Oven How-To Guide

Conventional Oven

Overview
Maintenance
Questions/Answers
Articles

To maintain the energy efficiency, safety, and useful life of your wall oven, it is important that your home maintenance program include the proper maintenance for your oven.

Ovens come in different types such as: "Self-Cleaning"; Continuous Cleaning"; and Conventional". Self-cleaning ovens clean themselves by oxidizing (burning off) food splatters at a very high temperature during the cleaning cycle. For continuous cleaning ovens, the oven walls are coated with a catalyst, or chemical mixture, that oxidizes food splatters when the oven is operating. A "double oven" is a wall unit which contains two separate oven units. See also: Stove and Microwave Oven.

Shown in the "Maintenance" tab above are the recommended routine maintenance tasks for your oven. The "Questions / Answers" tab above shows our answers to related questions. And the "Articles" tab above provides links to related informational articles and sources.

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		Maintenance Task: Annual cleaning and maintenance

		How do you clean and maintain an oven?
		Oven cleaning procedures and maintenance vary significantly by the type of oven (e.g. "self-cleaning, "continuous cleaning", and "conventional") and you should consult your manufacturer's recommendations for the specific procedures for your model. NOTE: For self-cleaning ovens avoid oven cleaners, steel wool, and other abrasive materials that could impair the self-cleaning action.

		Why is it important to clean and maintain an oven?
		Proper cleaning and maintenance of your oven reduces the safety risk of fires, improves the energy efficiency of your oven, and can help extend its useful life.

		How often should you clean and maintain an oven?
		Perform at least annually (January), or according to your manufacturer's recommendation.

		How does Home-Wizard rate the costs and benefits for this task?
		The cost of this task is relatively low. It is estimated that this task should only take about 60 minutes to complete, depending on the type of oven you have and your manufacturer's recommended cleaning procedure.

		The benefits of this task are moderately high. Doing this task can help prevent kitchen fires, improve the efficiency of your oven, and extend its useful life.

		Overall Home-Wizard benefit-versus-cost rating (one 'hat' = low and four 'hats' = high):

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS from "Ask-a-Wizard":

QUESTION from Janet on 9/7/2008
What would cause a heating element of an oven to catch on fire? We had just baked a pie at 350 degrees, took it out of the oven and turned the temperature up to 425. We waited about 10 minutes. I was in the other room and heard some pounding and thought someone was banging on something in the kitchen. When I came back in the kitchen and opened the oven there was a small flame in the back of the oven so I turned the oven off. The flame went out and I saw the heating element had burned in two.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 9/7/2008
Dear Janet:

It sounds like the heating element in your oven developed a short circuit, which could cause it to over-heat and catch fire. Unfortunately, this is something that can happen sometime with ovens, and another reason why everyone should keep a fire extinguisher in their kitchen.

At this point you will need to replace your heating element, of course, and you will want to inspect the terminals where the new element will plug into, to be sure there is no damage to the connectors.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Joan Lucas Jordan on 1/10/2010
My electric oven stopped working. How do I know if it the element or the computer module?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 1/10/2010
Dear Joan:

Have you checked to see if the circuit breaker or fuse has tripped for your oven? If you already have, then what model oven do you have?

Home-Wizard.com
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