Regardless of how frequently you use it for cooking, your oven needs to be cleaned on a regular basis to ensure that it remains in good working order. While self-cleaning features and potent commercial oven cleaners can usually handle particularly grimy ovens, there is a viral hack that suggests using crumpled aluminum foil to scrub down the inside of an unclean oven. While some commenters find this to be a miraculous solution, others have had bad experiences, and many others are skeptical.
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What Is the Oven Cleaning Trick with Aluminum Foil?
With over 77 million views on their Instagram and TikTok accounts, the account @santproducts has shared this popular oven-cleaning tip multiple times. That’s a lot of people seeking oven-cleaning tips! It’s important to note that the method is mostly shown on the interior of oven doors rather than the full oven. This technique, which involves a few common pantry items, maybe the answer to getting a greasy-caked inside glass to look brand new again.
In the majority of their movies, an oven door is shown changing from crusty to perfectly clear in an instant. The inventor claims that all you need to clean the grease is a microfiber cloth, baking soda, aluminum foil, and hot water. Here are the guidelines they have provided:
- Pour hot water straight onto the glass from a tea kettle, or any other open oven door.
- Generously dust the interior of the glass with baking soda.
- To remove all of the baked-on grease from the glass, use a balled-up piece of aluminum foil to scrub the baking soda paste.
A microfiber cloth should be used to clean the interior of the glass.
The glass door is left immaculate as a result of the chemical reaction between the baking soda paste and the physical scouring with aluminum foil. But is this really working?
Does the Aluminum Foil Hack Work?
You may get rid of any crusty debris or baked-on grease from your glass oven door by using aluminum foil. Since aluminum foil is more abrasive than ordinary towels, it can be used more quickly. Shortcuts for cleaning are always beneficial, so hearing her expert advice just encourages us to give them more of a shot. This approach is only effective when combined with baking soda paste; aluminum foil is insufficient on its alone.
A few commenters alert us to a particular, aggravating problem they ran into after trying the technique. They claim that in order to completely clean their oven door, they had to disassemble it since the baking soda paste became trapped between the glass panels.
A time-saving cleaning tip is undoubtedly defeated by the trouble of disassembling an oven door. However, it looks like using too much baking soda and water is the cause of the problem. Thus, bear this in mind if and when you give it a shot.
Is It Safe for Your Appliance?
While it’s true that baking soda is a recognized abrasive and can leave microscopic scratches on fragile surfaces like glass, you should typically avoid cleaning specific items with it. However, only a few thorough cleanings a year are necessary for the inside of the oven glass door, as opposed to more frequent cleanings for mirrors, windows, and ceramic cooktops.
That implies that using baking soda infrequently won’t have a negative effect.
Most of the opposing comments focus more on whether or not the glass will be harmed by the aluminum foil. Since many oven doors are composed of a tougher, more resilient kind of glass, employing aluminum foil won’t harm the glass.
For individuals who express concern about hot water coming into touch with glass, the same response is applicable. Oven doors are constructed with tempered glass, which is about four times stronger than ordinary glass, for safety reasons. A small amount of hot water won’t harm your oven, considering how hot it gets when it’s operating. The bottom line is if you want to give this hack a go, you can rest assured that your appliance is safe.
Other Methods for Cleaning Your Oven
Although the widely shared aluminum foil trick is completely safe and efficient, there are other ways to clean your oven. If you want a technique that won’t harm the interior of the oven at all.
Use baking soda and water to thoroughly clean the inside of your oven, including the glass door. Remove the oven racks and mention that the aluminum foil trick will also help to clean out any loose material from the bottom and remove any burnt-on gunk.
After that, apply a thick paste to the inner surfaces—avoid the heating elements—using three-quarters of a cup of baking soda and one-quarter cup of water. Let the paste sit for the entire night to aid in removing any tenacious, baked-on dirt. Next day, use a moist cloth or sponge to gently scrape away the paste. Use a plastic scraper to remove tough stains without harming the oven’s surface. To eliminate any last bits of debris, finish by using a moist cloth to wipe off the interior.
You may also try cleaning your oven with lemons or white vinegar if it’s not too dirty but you want to use non-toxic chemicals for routine upkeep.
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