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How to Clean an Oven Naturally

Follow along and learn how to deep clean a very dirty oven naturally with no harsh chemicals using only a few common kitchen ingredients.

Before and after pictures of a very dirty oven cleaned with baking soda and vinegar.

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In a cook from scratch kitchen, like ours, the oven gets used multiple times a day. When an oven is in constant use there will be messes created. From grease and food splatters, to the pie bubbling over and dripping down into the bottom of the oven, along with all the accidental spills, the oven will naturally get very dirty over time.

I have been putting off cleaning our oven for a very long time, over six years to be exact. While this project did take me awhile to complete and I might have complained several times about it during the process, I can’t tell you how happy I am to have a clean almost new looking oven.

I know this project would have taken way less time if I hadn’t waited so long. But then again the before and after wouldn’t be so satisfying either I guess.

A close of picture of the oven door and all the grease and grim baked onto it.

Why Use Natural Oven Cleaner

While chemical oven cleaners work very well to clean the oven, there is a reason. They are filled with harsh cleaning agents that contain chemicals like potassium hydroxide, monoethanolamine, sodium hydroxide, and butoxydiglycol. They are very irritating to the respiratory system and can burn your skin, lungs and eyes. (source)

Sometimes the smell of the oven cleaner will linger for a long time and it can become especially noticeable when the oven is turned on. Many people are wary of using such harsh chemicals around themselves and their family, especially in a place where they are going to cook their food!

Not only are chemicals bad for people, they are also bad for the environment. So of course if there is a natural alternative to the harsh chemical one, why not use that instead. Your body will thank you and so will the world around you!

What about Self-Cleaning Ovens

While many ovens are self-cleaning, using the self-cleaning feature will heat up your oven to an extremely high temperature (800-1000°F) to cook off all the grease and stuck food. This uses a lot of energy and will heat up your house. Even the outside of the oven gets really hot. It takes a while to heat up, hours to complete the cleaning cycle and a long time to cool back down.

My neighbor’s oven even caught on fire during the self-cleaning cycle. Because the oven was locked during the cleaning cycle, they weren’t able to open it to put out the fire and thus had to call in the fire department to lug the very hot fire oven out of their house.

The one and only time I used the self-cleaning feature on my oven it melted all chocolate and wax candles I had in the upper cabinets that were near by. Also, I remember how hot it got and it really made me nervous. I ran the cycle at night before but didn’t want to leave the oven unattended. So bedtime got pushed way back until I was sure that it was going to be ok.

How do you clean a really dirty oven naturally?

It is possible to clean your oven using only a few common household ingredients.

Baking soda and vinegar work together to lift off all the caked on grease and food in your oven. Soaking the oven grates in hot water and dish detergent will have them looking clean and shiny once again.

While this process is pretty straight forward, be sure to assemble all your supplies before beginning. There is nothing like starting a project only to realize you need supplies you don’t have on hand.

Q&A?

Is baking soda residue in the oven dangerous?

Baking soda is not toxic and won’t scratch your oven finish. It is particularly helpful in scrubbing off stubborn spills. It is not flammable or combustible, so there is no reason to be worried about using it in your oven.

I’ve used baking soda many times to cover a food spill in my oven that was smoking in my oven while I was still baking. This works every time to stop the burning smell and smoke. The baking soda can just be vacuumed up or wiped out later.

A very dirty oven about to be clean naturally with baking soda and vinegar.

How often should you clean your oven?

It will depend on how much you use it and how quickly it gets messy. Once or twice is a year is usually sufficient if you are cleaning up spills as they happen. The more often you clean your oven, the less work it will be.

Definitely don’t wait 6 years to clean it though like I did! Cleaning this dirty oven ended up taking a long time for me!

An oven with the door open and light on all covered with a baking soda paste left to soak for several hours.

How long does it take to clean your oven with baking soda and vinegar?

The amount of time will vary depending on how dirty your oven is. Plan for 30 minutes if your oven isn’t too dirty.

To be completely honest, from start to finish it probably took me close to two hours of scrubbing and wiping clean my oven this time. I broke this up throughout the afternoon and evening so It wasn’t done all at once.

I have done it in much less time before. My oven was just so dirty this time since it had been six years since I had cleaned it.

Supplies needed to clean an oven naturally. Baking soda, salt, dish detergent, spray bottle, white vinegar, gloves, aluminum foil, lemon essential oil, scraper, sponge, spatula, old towel and rags.

Supplies Needed

Optional but helpful

  • Lemon or Tea Tree Essential Oil
  • Old Toothbrush (for nooks and crannies)
  • Gloves
  • Aluminum Foil (to wrap up the heating elements)

Directions for How to Clean an Oven Naturally

Make Baking Soda Paste

Add 3 parts baking soda with 1 part water (2 cups baking soda to 2/3 cups water is about enough to cover the bottom, sides, door and back of the oven). Mix baking soda and water together until it forms a smooth paste. You don’t want it too watery or too thick. Optional: add in several drops of tea tree or lemon essential oil. Tea tree and lemon are good clean smells and they will help with cutting through the grease. Stir together.

Woman's hand holding a spatula stirring a baking soda and water mixture.

Make Vinegar Spray

To an empty spray bottle, add 2 parts vinegar and 1 part water (2 cups vinegar and 1 cup water) and several drops of lemon or tea tree essential oil. Shake before spraying as the essential oils will rise to the top after resting.

Clean Oven Racks

Remove the oven racks and soak them in dish hot water and dish detergent. A bathtub works great for this. Line your tub with an old towel to keep it from getting scratched. Then place your oven grates on the towels. Add 1 cup of liquid dish detergent and fill the tub to cover the racks. Allow the racks to soak for several hours or overnight if you can. Then take a scrub brush or sponge and scrub all the grim off the oven grates. The grim should come over very easily after soaking for several hours.

Oven racks places on an old towel, set to soak in a bathtub with dish detergent and hot water.

Clean Out Crumbs and Protect Heating Elements

Clean out all the crumbs from the bottom of your oven with a vacuum or damp cloth. Then take pieces of aluminum foil and carefully wrap up the heating elements. This will ensure that the heating elements won’t come in contact with the baking soda solution. In the case of a gas oven, use the foil to block the interior vents to keep the baking soda from falling down there.

A woman holding a vacuum nozzle cleaning out the crumbs in the dirty oven.
The electric heating element wrapped in foil to protect it during the cleaning processes.

Apply Baking Soda Paste

Spread this paste onto the bottom, sides and door of your oven using a silicon spatula or a thin cheap paint brush. Sprinkle a little salt onto the really dirty portions of your oven. Let the paste sit for at least one hour, but it you have the time, overnight is better.

A woman's hand holding a spatula coating the dirty oven in a baking soda and water paste to clean it.

Scrub the Oven

After letting the baking soda paste soak the cooked grease and grime on the oven, it’s time to clean it up. Take the spray bottle with vinegar, water and essential oil mixture and spray the area of the oven you are going to scrub.

Be sure to avoid the heating elements or in the case of a gas oven, be sure to keep the baking soda from falling into the heat vents on the bottom of your oven. For any really baked on bits, use a stiff plastic or metal scraper. Be careful not to scratch the oven while scraping. The stubborn spots should come off fairly easily with the scraper.

A woman's hand holding a scraper scraping off the grease and grim that the baking soda has soften up.

Tip: Add an old towel under the oven door to catch any mess that your might make during the scrubbing phase.

Note: When baking soda and vinegar come in contact with each other they have a chemical reaction and will fizz. This is not harmful.

Wipe Out the Baking Soda and Vinegar

After thoroughly scrubbing and scraping your oven, take old rags or paper towels and wipe up as much of the baking soda off as you can. Then use the vinegar spray and spray down the all the surfaces again and wipe it clean with a cloth or paper towel. Then remove the foil from around the heating elements.

After wiping down everything really well, put the cleaned oven grates back in and start baking again.

The interior of an oven cleaned with baking soda and vinegar looking very clean.

It was worth the effort!

Can you believe this is the same oven? I can’t.

Using baking soda and vinegar worked so well to clean all the grime off the oven. It’s almost like having a new oven!

Let me know if you try cleaning your oven with baking soda and vinegar. Be sure to drop any tips or tricks you learn along the way down below in the comments.

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3 Comments

  1. The ingredient list mentions salt but I didn’t read anything about using salt in the instructions. Did I miss something? Thanks for you help.

    1. You can use salt for extra scrubbing if needed. I’ll have to read back through the instructions and see if I missed something. Thanks!

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