Having a microwave oven in the house is the need of the hour. Along with the work, the oven also requires special care to clean it. You might have heard about self-cleaning. Are you thinking of using this feature while sleeping?
You should never self-clean your oven while sleeping. Self-cleaning results in smoke, fumes, and excretion of carbon monoxide, which can be life-threatening. You should always self-clean the oven only when you’re awake.
If you are wondering how to safely self clean oven at night, then I have also made a detailed guide for you.
Don’t go anywhere- in this blog, I’ll give you a detailed guide about self-cleaning and the hazards of self-cleaning ovens while sleeping.
What is Oven Self Cleaning? Is It Safe?
Many of you might be unaware of the working method of the oven’s self-cleaning feature. There’s no rocket science behind this. According to my research, when you turn on the oven self-cleaning function, it leads the oven to heat up to a high temperature.
The temperature must be more than 900 °F. I’ve analyzed that the extreme heat will result in burning all the food residues and greasing each compartment of your oven. As you know, ashes are more convenient to clean than sticky residues.
So, take a damp cloth and clean all the leftovers from the oven. Undoubtedly, your oven will be cleaned as new.
However, this feature also comes with a few risks. So, move along and explore more about self-cleaning the oven.
Is Oven Self Cleaning Safe While Sleeping? Risks Of Self Cleaning Oven
Along with the benefits, there are a few drawbacks of self-cleaning ovens. The hazards of self-cleaning an oven are given below.
Smoke & Fumes
As you know, self-cleaning process takes place by reaching the extreme heat of your oven. When the oven incinerates food residues, it will create a considerable amount of smoke and fumes. Sometimes, the smoke can be more than usual due to particular food particles.
If you let the oven self-clean while sleeping, your house might be flooded with unwanted smoke, which is not good. Hence, you should be awake to ensure proper ventilation when required.
Overworking The Oven
Indisputably, self-cleaning an oven wants a lot of power to work. It means that it may lead your oven to overwork. If you self-clean your old model oven, it will gain a lot of energy resulting in giving up.
Overworking an oven will damage your oven parts that may require repairing or replacing. So, self-cleaning can be destructive for your oven.
Carbon Monoxide Risks
You might be unaware that self-cleaning your oven will release carbon monoxide gas. Carbon monoxide is a harmful gas to nature. If you let your oven self-clean while you’re sleeping, it will fill your oven with this toxic gas.
So, it is mandatory to self-clean your oven when you’re awake to maximize the ventilation. Proper ventilation will prevent the accumulation of carbon monoxide in your home.
Injuries To Pets & Children
Overheating your oven will also make the outer surface of the oven hot. There’s a possibility that your children or pet touch the oven while self-cleaning. It will cause major injuries such as burning their hands or body.
Therefore, it is crucial for you to stay up while self-cleaning your oven. You have to keep your kids and pets away from the oven.
Fire Dangers
Fire dangers during self-cleaning an oven are life-threatening hazards. As you have read above, both the interior and exterior of the oven are hot, and the food residues are burning. It may lead to an out-of-control fire.
While sleeping, you’ll be unaware, and your whole house will burn in no time. Hence, I’ll advise you to self-clean the oven under your supervision and call the emergency services instantly if a fire breaks out.
How Long Does It Take To Self-Clean An Oven?
After learning about the working method of self-cleaning, a question might pop up in your head; “How long will it take to self-clean an oven?” According to my research, self-cleaning an oven will take approx 3-5 hours. It also depends upon the model of your oven.
You should be aware that the working time still doesn’t involve the preparation before cleaning and the cooling of the oven after cleaning. It certainly adds a few more hours. This might be why many of you will prefer self-cleaning while sleeping, which brings many dangers.
How To Self-Clean Your Oven Safely At Night?
By now, you’re aware of the working, advantages, and disadvantages of self-cleaning your oven. Now, I will tell you about self-cleaning your oven safely.
Wipe Off Excessive Grease
Indeed, a self-cleaning oven is meant to clean your oven automatically. However, you can make it easier for safe cleaning. Before starting the proper, it would be best to wipe off grease as much as possible.
Wiping the excessive grease will prevent your oven from catching fire and additional smoke.
Stay Awake
Staying awake and nearby is mandatory while self-cleaning the oven. You have already gone through the hazards of self-cleaning your oven while sleeping. When you’re not so far from the oven, you’ll instantly turn off the oven in emergencies.
Moreover, you can maximize ventilation when needed. Meanwhile, sleeping when your oven is on self-clean mode can, unfortunately, affect your whole house.
Exaggerate Ventilation
Increasing the ventilation of the area where your oven is self-cleaning will also protect you from potential hazards. You can open the windows and turn on the exhaust to maximize ventilation.
You must know that proper ventilation will prevent the accumulation of smoke and harmful gasses inside your living area. It will also protect you from fire dangers.
Lock The Oven Door
Locking the oven door is crucial to self-clean your oven safely. If you have the latest model oven, you don’t have to be concerned because it will automatically lock the door. However, if you have an old model oven, you should manually lock the oven door.
It would be best to recheck the oven door to prevent your children or pets from opening it. You must know that opening your oven’s door while self-cleaning can be detrimental for your kids.
Let The Oven Cool Down
An important factor that you must consider after self-cleaning your oven is to let the oven cool down completely. As you know, after self-cleaning an oven, you have to clean the oven by yourself with a damp cloth.
So, cleaning your oven when it’s too hot can burn your hands. Hence, it is important to cool the oven before cleaning it.
Are There Benefits of Self Cleaning Oven Anyway?
Here are a few advantages of self-cleaning your oven.
No Toxic Chemicals
The first benefit of self-cleaning your oven is the absence of toxic chemicals. As you know, the self-cleaning method removes all the residues by extreme heating instead of using harmful chemicals.
It prevents your oven from spraying toxic chemicals to clean the stubborn stains of food. Use of detergents or strong cleaning agents will damage or oven or make your oven smelly.
Less Mess
Self-cleaning an oven also saves you from creating a mess inside the oven. Whenever you wash your oven with water, soap, or other agents, it will create more mess rather than cleaning. Other cleaning methods can make the oven surroundings dirty too.
Hence, the self-cleaning cycle will burn all the unwanted material inside the oven. Once the oven is cooled, you can easily remove ashes and stains with a damp cloth. It would be best not to start cleaning your oven when it is hot, as it can burn your hands.
More Efficient Cleaning
Indeed, the self-cleaning cycle provides your oven with more efficient cleaning. As you have already seen, the whole oven is heated, which results in the burning of food residues in every corner.
If you try to clean your oven by hand, you must leave a few spots where you can’t reach it. Therefore, self-cleaning gives you a neat and clean oven in a few hours.
Time-Saving
I must say that self-cleaning your oven is a time-saving process. All you have to do is select the self-clean option in the oven and let the oven do its work. Meanwhile, if you go to clean your oven with your hands, you have to spend 5-6 hours cleaning your oven.
Moreover, no matter how much time you give cleaning your oven, a few spots remain untouched and dirty.
Multitasking
Nowadays, everyone is busy with their tasks. No one has enough time to waste on cleaning the oven. Self-cleaning the oven will allow you to do your other chores at that time. Once you have turned on the self clean cycle, you can wash your clothes, iron your clothes, or do whatever you want.
What Type Of Self Cleaning Oven Is Best?
I have analyzed from my research that sel cleaning oven is of two types. These types include
- Steam Cleaning
- High-Heat Cleaning
You might be confused about which one is best for you. Well, both of them will save you time by different methods. So, let’s delve in and explore the cleaning ways of both types of self-cleaning.
Steam Cleaning
Steam cleaning will clean your oven with a combination of heat and water. It will remove the stickiness of soil and dirt inside the oven. Although, you have to clean the oven by hand to remove the residues.
Steam cleaning is more appreciated as it prohibits the dangers of fire and leaves no pungent smell after cleaning. It also works at comparatively low temperatures.
High-Heat Cleaning
High heat cleaning will clean your oven by raising the temperature to 800 – 900 °F. The extreme temperature will burn the food residues and convert them into ashes. You can finally eliminate all the ashes with a damp cloth.
There are a few drawbacks of high heat self cleaning, including fire hazards, accumulation of smoke and carbon monoxide gas, and many more.
| Type of Self-Cleaning Oven | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Steam Cleaning | Utilizes heat and water to remove dirt and soil, requiring manual residue removal. |
| High-Heat Cleaning | Raises the temperature to burn food residues into ashes, which can be easily wiped off. |
Why Can’t I Unlock My Oven Door After Self Cleaning?
After self cleaning my oven, I saw that I could not open my oven door. So, I did a lot of research to fix this situation. Let me share these solutions with you.
Oven Doesn’t Have An Automatic Locking Door
First of all, make sure that your oven’s temperature and settings are in normal mode. Now, slide the door gently to release the unlock button that might be hidden. If your oven is still not unlocking, you should call an expert to deal with this issue.
Oven Has An Automatic Locking Door
If your oven has an automatic locking door feature, follow the steps.
- Let the oven cool down for an extra hour.
- Start another short self clean cycle and wait until the oven is completely cool.
- Repeat the process to reboot the whole system.
Hopefully, your oven door will be unlocked soon.
Why Isn’t My Oven Working After Self Clean?
Various folks may encounter that your oven has become faulty after self cleaning. Hence, I have picked up a few basic reasons that can cease working in your oven.
The Electrical Safety Shorted Out
Many of you might be unaware that an oven has an electrical safety that prevents the oven from overheating. As you know, self cleaning will lead your oven to extreme heat, which may turn off the electrical safety option.
Once an electrical safety shorted out, your oven will not generate heat. You can not reset it from the settings. Hence, you have to take your oven to a specialist.
Failure Of Door Lock
You may face a door lock failure during self cleaning an oven. If the door lock is failed, you won’t be able to open your oven even after cooling it completely. Therefore, contact a professional to cope with this issue.
Conclusion
You have acknowledged that you should not self-clean your oven while sleeping. In this guide, I have walked you through the benefits and drawbacks of self-cleaning an oven. You have learned the types of self-cleaning, including steam cleaning and high-heat cleaning.
Hopefully, you can deal with every issue related to self-cleaning your oven.