Benefits

Tips On Commercial Oven Cleaning

A professional oven is a must for every commercial kitchen. Industrial oven units beat your average standard oven in quality and performance seven days a week. The quality of cooking depends on no other unit in the restaurant kitchen, as it does on the oven.

But such intense use of appliances is a premise for food particles, grease, grime, and other debris to accumulate. This nuisance causes many issues. It affects the smell and flavour of food. And more serious consequences are expensive inefficiency of the unit and risk of smoke or even fire.

Luckily, At Maggie’s Oven Cleaning we know there are reliable ways to prevent these problems. Alongside regular service appointments and technician check-ups, what the restaurant and food business needs is commercial kitchen cleaning just as the average household needs domestic kitchen cleaning services like professional oven cleaning and appliance cleaning to avoid hazards of stuffy furnaces and fumes.

But what could one do before you reach out and call professionals?

Read ahead for our useful tips on how to best clean a commercial kitchen to ensure long-lasting functioning and safe food with a fresh taste.

Remember, safety always comes first, so let the oven cool down prior to cleaning just like you heat an oven prior cooking.

Use Industrial-grade Oven Cleaner

It’s important to use a professional cleaning agent because it helps the oven run safely and hygienically. There is a variety of fast-acting, heavy-duty cleaners that work great. Some excellent options are Avalanche, Gladiator, Jantex, etc. 

Avoid products with chloride since they are harmful to appliances. There are plenty of safe and natural oven cleansers, too. Consider Dirtbusters’ Bio Oven Cleaner to go green. Another eco-friendly alternative is to make your own oven cleaner from baking soda and lemon juice or vinegar.

To prevent poisoning when you work with oven cleaners, always:

  • follow the instructions written on the product;
  • wear a protective mask and gloves!

Remove The Racks

  • As a start, take the racks off the oven, because food residues collect on them, too. 
  • Dunk racks in water with a quality industrial oven cleaner. 
  • Wash each piece separately to make sure you get rid of all the dirt. 
  • Scrub racks with a scouring pad or a wire brush to get rid of build-ups from grease or baked-on foods 

With the right tools, you can handle any stubborn stain.

Wipe Down Walls and Doors

With the racks out, it’s time to clean the walls and the doors of the oven. A well-maintained unit needs just warm water. The rest, though:

  • Use a damp towel to wipe down all oven surfaces. 
  • Add cleaning agents. But clean the oven with a detergent only at night, there is enough time to air out the kitchen. 
  • Clean thoroughly the areas around the fans, so you remove any crumbs and grime. This promotes the airflow, which maximises the efficiency of the appliance. 

Manage Spills and Boil-Overs Right Away

Put efforts to clean different spills or boiling water stains the moment they happen. This way you guarantee they don’t mass up into sticky spots that attract more debris and make a bigger and nasty mess. And a messy cooking space is unpleasant to prepare food at.

Plus, when you handle stains immediately, you spare some time from doing oven cleaning yourself.

Control Crumbs

Crumbs fall all over the oven easily, but don’t let them stay there long. When left for a longer period of time, they affect the food’s flavour and cause potential damage.

It, sometimes, leads to fire!

Check for crumbs and clean them throughout the working day to avoid problems, to avoid food and safety worries.

Remove Grease Build Up on Fans

From time to time, check the commercial oven’s fan for grease build-ups. There is also oil residue on the fan motor and blower. Not only grease restricts airflow in the appliance, but it harms ventilation throughout the entire kitchen, not to mention the chances of poisoning.

So make sure to take care of grease regularly.

Schedule Daily and Monthly Oven Cleanings

There’s no doubt that professional kitchens are busy. When you skip daily chores for commercial-grade oven maintenance leads to problems in the long term. The best solution for restaurant owners is scheduling hygiene and disinfection treatments on a yearly contract with a specialised company.

Unless one would rather instead: 

  • Clean the oven inside and outside at least once a day. 
  • Create a cleaning schedule to organise and simplify the process. 
  • Include the staff, too. 
  • Explain to them how important is the regular industrial oven cleaning to avoid eventual poor performance or poor food quality. 
  • Arrange the cleaning times for the evenings, so everything dries overnight when doors can stay open.
  • Along with systematic daily commercial oven cleaning, there are monthly chores. It’s a mandatory part of the restaurant oven maintenance to optimise how good it works. 
  • Give both the exterior and interior of the appliance a monthly deep clean, so it continues to perform at its best in the long term.

Maintenance Per Types of Commercial Ovens

All mentioned above apply for convection ovens, which are most commonly used in commercial kitchens. Let’s review some additional tips for specialised ovens.

  • Standard Oven, also known as Radiant Ovens. Mostly for domestic use, far less intense than commercial ovens. Complies with household chores.
  • Convection Oven. Mostly used for bread and pastries, making them easy to access and clean.
  • Deck oven. Deck ovens get dirty from sticky doughs. Don’t use water or cleaners to clean it because they wear out the deck. Instead, turn up the heat until food particles turn to ash. Dust it with an oven brush and use a scraper to remove any remnants.
  • Conveyor Oven. These ovens comprise many parts. It’s necessary to clean each one separately. Thoroughly clean the impingement fingers, crumb trays and the conveyor belt. Do this few times a week, if not every day.
  • Rotisserie Oven. It collects a lot of grime and grease throughout the day. So, give it daily clean. It’s easy to clean, no matter it seems the opposite. Remove the rotors and spits of the oven and soak them in water with industrial oven detergent. While it’s empty, clean the inside of the rotisserie oven with the same cleaning product or steam clean it for better results.
  • Combi Oven. Use for small to medium-sized bakeries The use airflow to cook which makes it easy to clean.
  • Cook-and-Hold Oven. Meant to preserve more than the actual cooking, which takes cleaning to daily chores.
  • Steam Oven. Have little to do with stubborn stains. Just wipe off once in a while.

Cleaning a commercial unit is not supposed to be as tricky as cleaning an aga cooker for example. Most business-grade ovens can go with a weekly wipe up.

Final Remarks

Follow our detailed guide to make sure that your commercial oven operates at its best and provides safe food.

Cleaning commercial units is the favourite thing for restaurant and food businesses to do, but remember that it saves time and energy and spares troubles in the long term.

If you maintain the oven well, it requires only warm water and a small amount of industrial oven cleaner for daily cleanings.