How to Clean the Oven With Baking Soda?

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Nowadays, we all take baking soda for granted. However, it wasn’t until 1846 when Arm and Hammer first marketed this white powder to the masses.

Later, in 1927, McCall’s and Good Housekeeping began promoting baking soda for household purposes, boosting its popularity. Baking soda is known to serve almost every eco-friendly purpose, from natural deodorants to scrapping stubborn stains off the oven surfaces.

This article will detail how to clean the oven with baking soda. Additionally, we’ll explain why this product outweighs conventional oven cleaning methods.

Why Clean the Oven with Baking Soda?

If you’ve chosen to go for baking soda, you’ve taken both an intelligent and responsible cleaning route. Here’s why we prefer baking soda over typical cleaning solutions.

1. Affordability

Baking soda is much cheaper than specialized detergents. It also requires zero energy, unlike the oven self-clean mode, which raises the heat to a critical level.

2. Availability

If it’s not already in your fridge, like most Americans, the nearest supermarket won’t probably fail you. More often than not, you’ll find baking soda at any store. That’s unlike oven detergents which you might only find at specialized or large outlets.

3. Health

Most oven detergents contain harsh chemicals that can cause skin irritation and even dizziness. With baking soda, you don’t need to worry about chemical residues that might later affect the food while it bakes.

4. Eco-Friendliness

Baking soda has a minimal effect on the environment when you finally drain the cleaning water. Besides, you won’t need to use the self-cleaning option in the oven, which consumes energy for burning the grime.

How to Clean the Oven with Baking Soda?

The best thing about this method is that the ingredients are probably already at home. You’ll soon be on your way to oven-cleaning finesse, so let’s start immediately.

1. Remove Oven Racks

Before you apply the mixture to the sides, you’ll have to remove the oven racks. Don’t worry; they won’t skip the tough cleanup. We know there’s probably grease and cake batter on the racks.

So, take the oven racks to the bathtub and liberally sprinkle them with baking soda. Next, spray vinegar on the racks. If you hear the bubbling sounds, that means it works.

After that, brush the metal rods with a toothbrush or any tool you find more convenient. Finally, fill the bathtub with water till the racks are covered. Let them soak in the water while you deal with the oven.

2. Prepare the Solution

For oven cleaning, you’ll need to slightly adjust your baking soda solution depending on the severity of the situation. Here are the cleaning solutions for both cases.

Mild Oven Cleaning

If you regularly clean your oven, your work will pay off in a few moments. You can keep up this good habit with a mild baking soda solution.

In a bowl, mix two parts baking soda with one part water. Add the water gradually till you get a pancake batter consistency.

Advanced Oven Cleaning

Sometimes oven cleaning never makes it to our to-do list for months. In that case, baking soda still won’t fail to impress, but you’ll need to apply more of it.

For the whole oven, you’ll need three pounds of baking soda, three tablespoons of salt, and six tablespoons of water. As illustrated before, mix the ingredients while adding the water gradually.

This time, you’ll need to reach a cake-icing consistency.

3. Apply Baking Soda Paste

Head over to the oven and cover the floor underneath the oven door with paper towels to catch any splatters or food crumbs. Now, open the oven door and apply the baking soda paste to the oven floor, then move to the sides.

Use a silicone brush or spatula to spread the paste evenly on all surfaces. For the most difficult spots, apply more than one layer of the paste to soak through thoroughly.

The process of applying the pastes should take from 15 to 20 minutes. This is enough time for the oven racks in the bathtub to release their grime.

So, you can now empty the bathtub and rinse the racks. For a final touch, wipe off any residue with a rough cloth and let the racks dry.

4. Let Baking Soda Paste Sit

Next comes the time to let baking soda do its magic. Close the oven door and nap on the couch for only 15 minutes.

This is how fast baking soda can work in most cases, provided your oven doesn’t need much work. However, if your oven wasn’t lucky enough to get a cleanup during the last few months, you’ll have to let the thick paste break down the grime for the whole night.

In short, if your oven has been regularly cleaned, you can do this process any time of the day. On the other hand, you’ll need to plan half a day off for an oven that accumulated layers of grease and burnt food.

5. Remove Baking Soda Paste

Here’s the final part of the baking soda legend. You can now reveal the sheen of the oven’s metal surfaces.

Unfortunately, this is the phase that takes the most time and effort, but it’s all worth it. If you’ve used the mild baking soda solution, you can simply remove it with wet rags.

As for the advanced oven cleanup, you’ll have to use your muscles to get the baking soda out. After leaving the thick baking soda paste overnight, it should’ve hardened by the morning, so there’s some serious scrapping work.

To help get the paste out, use a silicone spatula, and some rags dampened with warm water. Apply the paste again on the most stubborn stains and remove it after 15 minutes.

Wrap Up

Let’s wrap up how to clean the oven with baking soda. All you need to do is mix the baking soda paste with the required solution. Then, apply it to the oven and let it sit for as much time as it needs to break down the grime.

To make the process even more manageable in the future, keep a regular oven cleaning schedule. If you’re a committed baker, clean up every three months or less.

Otherwise, you can clean the oven less frequently if you prefer to use the stovetop. In all cases, baking soda remains the star of the show.