revtothelimit - motorbike forum

Slightly odd one but, has anyone used the catalytic cleaning cycle on a modern electric oven? If so does it generate a lot of smoke? (I assume it burns off/carbonised any surface deposits).

(The oven needs a damn good clean and whether I do it or get someone in, the manual says don't try and clean the catalytic surfaces any other way. I actually have one of those Lakeland kits with big plastic bags that you chuck the racks in with a caustic solution + a spray on and leave bottle of stuff for the glass and non-catalytic surfaces. There's also gloves and arm protectors!).

Roasting chickens in it has taken its toll.

How about baking soda/bicarbonate of soda? I make into a paste with water and leave it on for a couple of minutes. If it's really stubborn I sprinkle bicarb onto the surface and then add vinegar and leave that on for a couple of minutes. I don't have any catalytic surfaces

Steam cleaners are pretty awesome and work well on ovens.

Trinity765 wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2025 8:35 am How about baking soda/bicarbonate of soda? I make into a paste with water and leave it on for a couple of minutes. If it's really stubborn I sprinkle bicarb onto the surface and then add vinegar and leave that on for a couple of minutes. I don't have any catalytic surfaces

Steam cleaners are pretty awesome and work well on ovens.

Ta! I don't have a steam cleaner but I've read that putting a roasting tin full of water in and generating steam that way is good prep. Might give that a go.

If the stuff from Lakeland doesn't do the trick I'll try the soda paste on the glass too.

Going to get my hazmat suit on later.

Ours - as you might expect - gets fecking hot on the cataclysmic cleaning setting.

When done, it just needs the ash wiped out.

However, all of the shelves, guides and fixings need to be removed and cleaned the normal way.

Mrs.Skub uses that method with the bags n' schitt. It's a lengthy,messy process with nasty chemicals. Seems to work,though I take more interest in what comes out of an oven usually.

They charge around 60 quid to get a crew in.

Just buy a new oven

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2025 9:34 am Just buy a new oven

That was my initial thought.

But it's relatively new and cleaning it or spending £60 to get someone else to do it works out a tad cheaper pa.

We have an electric oven in France that has a 'Pyromaniac' setting which I was a bit scared of using at first, but it seems to work as intended. As Horse says, all that's left is ash which you vacuum up. We even put some totally minging aluminium pan supports from the hob in there to see what would happen and they cleaned up a treat.

Don't fear the Pyro! (to the tune of Don't fear the Reaper)...

Count Steer wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2025 9:47 am

Le_Fromage_Grande wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2025 9:34 am Just buy a new oven

That was my initial thought.

But it's relatively new and cleaning it or spending £60 to get someone else to do it works out a tad cheaper pa.

We barely use our oven since we invested £40 in air fryer, but we must have had the oven over ten years, I think it cost about £100

Ours has catalytic sides and roof but the floor, door and shelves need old fashioned cleaning. Little and often is the answer, fresh shit is easy, stuff burnt on by multiple cycles is a PITA. Don't even think of cleaning the catalytic stuff, if you do it stops working.

I made a start. The caustic gunk cleaned the glass a treat. I can see into the oven! Oven floor needs another session. Done a preliminary clean on the racks etc, will give 'em the 'blitz in the bag' treatment. Once all that's done I'm 'going pyro'.

We've got an air fryer/steamer (Ninja Speedi) and a Panasonic microwave combined oven but I'm not going to start roasting chickens in either of them or cooking casseroles. It's the chicken that causes the problem. (They're roasted in a tin on a trivet). I'll just have to go back to the weekly cleaning routine that I used to do when I bought it.

As far as I understand, if you have cats/dogs keep them right out of the way when you do that pyro thing, it creates some pretty nasty gasses that can make pets very unwell.

Taff wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:22 pm As far as I understand, if you have cats/dogs keep them right out of the way when you do that pyro thing, it creates some pretty nasty gasses that can make pets very unwell.

I'm going to keep right out of the way too! It'll be outside kitchen door wide open, inside door firmly shut, extract fan/cooker hood on max. Carbonising stuff definitely isn't going to create a nice atmosphere...I imagine there'll be phenols and all sorts.

I have a man in a van come and do mine. Their van even has the tag line "we do the job you hate".

He's got a tank of properly nasty shit in the back of his van (quite how he drives around with the windows up I'm not quite sure!) and he wears a gas mask when he's doing it. He takes most of the insides out to the kerb to 'process' in his van, only the main casing is left in situ.

Does the job a treat though

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:07 pm I have a man in a van come and do mine. Their van even has the tag line "we do the job you hate".

He's got a tank of properly nasty shit in the back of his van (quite how he drives around with the windows up I'm not quite sure!) and he wears a gas mask when he's doing it. He takes most of the insides out to the kerb to 'process' in his van, only the main casing is left in situ.

Does the job a treat though

It does beg the question - what are cooking that requires that level of cleaning?

Engine parts? Carbon fibre?

I fail to follow the "little and often" mantra, put it that way It's somewhat boiling frog too.

Regarding carbon, I've definitely never destroyed an industrial oven via accidents in exotherm land. No siree.

Well, I have to say the Lakeland 'boil in the bag' stuff for the racks and rack supports is pretty effective stuff, provided you can get it to coat all the metalwork and give it 12h+. (It's mainly NaOH).

The gunk for oven cleaning (mainly KOH) worked well on the glass and the less heavily hard-gunged bits of the oven floor. Struggled on the worst bits even after a 24h treatment.

Got to put the oven into use so will reassemble for now and 'go pyro' next week and see how that affects the remaining bits.

For now it looks quite hygienic.

(Managed to puncture another left hand Marigold glove. The collection of unused right hand gloves expands. Odd, as I'm RH. I'd expect those to get most punishment).

I'm guessing the onoy major difference with the men in ven is the concentration level of their chemicals. You probably can't buy NaOH at more than a few percent strength without COSHH protection/getting on a terrorist watch list.

Mr. Dazzle wrote: Wed Jan 22, 2025 9:20 pm I'm guessing the onoy major difference with the men in ven is the concentration level of their chemicals. You probably can't buy NaOH at more than a few percent strength without COSHH protection/getting on a terrorist watch list.

You can buy 25kg bags of the solid stuff (NaOH) if you want to get serious with yer oven.