Is it worth getting your oven professionally cleaned?

Most of us use our ovens every day, so cleaning them regularly is essential, but is it worth getting your oven professionally cleaned if regular cleaning feels like too much of a chore?

My wife and I use our oven sparingly, preferring to use our Tower Oven but when we do there’s nothing we like more than a Sunday lunch, what we particularly like is the smell of the oven fat splatter.

Not only is a dirty oven unsightly, but it could also result in your food not cooking properly and there are the health implications of having food that is constantly burning every time that you turn on your oven.

My wife let me know recently she wasn’t happy with the state of the oven and suggested that we might need to have it professionally cleaned. Me being me jumped to cost and asked why we couldn’t just do it ourselves. I caved in and my wife set off finding asking around for recommendations.

Is it worth getting your oven professionally cleaned?

Yes.

Though I was initially reluctant to get our oven professionally cleaned, I’m happy with the result, we used a family-run business and they charged £40, our oven is like new and doesn’t smell as soon as it’s turned on.

Yes, we could have cleaned the oven ourselves, but I’m under no illusion that we could have got it looking anything like it does not, if anything it has also given us a foundation to be able to maintain it, every time we use it now.

How much will it cost to get your oven professionally cleaned

We used a local family-run business to have our single oven cleaned and were charged £40.

You can expect to pay more than this depending on the type of oven you are having cleaned.  

On average you are probably looking to spend £50 to have a single oven cleaned and £70 for a double oven.

How much would it cost to clean your oven yourself?

You only have to look on the shelves of your local supermarket to see a ton of products that claim to get your oven clean and looking like new, but without buying any of them how do you know which is going to do the job?

To get it so the standard of what you would expect from a professional cleaning service, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that you should expect to spend around 2 hours cleaning your oven, though this will vary depending on how dirty your oven actually is.

So how valuable is your time, and what value would you attribute an hour of your time, £10, £20, then there is the cost of the clearing products.

Where to find professional oven cleaners

Having someone that you can trust in your house to do a good job isn’t something that you want to take likely, besides this is your oven where you will be cooking meals for your family so you want to make sure that they aren’t a cowboy operation.

Your council might have a scheme where they maintain a list of approved traders. If your council does not operate a list of approved traders, there are several schemes available and some traders will promote the fact that they are members of the scheme so it is always good to check with them first.

There then, of course, word of mouth. Don’t estimate the experience of others that you know or have used a service before, whether it’s someone that you know that you used the service before or reviews you find online, these are a good measure of how good a job they will do for you.

When looking for online reviews, I always try and find a few positive reviews and some negative reviews and at least I will have a general idea of where they might excel and where they might not.

What products do professional oven cleaners use?

Professional oven cleaners use a range of products and other chemicals to clean your oven so it might be worth asking what they use as part of your process for looking for someone to clean your oven.

There are some bioproducts available that are made from natural products, biodegradable and don’t leave a nasty smell if not washed off your oven completely and then there are those that will require the use of gloves, are harmful to certain elements of your oven and if not rinsed off the oven properly will leave a nasty smell. 

Are the products that professional oven cleaners use safe?

If used incorrectly any oven cleaning product can be unsafe, that is why they often recommend opening windows and wearing gloves.

Don’t cut corners when cleaning your own over, always read the instructions and make sure that you follow them to the letter the last thing you want is to be making yourself ill or damaging your cooker.

Conclusion

I believe that having your oven professionally cleaned is worth the expense.

You can clean the oven yourself, but I doubt that the hour or two that you spend cleaning it will ever get it to the same standard as someone that does this professionally.

If you’re concerned about the products that they use, make sure they use bio products and definitely get recommendations from those you know that have already had it done so you know that your inviting someone that you can trust and is reliable in your home.