How are you supposed to get an oven rack clean? Some ovens are self-cleaning, but there aren’t self-cleaning oven racks. Today we will discuss oven rack cleaning tips so your oven is as pristine as possible.

Tools You Will Need

In order to get your oven racks clean and shiny, you will need to have a few tools on hand. First, you will need a large storage bin or your bathtub, whatever you have on hand that you can fit your oven racks into. You want to be sure they are able to be fully submerged in this makeshift wash basin. You will also need:

  1. An old towel
  2. A cup of laundry detergent (powdered or liquid, either is fine)
  3. A container that can hold at least a few cups of water

The Process

Step One

Lay the towel along the bottom of your bathtub. The towel is there to protect the surface of your tub from getting scratched by the metal oven racks. If you are using a large storage bin or other basin that you do not mind getting scratched, you can skip this step.

Step Two

Place your dirty oven racks inside the tub. Both oven racks can be placed inside the tub at the same time. However, try to stagger them so that all surfaces have good exposure to the cleaning agents.

Step Three

Fill the tub with the hottest water you possibly can. Ideally, you will have run the hot water for a few seconds before getting started, so all the cold water will have run off first. The reason you want the water as hot as possible is so that the heat can help to break down any stubborn grease or spills that may be stuck to the surface of your oven racks.

Step Four

Fill your container will hot water and your cup of laundry detergent. You want to make sure that the detergent is fully dissolved in the water so that when you add it to the tub it can quickly and thoroughly disperse throughout the tub. Liquid detergent will work just fine, but the added benefit of powdered detergent is that any particles that are not fully dissolved will act as a mild abrasive on the surface of your oven racks.

Step Five

Pour in the laundry detergent and water mixture, then let this sit for several hours, ideally overnight.

Step Six

The next morning, drain the tub and wipe down the oven racks with a microfiber towel. Then replace them in your oven. They will look brand new or pretty close to it!

A Final Note

One final note, if you have coil burners on your electric stove, you can also remove them and let them soak in the tub with your oven racks to get them clean at the same time. As a quick reminder, the reason you should never leave your oven racks in the oven during the self-cleaning cycle is that the oven heats up to 900-1000 degrees Fahrenheit. The chrome coating on the surface of the oven racks is not designed to handle these temperatures, so it will dull and eventually begin to flake off.