I had a bit of a baking disaster the other day and need to clean my oven. After I clean out the oven, when should I use the self cleaning option? I am mostly concerned about fumes and ventilation. It is 20 degrees out right now, so I'd really like to keep open doors to a minimum. But, I NEED to clean this stupid oven..... as in, I had an oven fire last night because of the mess that had fallen onto the burner.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Would it be best to leave the house while this is going on? This is a lengthy process, can be done overnight, but I'm mostly concerned because I have an 8 month old.

Thanks for any help.

Mandy

I would never put an oven on self cleaning and leave or do it over night. You never know what could happen and you want to me there and alert in case of anything happens.

I would do it during Aiden's nap, there really shouldn't be any fumes, maybe just a little smokey from things buring off. I usually run my self cleaner for two hours. If you have a vent hood keep that running or if you have a ceiling fan have that run. You don't need to open a window unless it gets really smokey.

Also, before doing the self cleaning, try and scrap off as much stuff that spilt over from last night. That way there is less to burn off.

HTH!

I have used our self-cleaning feature before. A lot of the stuff that is caked on will come off in the process, and once the oven is cooled you can wipe them out.

I didn't notice any fumes, because of it. I did it one afternoon. I definitely wouldn't do it overnight though.

Thanks for the replies. I forgot to mention that this was a brand new oven, and the manual says that the first cleaning, it may give off more fumes. Duh!
I currently have it cleaning, but I did clean out as much as possible.... and our oven has a minimum cleaning time of three hours, so that's what I"m using. And I did go ahead and just open the window just in case. I'm paranoid, what can I say!

Mandy