Take care of your oven and enjoy stress-free cooking for years!
The oven is the heartbeat of your kitchen. From cooking nightly dinners for your family to producing food for family and friends we’d be lost without or stoves or ovens.
Having a well-maintained oven will help to ensure that your kitchen runs smoothly and meals go off as planned during both family dinner time, holidays and entertaining.
Do you want your oven to bake consistently on time? Heat last night’s food without burning it (or under cooking), and provide safe, predictable service for you?
Of course…we all do, and the easiest way to ensure your oven functions as you desire is to maintain it regularly.
In reality, most people neglect the maintenance of their oven. Most will wait until their oven is in need of repair, or until their stove quits working before paying any attention to it.
There ARE things you can do to minimize the need for oven or stove repair. Here are five oven maintenance tips to help you keep your oven in optimum condition, and reduce the need for oven repair or stove repair services.
Clean Your Oven Regularly
Experts advise that you should thoroughly clean your oven at least twice a year. If you use your stove or oven daily, it is recommended to clean your oven once every couple of months.
Regular cleaning is essential due to food splatters and drippings that tend to occur inside the oven. Over time, these spillages tend to burn and re-burn, thus reducing the efficiency of your oven.
Have an electric range and like to cook pizza? Pizza cheese melting onto the heating element is a common cause for oven breakdowns. We replace a lot of heating elements due to pizza cheese.
In some cases, the spillages may actually affect the taste of your meals due to the smell of burnt food permeating its way into your meal.
Having a regular cleaning routine prevents the accumulation of food spillages, ensuring your oven’s efficiency.
Pro Tips:
- Use a mixture of water, vinegar, and baking soda to make a DIY oven cleaner.
- To keep the inside of your oven clean when cooking or baking, create a spill barrier by placing a baking sheet underneath your any pans (or pizzas) that may spill over onto the heating element.
Use Your Oven's Self Cleaning Feature
Yes, we’ve already mentioned cleaning, but self-cleaning is another level of cleaning that should be done whenever needed.
Despite most ovens having a self-cleaning feature, few people understand how it works. To understand this feature, read your oven’s manual or contact your manufacturer for guidelines.
For safety purposes, make sure you are in your home while your oven is self-cleaning, and let it cool for six hours before wiping down the inside.
Careful Around The Knobs!
One reason we’re often called for our oven repair services is faulty switches (knobs). Faulty burner switches can cause burners to behave erratically. Either not working at all, working inconsistently, or a general inability to control the burner temperature.
A common cause of this is liquid, or cleaners dripping behind the knobs during cleaning. Pay special attention when cleaning your stove not to let liquid drip behind the knobs or you may find yourself needing stove repair services as a result.
Regularly Inspect Your Burners
Degraded burners may short out at times, thus creating a spark that may result in a flame. Therefore, you should check your burners for deformities or places that glow brighter than others.
As soon as you notice such areas, the best thing to do is replace the burner to reduce the risk of a fire that will damage your appliance.
Check Your Oven's Door Gasket
A gasket is the piece of rubber running along with your oven’s door. It helps seal in the heat and ensures the oven heats appropriately.
Regularly inspect it to check for deterioration and replace if necessary. A damaged gasket can be hazardous, and make cooking times inconsistent.
There You Have It!
To get the best out of your oven for an extended period, a little bit of care goes a long way. Inevitably, circumstances will dictate that you have to call in professional oven repair services.
Nobody does it better than Polar Appliance Repair. We are located in San Gabriel Valley, California, and we provide the best, honest, high quality appliance repair services in Southern California. Are you in need of oven repair or stove repair? Contact us today!