By Bryan Wall
Product Test Journalist | Kaipūrongo Whakamātautau Hautaonga
Here at Consumer, we don’t just test how well an oven can roast a chook or bake a scone. We also assess how easy an oven is to clean – an important consideration if you’re buying a new one.
Many models have self-cleaning features, such as pyrolytic and steam cleaning.
But how well do these really perform and how much elbow grease is required?
How we decide which ovens are easiest to clean
When we performance test ovens in our lab – where we cook toast, roast a chicken, bake scones, make meringues and cook pizza – the ovens get pretty dirty. They get especially grubby if we test an oven’s air fryer functions, too, where fat tends to get splattered around.
So, afterwards we give them a good clean and assess how easy it is to do so.
During the clean we pay particular attention to the smoothness of the oven’s internal surfaces and what it’s like to clean them, how easy it is to remove and clean the shelf supports and telescopic runners, whether any special coatings have been applied to the trays and how easy it is to clean the glass in the oven door.
We also assess ease of cleaning for the oven’s exterior, looking for surfaces that are resistant to fingerprints, with minimal cracks and crevices around panels.
From this, we generate a cleaning score, which is incorporated into our overall ease-of-use score. The ease-of-use score also assesses what it’s like to use the oven’s controls, grill, shelves and door.
Hardest to clean built-in oven
Which brands of ovens are easiest to clean?
Easy-to-clean built-in ovens
A cheap but easy-to-clean built-in oven
Easiest to clean freestanding oven
Steam vs pyrolytic cleaning
Steam cleaning is useful for lighter and more regular cleans of your oven, as it’s quicker than pyrolytic cleaning and uses less energy.
Running your oven at 500°C for 3 hours for a pyrolytic clean could easily use 5kWh of energy and cost around $1.50, whereas a much lower temperature steam-cleaning cycle for 30 minutes will cost considerably less.
Even if your oven doesn’t have a steam-cleaning function, you can perform a manual steam clean by placing a bowl of hot water inside the oven and running it at 150°C for half an hour. Once cooled, you can wipe the inside clean.
We don’t see too many ovens with catalytic liners anymore (self-cleaning panels that absorb fat and burn it off at temperatures over 200°C), as pyrolytic and steam cleaning are more convenient and efficient.
For more tips on manually cleaning your oven, check out our oven cleaning guide.
Looking for a freestanding oven?
If you’re looking for a freestanding oven instead, check out our test results over here.
