How to Deep Clean Your Oven & Stove Without Harsh Chemicals

This post is brought to you by HomeRight
I will admit it: until last week, deep cleaning my oven is something I never ever looked forward to. It took a long time and it's never as clean as I wish it were. Part of this is that we use non-toxic cleaning products and even though I think it might be possible to scrub it decently clean with a lemon, baking soda and vinegar - it would take a long time. Aint' no one got time for that!

So what changed?

This little beauty arrived on my door step:

In about 35 minutes, my oven was cleaner than I have ever seen it ever. EVER. And it was totally chemical free - all I needed was the steam that came out of this little miracle of modern cleaning technology. 

Does this sound a little over the top? It's honest. Ask my husband. I was giddy. GIDDY about how clean my oven and stove were when he got home for work and I blabbered at him about it for longer than it took to clean the thing. 

Once you see how awesome the SteamMachine is, you are going to want one, too! Keep reading after the tutorial to enter to win!


Supplies


Directions

Step 1: Set Up SteamMachine
If you haven't used your SteamMachine yet, please be sure to read the instructions. This steam is very. VERY hot and you have the potential to get seriously injured if you don't actually take 5 minutes to read the manual. Just do it. 

Once you've done that, fill your machine with water (I did the maximum amount since I had no idea how long it would take - you can always dump out the extra later). Assemble your steam wand with the brass brush, straight adapter and extension wand.

Turn on the machine. The red and yellow lights will both turn on. You cannot use the steamer until the yellow light turns off (about 8 minutes). Do steps 2 and 3 while you're waiting.

Step 2: Clear Stove & Oven
If you keep anything like a tea kettle or cast iron pans on top of or inside your oven, put them somewhere else for now.


Step 3: Vacuum
Use the hose on your vacuum to suck up any chunks on the stove or in the oven. I had a couple dry noodles on the stove and a small pile of ash in the oven that I sucked up into the vacuum.



Step 4: Oven Door
Now that the yellow light has turned off, you are ready to steam! Open the door and put the brass brush in one corner. Press and hold the trigger while scrubbing with the brush in a back and forth motion.

 Stop to wipe away the water and grime. Squee like a little girl because it's so freaking clean! And it was easy! This was all stuff on the door was all left behind from when I had professional cleaners in my house two months ago. The steam is so hot and powerful that it literally melts the grime and lifts chunks up from the surface. This stuff was baked on and in 2 minutes - POOF! - gone.

Keep going until the glass is clear. Go ahead and steam/scrub the door frame, too.


Step 5: Oven Innards
Put one of the oven racks on the bottom slot and pull it out halfway so that it holds when you put pressure on it. Place a rag under the rack (so you don't mess up your pretty door). Go up and down each slat once with the steam and brass brush. Wipe with rag.

Repeat with the second oven rack. Remove racks from oven and set aside.

Follow the same procedure for the oven door to steam/scrub and wipe the floor and sides of the inside of the oven.

Glorious.

Step 6: Stove Top
Remove anything that comes off of the top. For my gas powered stove, that meant the pot rests for the burners (4 of them) and drip pans (2 of them). Put them aside.

Continue using the steam/scrub and wipe method to clean one small area at a time (a "small area" being the area around one burner). Don't forget the back of the stove as well. 

Step 7: Burners & Drip Pans
One at a time, place the drip pans and then the burners in your sink. Steam/scrub them and wipe them clean. Depending on how stubborn a particular mess is, you may want to re-install them on your stove and then re-steam/scrub them.


Step 8: Details
We're almost done! Now it's time to clean the knobs and the front door to the oven and we're finished.

You may not think the knobs look too bad, but pull them straight off and I'm sure you'll discover their not-so-pretty secret:

Steam and wipe around here. I found that I didn't need to scrub the front hard at all. Just the steam was enough to loosen everything up to wipe off easily with a rag. Use a toothbrush if needed to loosen junk around the center of the knob.

To clean the knobs, place them in the sink, hold the steam gun above them and blast them with some steam.  Use the tooth brush to get everything out of the crevices, rinse them in the sink and dry them with a towel.
(If you have any steam left over, come back and clean your sink. Mine had all kinds of grody stuff in it from cleaning the burners, drip pans and knobs. Yuck.)

Lastly, run the steam and brush lightly under and around the handle and the little grates in the door.


Put everything back together and enjoy how fabulous everything looks! 


Now you want one, right?

Lucky you! HomeRight is generously letting me give away one HomeRight SteamMachine to a Creative Green Living Reader!!!

Use the widget below to enter and good luck!
(if you are reading this in email or a feed reader, you may need to click over to the post to enter)

Missed the Giveaway?

You can purchase a SteamMachine on Amazon Here

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Disclosure: I was provided with free product and compensation for creating a cleaning tutorial using HomeRight's SteamMachine. Project execution, thoughts, opinions, and giddiness at how clean my stove is are 100% my own. This machine is amazing. If I didn't already have one, it would absolutely be on my Christmas list - I love it that much. I wouldn't say it if it weren't true! See my full product review policy here.

2 comments

  1. I tried my old steamer on my grill years ago and was totally disappointed. It looks like this one could do the job!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great giveaway! Would love to have one of these.

    ReplyDelete

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