can i clean oven racks with ammonia in cold oven

Easy Alternative Way to Clean Your Electric Oven…

After having such great success with using ammonia fumes to clean the grates of my grill and stovetop, I decided that using a similar method to clean the inside of my oven would be worth a shot. (This method is not recommended for gas ovens.)

how to clean a dirty oven (dirty oven pics)

Why Clean Your Oven with Ammonia?

Store-bought oven cleaners can cost more and are full of chemicals. Plus, an oven repairman told a friend of mine that the self-clean feature on ovens can be hard on the oven itself and shorten the life of it in the long run. Is this true? I'm not sure, but I suppose it makes sense because that method uses such high temperatures for an extended time.

Materials Needed for Cleaning Your Oven with Ammonia

cleaning oven with ammonia

Ammonia
2 heat-safe glass dishes
Some sponges
Water
A dirty oven

How to Clean an Oven with Ammonia

Preheat the oven to 200, then turn it off.
Place about 2 cups of ammonia in a glass heat-safe dish on the top rack of the oven.
Use another glass heat-safe dish and fill it with about 2 cups of boiling water and carefully place on the lower rack.
Close oven door.
Let the fumes work overnight, or for 8-12 hours.

Note: some fumes will escape the oven, so if possible, open some nearby windows to ventilate the area.

ammonia and water in the dirty oven

I recently needed to clean a rental home so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to test cleaning an oven with ammonia. The oven definitely hadn't been cleaned in a long time (as you can see from the pictures) so let's see how well this method works!

sponge to clean inside of dirty oven

After you let the ammonia and the water sit in the oven overnight, you should be able to wipe most of it clean with just a hot, wet scrub sponge. It worked pretty well for me! There were a few spots that required a bit of scrubbing, but most of the gunk came off with ease.

oven door half clean half dirty

They suggested sprinkling baking soda onto the hot, wet sponge before wiping. But from my experience, I don't think the baking soda helped a whole lot and I had to wipe over the surface again with water to get rid of the film left behind. So, I just did it without the baking soda.

cleaning oven rack half dirty half clean

Overall, I would definitely do it this way again. I think it's one of the best ways to clean an electric oven. Plus ammonia is cheap and easy to find in the cleaning supplies aisle!

Hope you have equally great results cleaning your oven with ammonia!

after cleaning oven with ammonia

About Cleaning with Ammonia:

If you have a gas oven, you can still try this method, but you will need to turn off the pilot light, make sure it is out and the gas has been turned off.
For safety precautions, wear rubber gloves and safety glasses when working with ammonia. You don't want it to splash up into your eyes! The Poison Control Center recommends disposing of your ammonia down a sink where there is plenty of ventilation, such as a garage sink. If you do not have a garage sink, they recommend opening a window near the sink you are using for 10-15 minutes.
Never mix ammonia with other strong cleaning agents, such as bleach or oven cleaners.
Household ammonia cleaning solutions usually have between 5 -10% ammonia. If you store and use the proper safety precautions with household ammonia, it can be used WITHOUT any toxic effects.

More Great DIY Household Cleaner Recipes:

EASY Way to Clean Stove Burners & Grill Grates!
DIY Homemade Tub/Shower Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}
DIY All Purpose Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}
DIY Window & Glass Cleaner {Picture Tutorial}
DIY Kitchen Sink Cleaner
Two Ingredient Natural Drain Cleaner!

See all of our DIY household cleaner recipes here!

This post first appeared on Fabulessly Frugal on May 15, 2015