A convection oven in your restaurant kitchen can be great, a commercial convection oven cooks food 35% faster than conventional ovens, but having a conventional oven is not just opening it and putting food inside, the oven must be cleaned if you want to use it for a long period. Not cleaning a convection oven reduces the lifetime of the oven by decreasing its productivity because of the presence of a particular matter. It must be cleaned every day, no matter how tiring it can be or if there is a lot of work, customers or any other situations. Sometimes it is necessary to clean it in the middle of the service if there is severe food spillage to prevent further damage.
For cleaning your oven you will need:
- Mild dish soap
- Nylon brush
- Non-abrasive sponge or cloth
Step 1
First of all, you will need to turn the oven off, it would be even better to unplug the power cord to prevent any accident.
Step 2
Remove the racks and supports from the oven and soak them in a mixture of hot water and mild dish soap, scrub meticulously using mild dish soap. If there is a lot of grease or food stuck on you can use a nylon brush to take it off, another way is to let the racks soaking with the hot water and mild dish soap for a while until the food and grease turn soft and remove them, try to avoid to use steel wool or it could damage the racks finish.
Step 3
Now let’s go to the oven´s interior, use a non-abrasive sponge or cloth to scrub the interior. For removing the grease, use the same mixture of hot water and mild dish soap, residue, or backed-on product. The interior should be cleaned every day carefully, take care when scrubbing near any wiring, switches, or light sockets, water could get into these places and damage them. If it gets hard to clean the interior please avoid using wire brushes, scouring pads, or scrapers. This can damage the stainless steel interior.
Step 4
Now that we are done with the interior of the oven, we have to clean the exterior part. For cleaning the exterior use once more the mixture of warm water and mild dish soap. Use the non-abrasive sponge or cloth to scrub the exterior taking care of doing it in the direction of the polish marks. When cleaning the exterior part please avoid using abrasive tools, scrapers, vinegar, chlorine, and corrosive cleaners, it can damage the exterior surfaces of the oven.
Step 5
As the final step, you just need to place the supports and racks inside the oven and that’s it! It is clean.
Other ways of cleaning
You can use other items to clean the interior of the oven, but this would make just some difference to the process of interior cleaning, for example, you can use a cleaning solution.
For the cleaning solution, you will need a mask and a pair of globes, some cleansers have toxic chemicals. Remove the racks and supports of the oven, after that spray the interior of the oven with the solution spray, apply it as it is stated on the package instructions, and focus on the areas with more residues. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then with a disposable damp kitchen or cloth, wipe out the inside of the oven. When you are done, remember to check if you removed all the cleaner residue.
You can also try to get an oven with a cleaning function, if you have it already, then remove the racks and supports from the oven and clean them as said before. Before starting make sure that the oven is completely cool. If not, wait some time for the oven to cool completely. Once it is cool, activate the self-cleaning cycle. Most ovens have different temperature settings. If there are spills on the oven surface choose higher temperatures so that the burn particles burn faster. Please avoid using solutions or dishwasher detergent during the self-cleaning cycle. Make sure the oven door is shut and locked. Since the self-cleaning fumes are toxic please keep the windows open and leave the room for 2 to 4 hours. After the cycle ends, open it and wait a few minutes until it cools. With a wet cloth, take away the residue from the bottom of the oven. Then clean the door with a mixture of warm water and mild dish soap.
As a recommendation try to clean the oven at night so you can leave the doors opened overnight for the interior to fully dry.