Your oven door is a plate glass window into every bubbling, roasting, broiling morsel you cook. Because of that it's important to keep it clean. How else are you supposed to admire your hard work? Here's how to clean your oven door so well that your cooking dinner looks like it's on display in a department store window. P.S. This is 100% chemical free cleaning.
For the past mmmmmmmmmm I'm gonna say 3 years now, I've had to open my oven door to check on how things are cooking inside. This because my oven door was so dirty with baked on grease and guck that I couldn't see through it.
So what finally prompted me to clean my oven door?
Bread videos.
I'm sure you've seen them. They're all over Instagram, if you follow the inordinate amount of bread baking Instagram accounts that I do. Time lapse videos of newly formed bread as it rises and cooks from beginning to end in the oven - all shot through the glass oven door.
You can see the loaf expand at the beginning of the baking, stretching until it finally can't take it anymore as it explodes at the scoring line, the bread's ear curling back perfectly all in a tidy 1 minute video.
I thought maybe I'd like to do one of those videos. Then I remembered my oven door. My camera would never be able to shoot through the guck. A shotgun would never be able to shoot through the guck.
I grabbed my screwdriver (about 5 months after deciding to clean my oven door), and got cleaning.
How to Clean Inside the Oven Door Glass
Cleaning the 2 inside and outside panels of glass isn't a bad job at all. If you can clean a window you can clean an oven door. It's cleaning between the glass that's a pain.
Yes. You are going to have to take your oven door apart and possibly remove the door entirely, depending on what type of oven you have. Please don't leave. It's easy and a very rewarding job. If you like seeing those vacuum marks on your sofa or carpet you're going to love this.
If you want to do a complete overhaul on your range, here's how to clean stainless steel.
- Open your oven door and clean the inside glass. Mine was far beyond being able to clean with glass cleaner and a cloth. Yours will probably be too dirty for that too. The easiest way to clean the inside of the door is to use a razor. You can get these little paint scraper razor gadgets at any hardware store that will literally scrape away all the guck with almost no effort at all.
2. Then I clean it again with a damp Ultimate cloth made of MiraFiber® (which is even finer and better than microfibre.) Repeat those same steps on the outside oven door, but chances are you won't need the razor blade for that, just a MiraFiber® cloth or glass cleaner and a regular cloth.
Once you clean the inside and the outside panes of glass it's time to start your video camera because you're about to take your oven door apart and the video is either going to be proof that you're a handyperson extraordinaire OR something will go horribly wrong, but inevitably be funny - either way you're going to want video for sharing on social media.
3. All oven doors can be removed pretty easily. Open the door of your oven and take a look at the hinges. Are they as disgusting as mine?? I bet they're not. Don't feel bad. I've trained myself for years to be this level of disgusting.
Depending on the make of your oven the door will either have a little tab you can pull out by hand, or a different kind of tab that you need to use a screwdriver to pop out.
4. Stick your screwdriver into the back of the tab and push it forwards. This unlocks the hinge. Do it on both hinges of the oven door.
5. Now close the oven door to the point where it won't close anymore and then lift it straight up. The door should pull out very easily.*
*Some oven doors don't need to be removed in order to separate it for cleaning the glass in between. Check your manual.
6. This is where things might be different for you. Google how to disassemble your oven door to clean the glass. The information might be in your oven manual, but it might not. For me, I had to remove countless screws and bolts that were holding the door frame together.
Keep track of all your screws and bolts by putting them on the floor and kicking them under the cupboards.
Or put them in a small dish.
7. Once all the screws are removed carefully separate the front and the back of the door. Your glass panes might be loose so pay attention to that. Once your door is apart, marvel at yourself and the filth of it.
8. Now you can clean the inside of the oven door glass. Use the same scraping and MiraFibering technique you used for the outside of the glass.
9. Once it's cleaned and dried you can do everything in reverse, putting the door back together and lifting it into place.
I couldn't get a terribly good picture of just how filthy my oven door was because of the reflection on it but trust me - you could NOT see through it. At all.
How to Clean Oven Door Glass.
Clean your oven door inside and out!
Instructions
- Open your oven door and clean the inside glass. Mine was far beyond being able to clean with glass cleaner and a cloth. Yours will probably be too dirty for that too. The easiest way to clean the inside of the door is to use a razor. You can get these little paint scraper razor gadgets at any hardware store that will literally scrape away all the guck with almost no effort at all.
- Then I clean it again with a damp Ultimate cloth made of MiraFiber® (which is even finer and better than microfibre.) Repeat those same steps on the outside oven door, but chances are you won’t need the razor blade for that, just a MiraFiber® cloth or glass cleaner and a regular cloth.
- All oven doors can be removed pretty easily. Open the door of your oven and take a look at the hinges. Are they as disgusting as mine?? I bet they’re not. Don’t feel bad. I’ve trained myself for years to be this level of disgusting.
- Stick your screwdriver into the back of the tab and push it forwards. This unlocks the hinge. Do it on both hinges of the oven door.
- Now close the oven door to the point where it won’t close anymore and then lift it straight up. The door should pull out very easily.
- This is where things might be different for you. Google how to disassemble your oven door to clean the glass. The information might be in your oven manual, but it might not. For me, I had to remove countless screws and bolts that were holding the door frame together.
- Once all the screws are removed carefully separate the front and the back of the door. Your glass panes might be loose so pay attention to that. Once your door is apart, marvel at yourself and the filth of it.
- Now you can clean the inside of the oven door glass. Use the same scraping and MiraFibering technique you used for the outside of the glass.
- Once it’s cleaned and dried you can do everything in reverse, putting the door back together and lifting it into place.
Notes
*The length of time this takes will depend on how easily your door comes apart and how familiar you are with how to do it.
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This job was almost as rewarding as ... you know when you finally pull a sliver out that you've been digging at for 15 minutes? That kind of rewarding.
If you're on my schedule you have a tidy 5 months before I start asking why you haven't cleaned your oven door yet. I expect it'll be around the same amount of time before I get around to shooting a bread baking video.
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Karen, you might want to add an extra step to your instructions. I’ll explain....
For those people who might take their oven door off without looking at their manual, which I did as mine has somehow gone AWOL, and because you made it look so simple, there might be another step, namely to wedge the release tab into the edge of the door hinge opening to lock the hinge in the open position. I did not do this and the hinge snapped back to the closed position when I pulled it out. I took the door apart, removed the hinge and managed to open it again by standing on the protruding part while pulling the spring back!! That is one strong spring! After putting the door back together, I had to stand on it again to be able to lock the tabs in position against the door opening.
So, I can’t say for sure what will happen if the correct procedure is followed and then the door is taken apart. It should be fine, as I think it was just the wiggling of the door when removing it that caused the hinge to snap back to the closed position. It is important to ensure that the release tabs are again wedged against the door before reinstalling it or the wiggling during reinstalling could make the hinge snap closed again. Hope this all makes sense. My stove is a KitchenAid and, of course, there are videos on how to remove and reinstall the door (duh!!) and also one on a “sprung spring” that I came across by accident AFTER I’d fixed mine. It calls for a very heavy duty adjustable wrench to pull the hinge open, which I don’t have. A foot with a shoe on it works very well instead!
MOST importantly, if you take your oven door off, it makes the horrific task of cleaning the oven SUBSTANTIALLY less horrific.
I really, REALLY regret getting a self cleaning oven that doesn't use intense heat to burn the junk off. Mine has a 'gentle steam' mode that cleans NOTHING,
That's true! It would make it 10X easier to clean the oven inside! I never even thought of that. ~ karen!
Interestingly, I just cleaned my oven for the first time, using its “aqua lift self clean” feature. It loosened the baked on guck well enough that it was easy to clean up. Two cups of water and 40 minutes later it was all over, rather than the super high heat, energy sucking, long affair with standard self-clean. My takeaway - I should be doing this right after a spill and will do so from now on which, I now realize (duh!), is how this feature is intended to be used.
When I read the title of this post I thought that sorcery must be involved. I never knew that this was even possible. My filthy glass bugs me every time I open the door. And yes, Karen, my hinges look just like yours. Now I just have to psyche myself up to do it.
Now, can someone please tell me why self-cleaning oven manufacturers won’t let you leave the oven racks in the oven during the clean cycle? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really find the term “self-cleaning oven” overly truthful if I have to clean the racks by hand. I guess I’m the “self” part.
Ha! Yes, you'd think they could figure that whole rack thing out wouldn't you. ~ karen!
Thank you! Another day when I'm very glad I bought the same oven as you--I can now follow step by step and know that I won't have the horror of the other commentor who discovered 4 panes of glass plus insulation when she took hers apart (yuck!) Once I finish cleaning up from my other pandemic projects (finally painted my home office after 17 years in this house--still trying to sort out everything I pulled out of it) I will tackle this. I have an impressive amount of grime on my glass.
Good luck! ~ karen
I may be in a mood to take apart my oven door some day... but today's not the day. However, your column prompted me to take a blade scraper to the window, which was pretty disgusting. Then I tried glass cleaner. Nope. What worked? Two words: Barkeeper's Friend. A sponge, BF, and less than 5 minutes with NO elbow grease. Unbelievable!
I've been wanting to clean between the two panels of glass in my oven door for years. It seemed really complicated to take apart though. After reading this post I determined to do it. I enlisted the help of my husband and we finally got the front panel off--only to discover that there were still two panels left! My oven has three panes of glass?!? So we undid some more screws and finally got those apart, only to discover that, no, my oven has FOUR panes of glass. The endeavor also involved a pouf of fiberglass insulation that wanted to come apart and spread itself around my kitchen.
The best part is that now my oven door, in all its greasy glory, is now spread out on my patio table and I don't even have Easy-Off or similar oven cleaner, nor do I have one of those razor blade scrapers. I guess I went off half-cocked. So I'm now off to the hardware store in the middle of a pandemic.
I too, discovered 4 panes of glass. But I should have taken pictures of how each pane layered. Instead, I'm not able to get the two middle pieces of glass secured. Darn it. So close!
I'm taking next week off work to do all the things I should have been doing from March to June so now it looks like I have another project! Thanks...maybe. :)
wow! I just did this for the first time last weekend :) I actually thought of you like "I think I'm doing this because Karen's blog has given me confidence over the years to fix my own stuff...I bet my dryer is next"
Whelp just cleaned mine yesterday but not the middle glass. Maybe it’ll be easier as the first horrible mess is gone. Bought the Canadian made cloths too. Hope you get a few cents for those too😂. Funny post, loved it!
Great tutorial! I took mine apart last winter. I get the crime getting in but how the hell does something get inside enough it cause a long drip???😅
Asked myself this question many times. And mine was purple!
Going to get right on this. Now do you know how to get those water stains off of glass railings?
Beautiful!
One day I hope to grow up to be a handywoman like you!
I hope you do too! ;) ~ karen
I did this several years ago and while rewarding in the end it was getting to that end that took over a week of living with my oven door on the dining table like a disassembled carcass. The gaping maw that was my oven taunted me all the while.
My Fella was not amused as he scraped 8/10 knuckles getting it back together.
He didn’t feel the same rewarding feeling in the end.
I also had one drip in the middle of my oven door glass that was driving me crazy. I removed the oven door, as you did. The bottom of the oven door, which you can’t see unless you remove the door has an open slot, which is the width of the door. And then I took a wooden yardstick (which I had to purchase for 98 cents at the hardware store) and wrapped a thinnish dish cloth around the end which I held in place with a rubber band. I squirted a LOT of Windex into the hole and swished it around until the drip was gone. You can replace the wet dishcloth with a dry one and polish the inside of the door. This saves you from having to take the door apart.
Thanks Marsha! Next time that drip appears, and we know it will, I’ll use your trick. I’d like to think I’d have thought of this myself but, when I had the door off and was looking right at that gap....nuthin’!
Ahem.... YouTube.
Ah. Nope. I think you need to replace your oven when the glass gets dirty. Like replacing your car when the ashtray is full.
I am contemplating taking my oven out and getting a gas one. to do THAT would entail getting the gas to the stove (relatively easy as the stove is over the basement close to the gas lines for the furnace). However it also entails putting in a vent that actually goes outside. Not such an easy job. currently I have a fan and light over the stove that goes NOWHERE. to vent is going to require some very creative work.
I was delaying all these decisions but my stovetop currently has two burners that only get warm if I thwock them really hard, which isn't sustainable. The stove is at least 30 years old, so getting close to replacement time anyway. Sigh. so I am not going to clean the door glass. But thanks for showing us how to clean the middle, I never thought it was possible (I assumed it was sealed double pane)
Hahahaha! That's like when you throw out a pot that's really burnt instead of cleaning it. ~ karen!
Omg Karen!
You mind reader you! I've been wanting to do this forever. I Can see through the door but there's a drip of something in between the glass lanes that's been driving me bonkers.
My only fear is not getting it back together or the door back on.
But you've given me courage and made me jealous. SO....oven manual here I come.....and yes.....I LOVE the vacuum lines on my rug!☺
Hi Carrie! There are also small holes on the top of your oven door that you *might* be able to get a small bottle cleaner doused in Windex through if you only have one drip to deal with. :) ~ karen!
Thank you Karen!
You’ve helped me so much through the years, but this time you out did yourself with the oven door job!
Loooooveeee youuuu!!!
You're welcome!!! Good luck with your door if you do it. :) ~ karen!
NO you didn’t! As I was reading “scrape it, wipe it...” I was like ohh good she was kidding haha. I’m glad my oven has self clean option and only one year old. Nah ah! Not happening lol
You're a LOT more ambitious than me. I can't even imagine baking bread in the summer heat, let alone wanting to film it up close to the oven window. How about a nice post on how to rig up one of those lounge chairs with water squirting out of them? And how to make a robot that will bring you a nice cool drink? ;-)
LOL. ~ karen!
Wow, so rewarding!! I am curious about your floor. I had a black and white kitchen floor and the black squares show every speck of anything. These tiles look more forgiving. Is that correct? I want these floors regardless but I want to be prepared. Thanks!
Hi Pearl! These floors are VCT tile and I did a whole post on laying them down. They're very inexpensive and are easy to put down. They don't show the dirt because each tile has little speckles on it. You can see my post on my floor here. https://www.theartofdoingstuff.com/the-kitchen-floor-finished-laying-vct-tile/ ~ karen!
Are you kidding? I’ve read every single post of yours already. I’m so glad you still like the floors.