Stain on oven door

Is there a cleaner or cleaning method for the brownish stain caused by the leakage of vapors around the oven door? The seal is OK, but the slight leakage builds up the stain over time.

I'd try using oven cleaner to remove it. That stain isn't smoke; it's only cooking grease vapours, so oven cleaner should remove it.

Oven doors are typically powder coated rather than painted. The sides of a range will be painted, but the exterior of the oven door and the cook top will be powder coated because these areas typically see higher temperatures in service. And, powder coatings are much more chemically resistant than air dry coatings like paints. I use oven cleaner to clean the cooktop of my 21 ranges all the time, so it won't harm your door.

Thanx NK for the tip. Since oven is self-cleaning we never had oven cleaner, but will get some and try it.

locknut said:

Thanx NK for the tip. Since oven is self-cleaning we never had oven cleaner, but will get some and try it.

Click to expand...

I find that a self clean cycle will burn off all the baked on grease deep inside the oven, but you still need to use oven cleaner around the oven door where temperatures are cooler and you don't burn off all the grease like you do at the higher temperatures in the oven interior.

Also, for your info:

You should be aware that oven cleaner works by exactly the same chemical reaction used to make bar soap out of plant oils like Palm oil and Olive oil. That chemical reaction is called "saponification", and it's one of the oldest chemical reactions used by man. The Romans made soap from animal fats, but they certainly didn't know the chemistry involved and there is some doubt as to whether they used the soap they made for cleaning as we do or whether they just applied it to their skin as a medicinal skin treatment or moisturizing ointment.

All animal fats and vegetable oils (and even animal oils, like whale oil) are triglycerides, and are characterized by three "fatty acids" all connected to a central glycerine molecule. Strong alkalies, like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide break the link between the three fatty acids and the central glycerine molecule to form three molecules of "soap" and glycerine as a byproduct. The process is explained on this page:

Soap Chemistry

By converting animal fats and plant oils into soap and glycerine, both of which are soluble in water, strong alkalies like oven cleaner essentially perform the same chemical reaction that occurs in soap factories, but at a much smaller scale. And, the process by which oven cleaners work is by converting a non-water soluble material (baked on grease) into water soluble materials (soap and glycerne) and then dissolving them in water.

However, whenever using oven cleaner, it's best to keep in mind that it's a chemical reaction that's doing all the work, and just like any other chemical reaction it proceeds at a faster rate at higher temperatures. So, you can use oven cleaner more effectively when the oven is still hot after baking something or at the end of a self clean cycle once the door unlocks. If you choose to wait until the oven cools down, then be aware that time is on your side. The more time you give the oven cleaner to work, the more baked on grease it will convert into soap and glycerine and the less elbow grease needed from you to mechanically remove the stuff by scrubbing or scraping.

Also, be advised that anyone who tells you that you will RUIN a self cleaning oven by using oven cleaner in it has his/her facts wrong. Back in the 1970's there were "continuous clean" ovens on the market which were coated with a type of catalyst that promoted the "burning off" of the baked on grease in the oven with the O2 molecules in the air. That catalyst would be damaged by oven cleaner, and so the misconception that oven cleaner will also harm self cleaning ovens got inheritied from the "continuous clean" ovens of the 1970's.

Modern self cleaning ovens use high temperatures inside the oven to burn off the baked on grease, and the only difference between self cleaning ovens and non-self cleaning ovens is in the electronic circuitry in the console necessary to over-ride the oven thermostat and keep the oven bake and broil elements on continuously to achieve a very high oven temperature. There is NO DIFFERENCE in the ceramic coating on the inside of the oven between self cleaning ovens and non-self clean ovens. So, you can no more harm a self cleaning oven with oven cleaner than you can harm a non-self cleaning oven with oven cleaner.

Believe it or not, I even had someone at Frigidaire's 1-800 Customer Service phone number tell me that my 19 Frigidaire self cleaning ranges would be ruined if my tenants used oven cleaner in the ovens. I told her that she was wrong and to check with someone knowledgeable about it before she told that to anyone else, and she got all twisted out of shape over me telling her that. But, hopefully she got her fact straight as a result. It just goes to show you how misconceptions and misinformation can linger for decades in an information vaccuum.

Thank you for the info