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alyssa_harnish

How to get oven cleaner out of self-cleaning oven?!?!

Alyssa Harnish
4 years ago

I sprayed oven cleaner all over the inside of my oven, locked the door & turned it on self clean for 4.5 hours. It wasn't until the cycle finished & none of the residue was wiping off, that I wasn't supposed to do that! I tried hot water, a sponge & a wet rag to clean up the massive amounts of residue all over the inside, but it didn't work, it just smeared it around. Palm in face moment to say the least. The oven is still warm so I was going to let it sit over night & try again... But should I use something to soak it overnight? Is there anything I can do to get it off/help remove it? I don't want to buy a new oven & I don't want to tell my BF either! Please help me

Comments (7)

  • wilson853
    4 years ago

    Try white vinegar and hot water.

    Alyssa Harnish thanked wilson853
  • dadoes
    4 years ago

    You made a serious mistake. What led you to believe that the self-clean process involves spray-on oven cleaner? Self-clean reaches up 900°F so the cleaner was burning in there, generating noxious chemical fumes. It may never come off to the point that the oven is safe to use.

  • live_wire_oak
    4 years ago
    last modified: 4 years ago

    Buy a new oven. Oven cleaner is corrosive. Even if you can remove the visible “residue” from the interior, corrosive vapors have likely damaged the wiring. And who knows what else surrounding it. You’re lucky they didn’t damage your lungs! Just the plain fumes from a self cleaning oven, kills birds, and that’s without any added corrosive chemicals.

  • M
    4 years ago

    The corrosive compound in oven cleaner is lye (sodium hydroxide). It evaporates about as easily as kitchen salt. It also doesn't burn. In other words, no it won't evaporate and get on everything. On the other hand, whatever it already happens to be on will have been attacked much more aggressively than during normal cleaning. Heat makes corrosive things more corrosive. So, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the metal racks or the enamel coated walls of the oven were now suffering from surface pitting. Hopefully, this is just a cosmetic problem after a single mistake like this. But it is possible that some of the racks are now more prone to rusting. Depends on what they are made of.

    The good news is that lye is water soluble. Use a wet sponge and some paper towels and clean up that mess. Make sure to wear tall rubber gloves. Lye is not fun to get on your skin. If you do get it on skin (or worse, into your eyes), wash off with plenty of water.

    Another ingredient is DEGBE. It's a solvent that is favored thanks to its high boiling point. But at the temperatures present during self cleaning, it should have evaporated completely. For the DEGBE, the main health concern is the fact that it causes eye irritations. That would have been an issue during the self clean cycle, but won't be a problem now.

    Finally, there are small quantities of diethanolamine in Eazy-Off (around 1%). That substance is potentially more harmful to your body, but I don't think it causes any damage to the oven. It also fully evaporates and disappears during a self-cleaning cycle. It's the stuff that makes oven cleaner smell like ammonia.

    So, yes, my main concern would be with proper venting during the cleaning cycle, and with damage to the oven surfaces thanks to extended high-temperature exposure to lye. Other than that, the harm is likely mostly cosmetic and any harm done to people would have happened during the cleaning cycle.

    Whatever is left in the oven now, is comparatively benign and can be removed with water.

    In other words, don't do this again. It's stupid. It's dangerous during the self cleaning cycle. And it really isn't doing a good job at cleaning. But you are likely to be able to recover from it, if you now thoroughly wash the inside of the oven with water.

  • Jo
    4 years ago

    I think you should call the place where you bought the oven or the manufacturer for advice.

  • Cookie Glaze
    5 months ago

    I used Sprayway spray glass cleaner. Worked like a charm! Wish I'd googled this before I wiped 3 times!