As Seen on Pinterest: Baking Soda Oven Cleaner


All over pinterest there are DIY recipes for cleaners made from inexpensive household products.  Baking Soda is one of the most popular ingredients (that and vinegar). I have seen a couple of recipes for oven cleaner made with baking soda, but recently I saw one that called for just baking soda and water  That's it. Nothing else. I figured it couldn't possibly work, but since it was so easy, I had to give it a whirl.


This cleaner is billed as being able to clean your oven door and window to a clear shine.  All you need to do is cover the door in baking soda and water paste, let it sit for 30 minutes, and wipe it off.


So I sprinkled baking soda all over the door and then I tried to use a wet dish brush to make the paste (so as to get a little scrubbing in even though the instructions didn't call for it), but there wasn't enough water on the brush to work.  So I got a paper towel wet and squeezed it out onto the baking soda a couple of times and then used my hand to smoosh the paste around the door so that it covered all over.  As I did this, the baking soda started turning from white to off white, so it was cleaning up the grime (not that surprising since I didn't even wipe the door off with a damp cloth before hand).


Then I let it sit. I left it for about 45 minutes (for good measure).  It was still mostly wet but had set up just a bit.  I wiped as much of it off of the door with a dry paper towel as possible.  It took several trips to the trash can before it was sort of cleared off.  Then I had to go in and scrub off the remnants and the streaks of white with a damp paper towel, then again with a wet wash cloth after nearly all of the baking soda was removed.


As you can see, it definitely cleaned my oven door.  It's a heck of a lot cleaner than it was before.  But what you can't see in the photo is that the oven window (and a few places on the door) are still dingy and discolored.  

I am giving this a "sort of works" verdict for two reasons.  It was nowhere near as easy as the instructions made it out to be.  There was a lot of clean up and wiping off and scrubbing involved. And because the door didn't come miraculously clean. 

However, if you are looking for a less caustic way to take a layer off of your oven door, this could be a good option. There are also some recipes floating around combining baking soda, vinegar, and dish soap that I may try after my oven door gets good and dirty once again.

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