How to clean an oven with baking soda and vinegar
12.09.2026
Quick facts
| Time | 20 minutes of work, overnight to soak |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | low |
| You need | baking soda, vinegar, a plastic scraper |
| Our price | from €20 per oven |
Burnt-on grease does not come off because you scrub harder; it comes off because something has had time to soften it. Baking soda and vinegar do that overnight for the price of a cup of coffee, and the only real work is twenty minutes the next morning.
What you'll need
- baking soda, about half a packet
- white vinegar in a spray bottle
- warm water
- a plastic scraper or an old bank card
- two microfibre cloths
- rubber gloves
Step by step
- Take everything out. Shelves, rails and the baking tray come out and go into hot water with washing-up liquid while you deal with the oven itself. They soak while you work.
- Mix the paste. Baking soda with a little water until it is the consistency of thick yoghurt. Too runny and it slides off the walls; too dry and it will not stick.
- Spread it everywhere except the heating element. Walls, floor, the inside of the door. Keep it off the element and off the fan — soda residue there will smoke the next time you turn the oven on.
- Leave it overnight. This is the part that does the work. Anything less than six hours and you are back to scrubbing.
- Scrape and spray. In the morning lift the dried paste off with the plastic scraper, then spray the remaining white film with vinegar. It will foam — that is the reaction that lifts the last of it.
- Wipe out twice. Once with a damp cloth to take the residue, once with a clean damp cloth to take the rest. Soda left behind smells when heated.
- Do the glass last. On most ovens the inner door panel comes out; between the panes is where the worst of the grease sits and where wiping the surface never reaches.
What to use on an oven — and what not to
| Product | Good for | Do not use on |
|---|---|---|
| Baking soda paste | burnt-on grease and food residue on enamel | aluminium parts and pyrolytic self-cleaning surfaces |
| White vinegar | dissolving soda residue and the greasy film on the door glass | never together with a chlorine-based product |
| Washing-up liquid and warm water | racks, tray, inner glass | — |
| Wire wool and scouring powder | — | scratches enamel and glass permanently |
Commercial oven cleaners work faster but need thorough rinsing and ventilation. Soda and vinegar take longer and have to sit overnight — but nothing lingers in the flat afterwards.
How often to clean an oven
Wipe out spills once the oven has cooled; do a proper clean every two to three months. If you roast meat often or bake uncovered, monthly makes more sense — a layer that has been baking on for three months is significantly harder to shift.
What to watch out for
- Never use soda on a pyrolytic oven — the self-cleaning coating is designed to burn residue off and an abrasive damages it.
- Keep paste off the heating element and the fan; residue there smokes on the next use.
- Do not put a hot glass panel into cold water, or a cold one under hot water. It cracks.
- Ventilate while you work with vinegar and keep it well away from any chlorine-based cleaner.
When to leave it to a professional
If the grease has been there for years, if the oven is part of a handover inventory, or if you simply do not want to spend a morning on it, we clean the oven inside as a fixed-price item from €20. It is usually booked alongside a deep clean or as part of end-of-tenancy cleaning, where the oven is one of the four things a landlord actually checks.
