Self cleanlng oven questions.

We learned why our self cleaning oven doesn't self clean; apparently the manufacturer coats the interior with a chemical, which is eaten away by most cleansers.

Irritating -- nothing about that in our instruction book.

Anyone know how to add the chemical back onto the surface of the oven?

Or is it elbow grease time for Bob?

[Robin Garr]

We learned why our self cleaning oven doesn't self clean; apparently the manufacturer coats the interior with a chemical, which is eaten away by most cleansers.

Bob, by "self cleaning" do you mean what is (or used to be) called "continuous cleaning," a coated interior that allegedly cleans itself during normal use? My recollection is that Consumer Report weighed in very negatively on those as just about useless.

What I think is usually meant by a "self-cleaning oven" works by securing the front door with an interlock device and cleaning at an extreme high temperature. This should work just fine irrespective of coating, but I gather that's not what you're talking about.

If I'm interpreting correctly here, I think it's elbow-grease time for Bob.

Bob, the only self-cleaning ovens I know of that work are the ones Robin mentions - you heat to 500 deg C, so that everything in them burns to cinders, and can be swept out later. I didn't know there was a chemical version ! I wonder if it's safe to use an off the shelf oven cleaner, given that there might still be residual chemical coating on your oven ?

Celia

We learned why our self cleaning oven doesn't self clean; apparently the manufacturer coats the interior with a chemical, which is eaten away by most cleansers.

Bob, by "self cleaning" do you mean what is (or used to be) called "continuous cleaning," a coated interior that allegedly cleans itself during normal use? My recollection is that Consumer Report weighed in very negatively on those as just about useless.

What I think is usually meant by a "self-cleaning oven" works by securing the front door with an interlock device and cleaning at an extreme high temperature. This should work just fine irrespective of coating, but I gather that's not what you're talking about.

If I'm interpreting correctly here, I think it's elbow-grease time for Bob.

No, Robin, it's the usual type with a front door lock -- patented -- that can't be opened until 30 minutes after the cleaning cycle. On our oven it can be set for from two to three hours, and internal temps reach 900F.

We've noticed that the self cleaning doesn't self clean and hasn't for three or more years -- the oven is about ten years old. I was bitching to an old time appliance sales guy at Sears last night, and he asked if we ever cleaned the self cleaning oven with bleach. Janet said we had, and Lennie told us that we had destroyed the chemical finish that permits the relatively low heat to actually clean the surface. He said that the chemical treatment is something of a secret.

I've done a bit of checking and found that there are two different versions of Easy Off, one marked "Safe for Self Cleaning Ovens", the other marked "America's No. 1 Oven Cleaner." Lennie said to try cleaning with the first type -- he was doubtful but thought it might refresh the chemical coating in the self cleaner.

We've dealt with Lennie on a number of purchases over the past four years, and he has never steered us wrong. I have no reason to doubt what he told us.

His advice on self cleaning ovens of the type we are discussing -- he has contempt for the "continuous cleaning type" which actually sell at a premium at Sears -- is to finish baking, say a duck as he did this New Years, wipe out anything that spills with water and vinegar, then run a two hour Self Cleaning cycle while folks are having dinner and during clean up afterwards.

He says if you need to use something beyond vinegar and water, Bon Ami is the only brand name cleaner that really is safe for self cleaning ovens. Use Bon Ami, rinse out with vinegar and water, and then run the cycle.

All this is news to me -- but I sure did use the regular Oven Off and also Easy Scrub with Bleach in the past. And, three hours on the Self Cleaning cycle did almost nothing a week ago.

Again, I don't see anything in our oven's literature about this, but the two versions of Easy Off corroborates Lennie's account in my mind.

Regards, Bob

Au contraire. I had a continuous cleaning oven with catalytic surfaces all around that worked just great, but then they don't make things like they used to.

FWIW, our oven is "self cleaning", it's had old school Easy Off used on it quite a bit, and it still self cleans just fine. Well, when we can jimmy the broken timers in such a way that it will go into its self cleaning cycle. And then the problem is re-jimmying the timers so that it will turn itself off and unlock the door.

But once we get through all of that, we have a clean oven.

Mike, how old is your oven? Ours is a GE Monogram, about 11 years old. Regards, Bob

I'm starting to get really irritated; Wikipedia has this to say: bottom line my oven probably did have a coating:

A self-cleaning oven is designed to stay locked until the high temperature process is completed. A mechanical interlock, patented in 1982, is used to keep the oven door locked and closed during and immediately after the high-temperature cleaning cycle, which lasts approximately three hours, to prevent possible burn injuries. Usually, the door can be opened after the temperature cools to approximately 600 °F (approximately 300 °C).

Some newer self-cleaning ovens do require a liquid cleaning soap, and a small amount is used if needed. Most self-cleaning ovens, however, do not require the use of any cleaning products.

Self-cleaning ovens usually have more insulation than standard ovens to reduce the possibility of fire. The insulation also reduces the amount of energy needed for normal cooking.

The walls of self-cleaning ovens are coated with materials acting as oxidation catalysts, usually in the form of catalyst particles in a binder matrix. Cerium(IV) oxide is one of the common materials used. Other possibilities are copper, vanadium, bismuth, molybdenum, manganese, iron, nickel, tin, niobium, chromium, tungsten, rhenium, platinum, cobalt, and their oxides, either alone or in mixtures. Highly active coatings typically contain a copper oxide, manganese oxide or cobalt oxide, and copper and manganese oxides are often used together. The binder may be a fluoropolymer or an enamel frit. [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_ovens

I'm going to double check the GE Monogram instructions; our general contractor (my main and only squeeze) did a great deal of research when she built the house and installed the oven -- maybe Lennie is right and this is a bit of hush hush.

Well, does anyone know a good lawyer? Here are the current warnings for the GE Monogram; no such warning in our manual.

• Do not use oven cleaners. No commercial oven
cleaner or oven liner protective coating of any
kind should be used in or around any part of
the oven. Residue from oven cleaners will
damage the inside of the oven when the
self-clean cycle is used.

They did a lot more than damage the interior, they prevented the self cleaning function to work at all.

Go get them, Bob !!

Celia

Mike, how old is your oven? Ours is a GE Monogram, about 11 years old. Regards, Bob

Don't know, Bob, as it came with the house. It's strikes me as being pretty old, though. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an '80's model. (I thought it was older, but it must be newer than '82).