The Best (and Easiest!) DIY Oven Cleaner You Can Make, According to an Expert

There’s nothing worse than the smelly smoke that pours out of your oven when there’s burnt food on the bottom. The best way to avoid that is to keep your oven free of built-up food. But what’s the best way to clean the oven when food inevitably spills over? We talked to an expert to figure out the best DIY oven cleaner recipes to try. (You probably have everything you need!)

From keeping the oven racks clean to scrubbing all that baked-on gunk from the bottom of the oven (looking at you, sweet potatoes!), these are the best DIY cleaning solutions for cleaning your oven and eliminating unwelcome smells in your kitchen. 

If you use your oven regularly, it should be thoroughly cleaned approximately every three months, recommends Michael Bogoyavlenskiy, managing director of U.K.-based home cleaning company Cleaning Express. An oven that sees only occasional use can be cleaned less often, but you should still give it a deep cleaning about every six months, Bogoyavlenskiy suggests. 

Along with deep cleaning, it’s worth checking your oven weekly and cleaning up any spills as you notice them, Bogoyavlenskiy says. That can help reduce smelly smoke and odors that permeate your kitchen when you use your oven. 

The oven cleaners you can buy at the store often contain harsh chemicals that you may not want in your home. While they’re highly effective against really dirty ovens, their effectiveness comes at a price: very strong chemicals, says Bogoyavlenskiy. “Many of the ingredients in commercial cleaners are toxic (if you ingest them). They’re also irritants if you get them on your skin or inhale their fumes,” he says.

Bogoyavlenskiy suggests the following safety tips if you’re using commercial oven cleaners:

• Wear safety goggles, a mask, and gloves when using store-bought solutions.
• Open a window or run a fan for ventilation prior to cleaning. 
• Carefully follow the instructions on the packaging for the specific product you choose to use.

Looking for something that’s a bit less harsh but still effective when it comes to cleaning your oven? When it comes to DIY cleaners, the first thing almost everyone turns to for tough jobs is baking soda and vinegar. But Bogoyavlenskiy says this may not be the best approach for a home oven. “Baking soda and vinegar react to make carbon dioxide and water, neither of which are particularly useful here,” he says. “The argument is that the bubbling action loosens dried-on food, but the difference really isn’t noticeable.” These are the three DIY solutions he suggests instead: 

He advises making a thick paste made from just baking soda and a little bit of water. For this DIY oven cleaner, mix a half cup of baking soda with a small amount of water to make a thick paste. Spread this over the dirty areas and scrub with an abrasive sponge or small brush. Wipe it away with a moist cloth (here’s where a spritz of vinegar can come in handy, to help remove any leftover grease) and repeat until the oven is clean.

Similarly, you can use salt, another natural abrasive, as a DIY oven cleaner. Simply sprinkle coarse salt on the dirty surfaces of your oven, add a bit of water to dampen the surface, and let it sit for about an hour. For particularly dirty ovens with caked-on food, you might want to use a small scrub brush on the surface. Then, wipe with a damp cloth to remove debris. 

For a fresh, citrusy scent and an effective DIY oven cleaner, you can use a combination of salt and lemon. To do this, cut a lemon in half and use each half to scrub your oven’s surfaces. Then, sprinkle salt onto the surfaces and let it sit for about an hour and use a cloth or scrub brush to clean the oven. Similar to the method above, use a damp cloth to wipe the salt away when you’re finished. 

Regardless of whether you use a commercial cleaner or one of our DIY oven cleaners above, the process for how to clean an oven is similar. 

1. Remove everything from your oven, including the racks.
2. Place the oven racks in a sink full of warm, soapy water.
3. Heat the oven to 350°F and place a glass bowl of water in the oven. Wait for it to steam and then remove the bowl. 
4. Turn the oven off. 
5. When it’s cool enough to safely touch, apply the paste or cleaner. 
6. Let it sit for at least an hour. 
7. Scrub with a gentle scrub brush or cloth, if needed for tough stains. 
8. Follow up with a final scrub-down using a cloth dampened with water or white vinegar. 

Many of today’s ovens come with a built-in self-cleaning feature. But most people are at least a little bit confused as to how it actually works! “In short,” Bogoyavlenskiy says, “this function superheats the oven and turns any spilled food into ash, which you then simply wipe away.” He also notes that some ovens can steam-clean. While this convenient feature certainly helps keep your oven clean, we recommend using it in tandem with the cleaning methods we’ve shared in this article.