You people are even weirder than I am
Mar. 28th, 2012 02:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commodorifiedBut since various people asked how to get one's oven door off, apart, and clean and various other people expressed an interest in other stages of stove cleaning, I figured I might as well put it all in one place. So here is:
How To Take Your Stove Completely Apart I Mean To Little Tiny Stove-Bits And Get (almost) All The Crap, Corruption, Dust, Decay, Grunge, Grease, and General Grossness Out Of, Off Of, And Out From Under It In 6 Hours Of Hard Labour Give Or Take, or, Seriously People, Stop Making Food It Gets Everywhere, A Really Quite Lavishly Illustrated Essay.
Disclaimer 1: Your Stove May Vary. Parts May Not Be As Pictured Here. Also, Gas Stoves Are Different In Many Respects.
Disclaimer 2: Yes, the stove in the pictures is already very clean. I took these pictures the day after the six hour marathon of stove-scrubbing.
0) What I use:
Steel wool, sponge with non-abrasive/teflon-safe scrubbie, paper towels or soft cotton rags.
Eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner, baking soda and vinegar, glass cleaner, water, dishsoap.
1) Depending on which is easier to reach, either unplug the stove or turn off the breaker before you start sloshing water around in large quantities near an electric stove.
(You may click on this or any photo to see all sizes, including huge)
2) Remove the burners, burner bowls, and burner rims.
The burners pull straight out
And can be lifted clear.
The burner bowls and rims
lift straight out
and can then be put in the sink to soak in very hot water and dishsoap. When you're ready to scrub them, steel wool works best.
If you'd rather never have to scrub them quite that hard again, you can buy aluminum foil burner bowl liners, and I really should stop forgetting to.
3) While you're at it, open the oven door, take the oven racks out,
and smear a baking soda and water paste over the nasty spots on the oven floor and walls. Leave this to work while you do the rest of the stove. Even better, do this the night before. You can then spray vinegar over the surfaces when you're ready to clean the oven, let it fizz until all or most of the baking soda has foamed away, swab it out with a wet sponge, and go after any remaining crap with steel wool and all purpose cleaner.
I dislike commercial oven cleaner; it scares me out of my wits. I've used it a few times when I was for some reason desperate, but it's dangerous to use, it's dangerous to keep around, it's hard to get all of it out of the oven after, it leaves a foul smell behind it...
In small but useful tricks
it's easier to do the floor of your oven if you prop the bottom element up out of your way with a pop can or similar.
When you're done, line your oven floor with tinfoil so that you basically never have to do this again. Then start saving for a self-cleaning oven.
4) Meanwhile, your burners, bowls, rims, and racks are soaking happily - I have been known to use the bathtub for this; a hand-held shower is especially handy when you get to the cleaning stage. If you don't have a bathtub it's hard to soak large objects, but a shower cubicle can be very handy for rinsing them. Just pile them all in there and turn the water on them.
5) Wash the stovetop with all purpose cleaner and a sponge. This is the part that probably gets cleaned the oftenest, so it's probably the easiest part to do, unless you're taking your stove apart because you've just had a major kitchen disaster or a burner fire or something.
6) The piece at the back which covers the stovetop light
flips up
and the control knobs come off.
Undo the clips that hold the glass backing in place
And you can lift it right out, allowing you to clean both sides of it with glass cleaner and paper towel, and the metal behind it with a sponge and a bit of all purpose cleaner.
7) Your stovetop should just lift up
and prop open so you can clean the underside of the top and the surface below with a sponge and all-purpose cleaner.
8) The sides of the stove are the sides of the stove: nothing interesting, you just go over them with all purpose cleaner and a sponge and then rinse them. They probably get cleaned fairly oiften too, along with the front of the oven door.
9) So, now we're going to take the oven door off.
Take hold of the handle and lift the door straight up slightly, then pull it away from the stove:
The hinges will pop out.
Turn the door upside down:
And gently - you don't want to strip them - undo all of the screws
Your door will now come apart. The side pieces
will probably separate from the inside and outside of the door. They're fairly easy to put back on; if you look back at the last picture you'll see how they fit in at the bottom corners. If you forget to make a note of how they went on just keep juggling them around until the screw-holes line up.
Depending on how nasty the inside of your oven door is, you can either go after it will all purpose cleaner, steel wool and then a sponge, or you can leave it to soak in the bathtub while you do the oven and then go after it.
10) The oven drawer pulls straight out
which allows you to both clean it and clean under and behind the stove easily. Not to mention retrieving all the small toys you distinctly remember purchasing for your cats which haven't been seen for months.
11) Dry everything off with paper towels or rags, put it all back together, and ... order in pizza. Let somebody else's stove get spattered all over with tomato sauce, just this once. Sit and admire yours while you eat the pizza.
Disclaimer 1: Your Stove May Vary. Parts May Not Be As Pictured Here. Also, Gas Stoves Are Different In Many Respects.
Disclaimer 2: Yes, the stove in the pictures is already very clean. I took these pictures the day after the six hour marathon of stove-scrubbing.
0) What I use:
Steel wool, sponge with non-abrasive/teflon-safe scrubbie, paper towels or soft cotton rags.
Eco-friendly all-purpose cleaner, baking soda and vinegar, glass cleaner, water, dishsoap.
1) Depending on which is easier to reach, either unplug the stove or turn off the breaker before you start sloshing water around in large quantities near an electric stove.
(You may click on this or any photo to see all sizes, including huge)
2) Remove the burners, burner bowls, and burner rims.
The burners pull straight out
And can be lifted clear.
The burner bowls and rims
lift straight out
and can then be put in the sink to soak in very hot water and dishsoap. When you're ready to scrub them, steel wool works best.
If you'd rather never have to scrub them quite that hard again, you can buy aluminum foil burner bowl liners, and I really should stop forgetting to.
3) While you're at it, open the oven door, take the oven racks out,
and smear a baking soda and water paste over the nasty spots on the oven floor and walls. Leave this to work while you do the rest of the stove. Even better, do this the night before. You can then spray vinegar over the surfaces when you're ready to clean the oven, let it fizz until all or most of the baking soda has foamed away, swab it out with a wet sponge, and go after any remaining crap with steel wool and all purpose cleaner.
I dislike commercial oven cleaner; it scares me out of my wits. I've used it a few times when I was for some reason desperate, but it's dangerous to use, it's dangerous to keep around, it's hard to get all of it out of the oven after, it leaves a foul smell behind it...
In small but useful tricks
it's easier to do the floor of your oven if you prop the bottom element up out of your way with a pop can or similar.
When you're done, line your oven floor with tinfoil so that you basically never have to do this again. Then start saving for a self-cleaning oven.
4) Meanwhile, your burners, bowls, rims, and racks are soaking happily - I have been known to use the bathtub for this; a hand-held shower is especially handy when you get to the cleaning stage. If you don't have a bathtub it's hard to soak large objects, but a shower cubicle can be very handy for rinsing them. Just pile them all in there and turn the water on them.
5) Wash the stovetop with all purpose cleaner and a sponge. This is the part that probably gets cleaned the oftenest, so it's probably the easiest part to do, unless you're taking your stove apart because you've just had a major kitchen disaster or a burner fire or something.
6) The piece at the back which covers the stovetop light
flips up
and the control knobs come off.
Undo the clips that hold the glass backing in place
And you can lift it right out, allowing you to clean both sides of it with glass cleaner and paper towel, and the metal behind it with a sponge and a bit of all purpose cleaner.
7) Your stovetop should just lift up
and prop open so you can clean the underside of the top and the surface below with a sponge and all-purpose cleaner.
8) The sides of the stove are the sides of the stove: nothing interesting, you just go over them with all purpose cleaner and a sponge and then rinse them. They probably get cleaned fairly oiften too, along with the front of the oven door.
9) So, now we're going to take the oven door off.
Take hold of the handle and lift the door straight up slightly, then pull it away from the stove:
The hinges will pop out.
Turn the door upside down:
And gently - you don't want to strip them - undo all of the screws
Your door will now come apart. The side pieces
will probably separate from the inside and outside of the door. They're fairly easy to put back on; if you look back at the last picture you'll see how they fit in at the bottom corners. If you forget to make a note of how they went on just keep juggling them around until the screw-holes line up.
Depending on how nasty the inside of your oven door is, you can either go after it will all purpose cleaner, steel wool and then a sponge, or you can leave it to soak in the bathtub while you do the oven and then go after it.
10) The oven drawer pulls straight out
which allows you to both clean it and clean under and behind the stove easily. Not to mention retrieving all the small toys you distinctly remember purchasing for your cats which haven't been seen for months.
11) Dry everything off with paper towels or rags, put it all back together, and ... order in pizza. Let somebody else's stove get spattered all over with tomato sauce, just this once. Sit and admire yours while you eat the pizza.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-29 07:14 pm (UTC)