Our cookers are susceptible to a number of faults, which often develop as a result of general wear and tear, minimal maintenance and in some cases neglect. But, there are a number of simple yet effective steps which can be taken to help reduce and prevent faults developing, and in the 1^st of our latest three part series, we look at basic maintenance you need to carry out to keep your appliances running to their optimum level and helping save you money.

Key to keeping your cooker working is to carry out regular maintenance, particularly cleaning, and when it comes to your cooker, the key areas you should focus on to get the most from your appliance are as follows:

Cooker Shelves:

Through daily cooking, your cooker shelves will suffer from a build up of dirt, grease and grime, and often due to the busy lifestyle we all lead, cleaning the shelves can sometimes be forgotten and put on the back burner until another day – particularly as cleaning oven shelves is a fiddly and time consuming chore.

However, due to the ever growing range of cooker cleaning products available, cleaning your oven shelves is now an easier task and doesn’t require excessive amounts of elbow grease being used scrubbing each individual wire.

Instead, the easiest way to clean your oven shelves, ensuring all dirt, burnt on food and bacteria is removed is to place them into specially designed cleaning bags which come with oven cleaning kits.

Once the shelves have been placed into the bags, you’ll need to pour roughly three-quarters of the accompanying cleaning solution into the bag, before leaving the shelves to soak. Once the allotted time has passed, take the shelves out and give them a quick rinse under cold water and brush off any residue with a clean cloth, and you’ll be left with shelves which look as good as new.

If for any reason however your oven shelves are particularly dirty or appear damaged in any way, you’ll find the perfect replacement parts – at an affordable price – in our extensive range of over 3,000 genuine and compatible oven shelves.

Cooker Cavity:

Take a quick look inside your oven. Is there a build up of burnt food on the surface or food splatters against the walls? Such dirt, whilst a common sight in ovens throughout the UK, increases the risk of your cooker running less effectively. It can also result in odours spreading throughout your kitchen whenever the cooker is used, and these odours also impact on the food you’re cooking.

Cleaning the main cavity of your cooker, is as simple as cleaning the shelves. But before you begin, we recommend placing newspaper on the floor around the cooker, to soak up any dirt which may leak out.

With the newspaper down, spray your oven with the chosen cleaning product and leave it to soak in. Each cleaner will have its own recommendations on how long you should leave the cleaning solution to soak in, before rinsing away – so it’s important to pay attention to the instructions.

Top Tip: When spraying the cleaning solution into the oven, make sure you do not spray it onto the fan element, as this can cause damage.

Further advice for cleaning the interior of your cooker, to remove dirt, bacteria and associated odours – to help keep your appliance running to its peak performance for longer, can be found in our post “Keep Your Cooker Running, By Keeping it Clean” – where we also explain how to clean your cooker hood.

Cooker Door & Cooker Hob:

When it comes to cleaning the cooker door, whilst it is important to give the glass inside a once over with a dedicated cleaning product, it’s also advisable when possible to take the oven door apart and clean the inside of it, as grease can accumulate between the layers of glass.

You can find out how to separate the door from the cooker, and then the components of the door, in our “How to Remove the Glass from an Oven Door” video.

Finally, there’s your cooker hob and like the cavity of your cooker, this can be affected by food splatters and spills which will not only hinder the aesthetics of your hob but can also impact the performance if left to build up.

Depending on whether you have a ceramic, electric or induction hob will depend on how best to clean it, to ensure it is left sparkling and working to its full potential. But in our post “How to Easily Clean Your Cooker Hob” we provide extensive advice helping you rejuvenate your hob.

Taking the time to regularly clean your cooker will not only help to ensure it continues to work effectively and efficiently for longer, but it’ll also prolong the life of your appliance – saving you money in both the short and long term.

Tags: Cleaning Tips, cooker, cooker cleaning, Cooker Maintenance