A common practice prior to the holidays is everyone cleans their home to make everything look its best when company arrives. One of the chores is cleaning the oven. I think this is a nice thing to do, but prior planning is important in this regard. Self cleaning ovens and ranges are great when it comes to saving time and the drudgery and mess associated with this detail. However, the process of self cleaning can lead to huge stress levels and a disappointing holiday event. The high temperatures that self clean ovens get to can affect several parts that are essential to your oven working. The thermostat, ignitors and burners are subject to 800-900 degree temperatures that can weaken or cause a failure at the most inappropriate time. Sometimes the weakening will happen with out notice and failure can happen while you are trying to cook the most important meal of the season. Other times the failure will happen during the cleaning without notice and with little or no time for service to repair before your event.

With that said, please plan well in advance and clean your range or oven with enough time to test it out and potentially have service available to fix it as needed. OR, wait until after the planned meal to do the cleaning so as not to chance a potential failure.