.
- Insert the racks back inside – and you’re done!
How to Clean Bacon Grease Out of an Oven
If you spill something in your oven, do your best to wipe it up immediately. Ideally, find a household cleaner and spray the area, then wipe with a paper towel or kitchen towel.
But sometimes you won’t notice that you spilled in your oven. In this case, try the following method.
Baking Soda and Vinegar
To clean out bacon grease, you’ll need baking soda – try this reliable Arm & Hammer product from Amazon!
- Make a baking soda paste using three parts baking soda and one part water, then coat it over the tough bacon grease using a wall paintbrush.
- Wait a few minutes and then spray the area with vinegar.
- Let the solution fizzle and then wipe the bacon grease with some paper towels.
- Dip a towel in vinegar and wipe the area for a nice shine.
How do I clean the bottom of my oven?
The bottom of your oven is probably going to be the most difficult to clean. Food will fall off the grates and bake to the bottom. Also, any juices produced from cooking may drip to the bottom and cake onto your oven.
I recommend the baking soda paste. Create a paste that is three parts baking soda and one part water and coat it over the affected area. You can follow the instructions above on how to clean the worst oven.
Also, gas stoves will likely have a heating element in the bottom, which you can simply wipe off a damp cloth. Dish soap should be sufficient to cut any grease or stains on the bottom heater, if necessary.
Hopefully this article gave you all the information you need about cleaning ovens. Give one of these methods a try! Thanks for stopping by our blog.
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