Self Cleaning Oven

I used mine for the first time recently - expect a lot of smoke - I learned the hard way that using that part of my oven should be relegated to spring cleaning when I can open windows and doors. It did come out impressively clean though...

Best to do it when you can be home with the windows open and shut off your smoke alarms. It gets really hot, sometimes catches on fire in there if you have a lot of grease. It gets so hot it turns all your grease to ash by the time if finishes, but its a smoky stinky process. I just use easy off on my self cleaning oven and keep some foil on the bottom of it. It also uses a lot of electricity to do the self clean.
Manual is better, seriously.

Mine is a fairly new one that we bought just about four years ago. It has a Max Clean, Clean, and Speed Clean cycle on it. Any one of those gives off an odor during the cleaning cycle and my oven does heat up to a very high degree. It also has a safety feature lock to keep adults, and kids from opening the oven door while it's in its cleaning process because of the extreme heat it uses. It has to heat up like that to burn off whatever is baked onto the surroundings. Make sure you take your racks out of your oven before using your cleaning cycle. :-)
It is normal for your oven to give off a weird odor and heat up extremely. Just make sure when you do use that cleaning feature on your oven that you open your windows and turn your fans on to minimize the odor and to keep your smoke alarm from going off. :-) My smoke alarm went off one day when I didn't open my windows. Not a good sound when there is no fire. LOL
Hope this helps. :-)
PS: My cleaning cycle usually lasts about four/five hours. Thought you might want to know in case you don't have your users manual to your stove.

We just used ours. We read the oven manual and followed the instructions for the 3 hour cycle. It makes the house smell. You have to keep kids away from the oven bc it gets very hot. But now it's all clean! Yay! Do you have your manual? Reading it made us feel better and it explains everything. Oh also, you have to clean out the oven first by hand - get out the biggest chunks!

I always turn mine on before going to bed, when I use it. It does get extremely hot to burn off whatever is in there, so that may be what you are smelling. I never noticed a smell.

I just used mine a few weeks ago and it STUNK up the house. I did it during the day time but next time I will use it at night. It takes about 4-5 hours but the stink lasts only about 2 hours.

It does get very hot and it will have a funny smell because it's heating up all the gunk that builds up in the oven. As far as steam, you shouldn't have any of that unless you have water build up in the oven and on the stove or have a high humidity level in your house.

Sounds just about right. The door will lock automatically, the oven will heat up tremendously, and as it burns off all the grease and food inside the oven, it will smell up your house. I remember being afraid the first couple of times I used mine. HOWEVER... once the oven cools down and you reach in with a damp paper towel and wipe away a tiny pile of ashes where a huge disgusting mess had been, it's worth it. Pick a nice day, open the windows to ventilate, and let 'er rip.

I suggest NOT using it. We turned our on and our oven caught fire. We had a hard time turning it off and almost had to call the fire dept. I suggest cleaning it yourself.

I used my before Thanksgiving and the oven door would not unlock when it was done! The repair man said the self cleaning operation is the most common problem with ovens. It got so hot that it melted some part in the oven. Depending on how old your oven is, beware! Mine was a 10year old Decor.
I will use the stinky chemicals next time!!!

When the title from today's email said 'self cleaning oven' I thought they were probably having vaginal problems.....b/c the vagina is often referred to as one.

Anyhow, I have recommended to many mom's on this site who ask for oven cleaning tips to use the self cleaning option. I think it's way better than using horrid, gaseous, nauseas, fuming, bad for you chemicals.

Yes, it does emit bad smells, due to the extreme heat the oven uses to burn everything. Just run your kitchen fan, or crack your windows and light a candle. It's all over in a few hours and your oven will be super easy to wipe out with an old rag or paper towels.

I self-cleaned my oven just a week or two ago. It did get smelly and I was sorry I'd started it after dinner instead of waiting till when we went upstairs to bed. But the oven now just has ashes (I still need to go wipe it out!) but it doesn't smoke and smell anymore when I cook, which was why I turned it on in the first place! (I had some sweet potato drippings that smoked and smelled every time I went to use the oven and didn't feel like hand-scrubbing that off!)

It does get really hot (so make sure your stovetop is clear, no plastics or candles or whatnot left on top!) and it should lock and mine ran for 4 hours. Maybe 5?

Go for it. Like the others say, open up the windows. (I didn't) You dont want to do it in the summertime, that's for sure.

Mine worked great. Really cleaned it up nice even though it took a few hours. If your stove is REALLY dirty that might be why it's smoking a lot. Just turn on an exhaust fan and open windows. I cleaned the door of the stove first with vinegar/water and used a scrubber.

When I lived in Gilbert, I always ran the self cleaning cycle in the winter when I could open up the windows and enjoy the fresh air. I usually first would get out any big chunks of food. Yes, it does get extremely hot, but that is how it works. (I think it's 1000 degrees or maybe more!) It turns the grease and food stuck to your oven to ashes, and then you just wipe them out. I have used self-cleaning cycle on my ovens for years, and love how easy it is to clean the oven this way. I think it is worth the smell to have the oven cleaned so easily!

Mine just smells bad and gets very hot (self cleaning basically means that it's burning off all the residue at EXTREMELY high temps). I have never had any smoke. And mine has a locking mechanism, so once you start it, it cannot be shut off until it is finished. I imagine it's to prevent any burns or injury. If you have pet birds, they need to be moved out of the room to a well ventilated area, they are sensitive to the fumes created.