How to Clean Oven Racks
How often do you clean your oven racks? It's not the most pleasant task, but someone has to do it. If it's been a while, try out one of these six methods to make your oven racks look spotless.
How to Clean Oven Racks in the Bathtub
What You Need
- A couple of dish towels
- Bathtub
- Dish soap
- Scrubby sponge
1. Lay a couple of towels in your tub.
This will protect your bathtub from scratches and make cleanup easier.
2. Set your oven racks in the water on the towels.
Hot water is important to help break down the baked-on food and grease. Wear gloves to protect your hands.
3. Fill your bathtub with hot water and soap.
Add a half cup of dishwashing detergent to help loosen the dirt.
4. Let them soak.
Leave your oven racks in the bathtub to soak for about three hours.
Your oven racks can get pretty gnarly. If they are, soak them for longer.
If you need to, you can even soak them overnight.
5. Scrub tough spots with a sponge.
Use dish soap to scrub the racks with a sponge or rag, and rinse them off under running water.
6. Rinse the oven racks under warm running water.
Keep the oven racks in your tub and rinse them using running water. Make sure all the soap is washed off.
7. Drain the water from the bathtub.
8. Towel and air dry the oven racks.
You can keep your oven racks in the bathtub if you like. Or prop them up on something outside and let them air dry.
9. Remove and wring out the towels.
Be sure to wring out the towels. If they’re left too wet for too long, they may get moldy.
10. Place the oven racks back into your oven.
Now you’ll enjoy clean oven racks that look like they just came out of the box.
How to Clean Oven Racks with Ammonia
What You Need
- Ammonia
- Gallon household trash bags
- Dish soap
- Hose or bathtub
1. Remove oven racks from your oven.
Make sure the oven is cool before removing the racks.
2. Add one to two cups of ammonia to a trash bag and pour it into the bag.
Be careful when adding ammonia. Ammonia has a strong odor and can irritate the eyes, nose, and face. Keep your face away from the bag while pouring it inside.
3. Set your oven racks in the trash bag.
4. Let the oven racks soak overnight.
Overnight soaking will give you the best results, but if you just have a couple of hours, that will work well too. Make sure the bag is in a well ventilated area away from people or animals.
5. Remove oven racks from the trash bag.
Take the bag outside and open it away from your eyes, nose, and face. Let the smell dissipate before taking these out.
6. Scrub tough stains with dish soap and warm water.
Some stains just won’t come off, even with hours and hours of soaking. For those, take a scrubby sponge and dish soap and scrub away.
7. Rinse the oven racks in your bathtub or outside using a garden hose.
Do whatever is easiest for you. If you’re cleaning the oven racks outside, just set them against the wall of your house and rinse them.
8. Towel and air dry.
9. Place the oven racks back into your oven.
How to Clean Oven Racks with Dryer Sheets
What You Need
- Dryer sheets
- Dish soap
- Bathtub
- A couple of towels
- Scrubby sponge
1. Place dryer sheets in your bathtub – enough to cover the base of your oven racks.
Your oven racks will sit on dryer sheets in your bathtub. The material in the dryer sheets helps break down tough stains.
2. Set the oven racks on the dryer sheets and submerge them in warm or hot water.
For the best results, make sure your oven racks are fully submerged.
3. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dish soap to help cut grease on your oven racks.
The dish soap will help cut the grease on your oven racks.
4. Let the oven racks soak overnight.
Depending on how nasty your oven racks are, you may not need to soak overnight. Start with 2-3 hours and see if the oven racks are looking cleaner. If the chemicals are working, you’ll start to see the water in your tub lose its color.
5. Remove them from the water and scrub any tough stains with a sponge or rag.
You can also take one of the dryer sheets and scrub the oven rack with it. After hours of soaking, any remaining stains should come off pretty easily.
6. Rinse the oven racks under warm running water to remove all the dish soap.
7. Set your racks on a towel to air dry completely.
You can also set them outside to air dry.
8. Place your oven racks back into the oven.
How to Clean Oven Racks with Foil
What You Need
- Dish soap
- Bathtub
- Aluminum foil
- Large dish towels
1. Wrap your entire oven rack in aluminum foil.
This is much easier if you take the foil out of its container first because you don’t have the sharp cutting edge to deal with.
Lay out a large sheet of aluminum foil (or two if your oven rack is wide) on your kitchen counter.
Set your oven rack on the foil. Make sure the foil spans the entire rack.
Then continue to roll the foil over the top of your oven rack.
Roll the foil a little longer over the top so you can fold it around the bottom of the rack. This makes sure the foil stays on while the racks soak in your tub.
2. Set down a couple of dish towels in your bathtub.
This will prevent the racks from scratching your tub.
3. Set the oven racks in your bathtub.
4. Add a half cup of dish soap to your bathtub.
Mix the soap thoroughly to produce some suds.
Dish soap is great at cutting the tough grease on your racks. And everyone has it in their home!
5. Submerge the oven racks in hot water.
Make sure you don’t burn yourself with the hot water.
6. Let it soak for at least an hour.
Like in all these methods, you can soak your oven racks anywhere from an hour to overnight.
7. Unwrap the foil and remove the oven racks.
8. Rinse the oven racks under warm running water.
9. Let them air dry outside or in your bathtub.
10. Place them back into your oven
How to Clean Oven Racks with Easy Off Kitchen Degreaser
What You Need
- Easy Off (or another popular kitchen degreaser)
- Scrubby sponge
- A couple of dish towels
- Bathtub
- Large dish towels for your oven racks
1. Remove oven racks from your oven.
Make sure that your oven is cool before removing the racks.
2. Set down a couple of dish towels in your tub.
3. Lay your oven racks on the towel.
The towels prevent your oven racks from scratching the bathtub.
4. Spray the oven racks generously with Easy Off and wait 15 to 30 minutes.
5. Dip a non-scratch scouring pad or scrubby sponge into hot water and scrub the oven rack.
If the stains struggle to come off, repeat steps four and five a few more times.
7. Wipe the racks clean with a wet cloth or sponge.
8. Rinse them off under warm running water.
9. Towel the racks off and let them air dry.
10. Place them back into your oven.
How to Clean Oven Racks With Steel Wool
What You Need
- Steel wool
- Dish soap
- Scrubby sponge
- Bathtub
1. Set a couple of dish towels on the bottom of your bathtub to prevent scratching.
2. Fill the tub a couple inches with warm water
Fill it with just enough water to cover the oven racks when submerged
3. Place the oven racks in your bathtub.
4. Add a half cup of dish soap and let the racks soak for about an hour.
More difficult stains may take longer to break down. If you're just looking for a surface-level clean, 15 minutes should do the trick.
5. Scrub the racks thoroughly with steel wool.
After soaking, if you notice any difficult stains, scrub them with steel wool.
It won't damage the stainless steel racks. But just make sure to avoid using it on glass, porcelain, or marble surfaces – any surface that is prone to scratching.
6. Rinse them off with warm running water.
7. Towel the racks off and let them air dry.
If you don’t wipe all the water off with a towel, some might leave water marks on your newly cleaned oven racks.
8. Place them back into your oven.
What is the easiest way to clean oven racks?
The easiest way to clean oven racks is to use a kitchen degreaser. A kitchen degreaser is the easiest way to clean oven racks because you don't need anything else and it only takes 30 minutes. Just remove the racks, spray them, wait up to 30 minutes, then rinse them and wipe them with a cloth.
The easiest place to clean your oven racks is in the bathtub. It's one of the only areas in your home that's large enough to hold your oven racks – and it can easily be cleaned.
If you don't have a kitchen degreaser handy, try using ammonia, foil, dryer sheets, steel wool, or a product called Easy Off. Then scrub them with a sponge to remove built-up grease.
How do you clean discolored oven racks?
To clean your discolored oven racks, use a baking soda paste.
- Remove the oven racks from your oven.
- Set dish towels in your bathtub.
- Set your oven racks in the bathtub.
- Mix three parts baking soda and one part water in a bowl.
- Use a scrubby sponge or aluminum foil to scrub the paste on the discolored areas.
- Rinse the oven rack under warm running water in your bathtub.
- Dry the oven rack off with a paper towel or microfiber cloth.
If the stain persists, try adding a little hydrogen peroxide to the baking soda paste. For a safe mixture, use two parts baking soda and one part hydrogen peroxide. This will help lift the stain and will make your racks look nice and shiny.
If both of these methods fail, try one of these methods from above:
- Dish soap in the bathtub
- Ammonia and trash bags
- Dryer sheets
- Aluminum foil
- Easy Off kitchen degreaser
- Steel wool
Click here to discover the best kitchen degreaser sprays for a spotless clean.
Can you use a magic eraser on oven racks?
Don't rely on the magic eraser for all your cleaning. It is great for removing grease buildup and dirt on the surface. To get the most out of your magic eraser, use it after your oven racks have soaked for a while. All of the surface stains and dirt will disappear, making your oven racks look good as new.
But it will have trouble with baked-on food and difficult stains. If you try to tackle those stains, you might ruin the magic eraser.
For baked-on food, try a scrubby sponge. Better yet, let them soak in some dish soap and water first before you scrub them with the sponge. Details on this method are outlined above.
Recap
That wraps up our six simple methods to clean your oven racks. We hope one of these methods will work for you.
Here they are once again:
- Dish soap in the bathtub
- Ammonia and trash bags
- Dryer sheets
- Aluminum foil
- Easy Off kitchen degreaser
- Steel wool
Remember if you're still having trouble cleaning your oven racks, just repeat the process until they look nice and shiny. Good luck!
While you’re cleaning your oven racks, why not work on the rest of your kitchen, too? Check out the articles below!