MAINTENANCE
The“ Self-Cleaning”
PAUL RHODES, CAMT
National Maintenance & Safety Instructor National Apartment Association
Kitchen?
My favorite season is here: Holiday Cooking Season!
Many residents will begin to ponder recipes that go along with their various family gatherings and functions. This is a fantastic time of year to suggest to residents they use the self-clean function in the oven to be ready for holiday baking.
The way that a Self-Cleaning oven works is a mystery to many residents. More than a few times I’ ve responded to a resident’ s call that they can’ t open their oven door, or smells and smoke are coming out of the oven and they can’ t turn the oven off.
( The most exciting one was for the newlywed couple that was cooking for their in-laws for the first time. They woke up Thanksgiving morning and decided that they wanted to put ol’ Tom Turkey in a clean oven. I received the call at noon when the oven door wouldn’ t open, even with the use of a crow bar, and the dinner was ruined because the turkey couldn’ t start cooking on time. We let the residents use the oven in the model to cook their dinner, and they paid for a replacement stove as they broke the one in the apartment.)
A Self-cleaning oven works because of a pyrolytic coating on the walls that at high temperatures releases any food and stains so that it can burn to carbon. This means that at the end of the cycle, the resident will need to wipe out any ash that remains.
( In other words, the same way a dish washer doesn’ t exactly“ wash” dishes, a self-cleaning oven isn’ t exactly“ Self” cleaning ….)
If your community has a baking appliance that include this function, there are several items that we and they need to be aware of. Here are some tips and information that can help:
This process will take several HOURS, and produce some smells and possibly even smoke. A reminder to residents of this occurrence and the need to let the office know before they start the cleaning cycle is recommended.( This can help if the smoke alarm goes off.)
Offer a box fan to residents to help draw the fumes directly out an opened window as a service.
Everything in the oven and storage drawer under the oven should be removed. This includes the racks, and any“ pizza stone” or baking helper.
24 January / February 2017 | www. saaaonline. org