The self cleaning option on my oven no longer works. Does anyone have a natural oven cleaner that works? I am pregnant and unwilling to use toxic products like Easy Off etc. Thanks.

-- Tiffani Cappello (cappello@alltel.net), May 28, 2001

Answers

I got this recipe out of the vinegar book, author Patrick Quillan. Apply vinegar at full strength with a sponge to the door and walls. I've never tried it but it's worth a try, if you don't have to use chemicals that would be great.

-- Joanne (ronandjo@sisna.com), May 28, 2001.

I'm allergic to all chemicals-----vinegar will work it will work to clean everything!!!!! Use full strength or delute it/with water & keep spraying it on & wipeing off----you can also use bakeing soda in your oven or to clean anything else also--- I clean my sinks & tub with bakeing soda-- & then spray with a vinegar rinse/ ---as far as I'm concerned don't use anything else as long as you live but natural cleaners & you & your family will be much better off! Best wishes!!! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda in Ks. (sgbruce@birch.net), May 29, 2001.

I'm not sure how you feel about ammonia, but if you place a small dish of ammonia in a warm oven, then close the door until morning, the hard stuff should wipe off much easier. You don't have to scrub with the ammonia. This also works for grills. Place the grill and a cup of ammonia in a plastic garbage bag and leave overnight. Next morning, wipe clean.

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), May 29, 2001.

Dianne's method has worked well for me! Just be sure to turn the stove vent on.

={(Oak)-

-- LiveOak (oneliveoak@yahoo.com), May 29, 2001.

Use baking soda on the corner of a wet rag--just like cleanser. No ammonia fumes to deal with and totally natural. Keep some in a shaker bottle nearby. It's also great on the sink, the cutting board, pots and pans, your teeth, etc. It's really cheap and goes a long way. I got an 11# container of it for $2.99.

-- Sandy Davis (smd2@netzero.net), May 29, 2001.

Try washing soda with water on anything greasy or fatty. It generates an alkali which turns the grease into a form of soap, but it's not as caustic as lye (still use rubber gloves, though), and it doesn't have the ammonia fumes. Ammonia works, and does pretty much the same thing, but has the fumes. Caustic soda (lye) also works, isn't a systemic poison, but is VERY caustic and corrosive to skin, flesh, eyes, etc. Most of the commercial oven cleaners use lye / caustic soda / sodium hydroxide.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 29, 2001.

I have used pumice stone for years for stains in ovens. Don't know how to describe it, and can't always find it, so when I do, I buy 4 or 5 of them. It's just a gray, grainy "stone" of pumice rock, and it gets all stains off with rubbing, but no odor or chemicals. Also works wonderfully for hard water (lime) gook around faucets or in toilets (not the same one I use for oven!!!). Used to find it at a discount grocery store in the cleaning section. Looks like a grey "bar", about 1&1/4 by 1&1/4 by 7 inches. As you use it, the "grains" come off, so you have a sandy residue that you just wipe off. I think I'll look it up on the internet and see if I can order some - the grocery store quit carrying it.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), May 30, 2001.

Bonnie, you might find pumice in a pharmacy or chemist or cosmetics or drugstore or whatever. Women used to use them to (relatively) gently remove visible leg hair. Didn't leave quite the hard edge shaving does on the hair shaft, so didn't feel as "prickly" when it started to grow back.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), May 30, 2001.

Thanks, Don, I'm familiar with the depilatory stuff, sort of like very fine sandpaper, and I could probably get that in a cosmetics department, but the stuff I use for the oven is about a 7" bar of very coarse pumice - would probably take several layers of skin off if I tried to use it cosmetically! It was always in the cleaner section of just one particular supermarket; the supermarket changed their name and management and eliminated the product.

-- Bonnie (chilton@stateline-isp.com), June 01, 2001.

Bonnie, I found my pumice stones in the hardware store. My husband has another one he uses to take callouses off his feet. WOrks great!

-- Dianne in Mass (dianne.bone@usa.net), June 01, 2001.