Don't Use Your Oven's Self Cleaning Function - Lifehacker

While technology has made cleaning easier these days, beware of one perfect-sounding feature: your oven’s “self cleaning” option can be misleading.

While the phrase “self cleaning” might bring to mind images of bubbles filling the oven and water jets rinsing out the filth, your oven has neither water hoses nor cleaning liquid to clean out the mess.

The self cleaning option actually uses immense heat—well above regular cooking temperatures—to decompose food solids to ash for easy removal.

I spoke with Lowe’s Department Manager Juan Rivera, who makes his own steam cleaning setting by pouring a cup of water at the bottom of the stove before turning on the self cleaning function.

See if you have an oven with the steam clean option available, as steam uses lower temperatures to break up the solids and provides a less abrasive option for cleaning your oven.

This is one less smokey option for oven cleaning.

It’s a bit more time consuming, but maybe a less worrisome option than cranking your oven to over 800 degrees.

A couple of years ago the igniter in the oven died not long after running the self cleaning feature