"Just spray on, leave, then wipe", says one brand.
But just exactly what are you 'spraying on'?
When the warning on the back tells you to well ventilate a room, not to get the product on your skin, and not to breathe it in, it can't be good can it?
That's because the most common basic ingredient in oven cleaners is lye; either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. This can burn your eyes and skin, and can be fatal if swallowed.
Some oven cleaners can also contain butane, monoethanolamine and Dithylene glycol monobutyl.
We don't know about you but we feel pretty icky spraying our oven with things we can't even pronounce!
And that's before we think about the residue left behind on an item we use to cook food for our children!
But help is at hand, with our Natural Cleaning Challenge Week 1 Oven Cleaner!
Try the following recipe, and let us know in the comments what a difference it makes for you. Or tweet about it using the hashtag #NatClean2012!
NATURAL ECO FRIENDLY FUME FREE OVEN CLEANER
Ingredients:- 1 cup of baking soda (Sodium Bicarbonate)
- Half a cup of washing soda (most supermarkets stock this)
- Tablespoon white vinegar (not malt!)
- Hot water
Method:
1) Turn your oven off and allow it to completely cool
2) Wipe off any excess dirt or spills with a cloth dipped in very hot water
3) Add the baking soda to the washing soda and mix
4) Gradually add the hot water until you have a thick spreadable paste
5) Add the vinegar - it will fizz at this point, don't be alarmed!
6) Spread the paste all over your oven surface (rubber gloves and an old paintbrush would come in handy for this part!)
7) Leave it overnight (make the most of it, order takeaway!)
8) The next day just wipe off with warm water
9) Admire your sparkly oven and feel smug that no parts of the planet were harmed in the cleaning of your oven!
If your oven is particularly greasy (don't worry, we won't tell!) then use an additional cup of washing soda in the initial mix.
The great thing about this oven cleaner is that it doesn't scratch your oven and so can be used on enamel and porcelain, and if you wanted that lemon fresh smell you could add a few drops of lemon essential oil.
That's it - it's really that simple!
Grab your ingredients, cool down your oven and... 3...2...1...GO!
(Don't forget to tell us how you get on in the comments! And on Twitter using hashtag #NatClean2012)
1 comment:
Thanks for the advice. I've recently started trying a few green/natural/checmical free techniques, it's been kind of eye opening to see what you can achieve without toxic chemicals! My husband and I spend quite a lot of time away from home at work, but with a few teenage kid yet to leave home the place can get a bit messy, it has to be said! Particularly the cooker... they don't seem to enjoy cleaning that themselves :P Both our home and holiday home are fairly modest in size so we can manage most of it ourselves even with our busy schedules, though we have in the past used professional companies to come in and do the cookers. The two we use are oven cleaning sutton coldfield and oven cleaning medway, and it's nice to know that as well as doing a fantastic job, they don't use harsh chemicals either. But whether you go for that route or the D.I.Y. route, you can always get a decent job done without nasty chemicals! Thanks again for the informative post :)
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