What's The Best Way To Clean The Glass Panel In Your Oven Door?

Even though there are many signs that you need to clean your oven, chances are you can't remember the last time you rolled up your sleeves to do just that. Your oven should be part of your household cleaning routine, performed every six months or even every three months if baking and roasting are part of your everyday cooking repertoire.

Now that you know why and how often you should clean your oven, what are the best ways to clean it? Especially glass oven doors, with their baked-on streaks of grease? There are a few things to consider, specifically which side of the oven door is being cleaned. The outside of the door is usually relatively easier to clean, even though it may have more food stains.

Cleaning the outside of a glass oven door only requires a simple, mildly acidic solution and something to wipe it off with. Use your favorite natural glass cleaner, or mix distilled white vinegar and water in a spray bottle using a one-to-one ratio. Old newspapers are a favorite with older homemakers to clean glass as it is a cheap way to get a surefire streak-free surface. But since most folks get their news online now, microfiber cloths are your best bet to scrub away the glass cleaner and any grime gently.

Getting the interior of the oven door requires a little more patience and elbow grease to clean up. The stains are more stubborn to remove, though not impossible. It's worth emphasizing that natural products are preferred for cleaning cooking surfaces, as when the oven heats up later, it may release otherwise dangerous chemicals from synthetic cleaner residue. Your best bet at this step is an old-school cleaning favorite: baking soda.

For a regular-sized oven door, you'll need just ½ cup of baking soda. Add water to the baking soda a little at a time and mix until it achieves the consistency of a loose paste. If your oven door is particularly greasy, a few drops of Dawn dish soap can also be added. Then, smear the paste over the glass panel inside your oven door, covering every square inch. Let the paste settle for at least 20 minutes so the baking soda can loosen the grime.

In the meantime, mix one part distilled white vinegar to four parts water. After 20 minutes, dip a microfiber cloth into the vinegar solution, then wipe or scrub the baking soda paste away. For adamant stains, purpose-made glass scrapers can be used to remove them.

So the outside and the inside of the glass door panel have been cleaned, but you still see streaks when you peer through it. Oven doors with glass panels usually have two pieces of glass; unfortunately, food spills can make their way between them. With a little can-do attitude and your oven manufacturer's manual, this space can also be cleaned!

A friend's help is necessary here as the oven door can be quite heavy. Follow the directions stated in your oven's manual to disassemble the oven door, and lay out the constituent parts in a logical order so you can put it back together later. Once you have exposed the inner portion of the oven door's glass panel, use the above methods to clean the stains. Make sure the components are perfectly dry before reassembling the oven door. And if you feel daunted at the prospect of taking apart an oven door by yourself, you can always hire professionals for the job.

Clean ovens are a boon for many home cooks, as they help cook food more evenly and keep fire hazards to a minimum. Just avoid these oven-cleaning mistakes, and you'll keep your oven working as efficiently as possible for years to come.