Clean your oven using Ammonia

Since I became a less “disguised” Superhero, friends have been sending me links to various cleaning recipes and – most of them environmentally friendly. Many are recipes about how you might easily clean your oven.

If you are like most people, you love a clean oven, but you hate to actually CLEAN your oven.

I am unlike most people, and my oven is not quite the disaster zone that many of us hide – but as you can see, there is definitely room for improvement. Those stubborn dark spots are baked on, and do NOT respond to my gentle solutions to date.

I was given a recipe for an apparently amazing solution, that will easily allow you to clean your oven. It involves, primarily, ammonia. I’ve never used ammonia – at least not knowingly. So when I was given this recipe, the first thing I did was a Google search on the environmental and health impacts of ammonia. If you are a fastidious type that likes to check your references and facts, you will notice that the information on this site is a little alarming. When you dig a little deeper you will also notice that the available information is about more commercial or industrial amounts of ammonia. The main concern thing that you should have is ventilation. Make sure that your kitchen is able to get a good air flow when you are attempting this recipe. Safety first peoples. If you do this, with the small amount of ammonia involved, you should be absolutely fine. According to the research… Don’t even think about giving that stuff a good old sniff.

So I decided to sacrifice myself in the pursuit of further knowledge about “keeping home like a boss”. I am going to try this solution, and I’m going to tell you what I find. Plus, I suspect that my Grandmother would have told me not to be so precious – and that she had used ammonia herself without noticeable effect. We won’t mention the third nipple.

Stage one – Clean your Oven

1. The first part of this is very easy. Sometime in the evening, put a pot of water on your stove to boil.
2. At the same time, heat your oven to 60 degrees. This is warm, but by no means hot. Turn it off.
3. Put 1 cup of ammonia in an oven-proof dish, and put it in your oven on the top rack. I used Cloudy Ammonia, which I purchased from Coles.
4. When it has boiled, put the pot of water on the bottom shelf of your oven.
5. Close the oven door, resist the temptation to sniff that ammonia, and leave the whole caboodle overnight to do its thing.

Remember what I said. Make sure your kitchen is well-ventilated. I do not want to have any recalcitrant nipples on my conscience.

Stage two – Clean your Oven

Drink a big glass of water, and go to bed. Have a good nights sleep. Hydration and rest are very important.

Stage three – Clean your Oven

When I awoke, I eagerly checked my oven. Again, don’t sniff when you open your oven…

This is what I found…

Yes – it was a strange phenomenon. The previously smooth dark baked on crap had all changed consistency – it looked like brown elephant skin. I took this as a good sign. So, onto the next activity, if you want to clean your oven…

1. Add 4 cups of water and a couple of teaspoons of dishwashing liquid to the ammonia.
2. Get rid of the pot of water.
3. Put on a pair of gloves, grab a scrubber, and use the above solution to gently wipe away your oven grime. You will notice that it is very easy to get rid of that previously baked on grime.
4. I filled my sink with warm water to rinse a cloth, which I used to wipe away my oven grime. It worked.

This is the result – before and after…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the overall effect…

I’m quite pleased with that. If you like it, perhaps you might like to clean YOUR oven.

If you have any comments or alternate solutions, I’d be very pleased to hear them. If you like this post, please give it the thumbs up (there’s a wee icon below). If you hate this post, give it the thumbs down.

I’m about to descend on a friend’s oven to try the eco-friendly solution that I have also been sent… My job here is done – but do you want to clean your oven? Perhaps you might want to engage your own Superhero in Disguise.