Pyrolytic self cleaning ovens… are they worth it?

I enjoy cooking roasts and grilling other smelly things which means my oven requires a fair bit of elbow grease to get clean… a self cleaning oven sounds like a good idea.

Experiences please.

We have one and it is pretty good at the back of the oven. The edges and door area never seem to get hot enough to clean. We had to have one warranty replacement of cracked glass which I reckon was down to over heating. But overall, it has saved a hell of a lot of scrubbing.

They’re good, just saves me from scrubbing the sides and back of the oven. Still need to clean the bottom and glass by hand though 🙁

Probably costs more than a bottle Cillit Bang & a sponge though – mine (AEG) requires running on the specific setting at the highest temp for 2 hours.

Messiah. I am going to do a live test for you. Here is our slightly minging oven. Pop back in a few hours to see the results

Wait…

People clean their ovens?

This looks interesting…

Ok, we are all done and just about all of the gack is off the walls. Just need to let it cool down then a quick sweep out

Great…have you looked at the energy consumption to do this?

We use some nasty chemical kit from JML and is about £4

Wow it burnt away the side racks as well. 😀

Thanks DavidB… most interesting. I think I’d need a shovel for the ash if my current oven had that feature. I have read that the glass doesn’t get cleaned, but what about the shelves?

You have to take the shelves out. I forgot this and spent 10 minutes wondering why it would not work.
The glass did get cleaned but not right to the edges.

Just to add further excitement to the thread. I cooked Findus beef crispy pancakes in the smaller oven next to it and now feel properly sick after eating them.

Great…have you looked at the energy consumption to do this?

We use some nasty chemical kit from JML and is about £4

bet it was cheaper than £4.

Built in oven – say 2.3kW – ignoring insulation – on for two hours = 4.6kWh – edf price 17.5p per kWh so 80.5p

it would be less than that as the oven is not heating all the time due to insulation etc

I read somewhere it costs about 27p to do a pyrolytic clean cycle… and no nasty chemicals 😀

Thanks for the demonstration DavidB 8)

That’s OK messiah, I will have gained domestic brownie points as a result which is necessary since I pressed the purchase button at Ribble and CRC during the demo.

what about the shelves?

Kim and Aggie tip for shelves, racks, baking tray etc:

Stick them in a sink/bath with enough hot water to cover them and a good dose of biological washing powder mixed in. Leave overnight for the bio bugs to eat all the muck. Job done (or at least scrubbing hugely reduced).