Its that time of year, that people begin to use the kitchens to cook more and use their BBQ’s less. Given this knowledge we at All-Pro Appliance Repair have stocked up our trucks to cater to the many people who may just be turning their stove or oven on for the first time, as they prepare for the influx of extended family visiting.

The Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys, hams, or prime ribs that will no doubt be on the menu need to be perfectly roasted and of course the pumpkin pie and candied yams that are so popular cannot be compromised by an appliance that isn’t functioning as it was intended to.

A good tip to remember at this time of year: We do not recommend self-cleaning your oven prior to a big bake or cook day as this will occasionally cause thermostats to trip or door latches to fail or even worse sometimes electronic controls to fry!   If you have a week or 2 to spare then by all means run the self-clean on your unit. Our best recommendation is to run this function after the family has taken their plates of left overs and have headed back home.

Appliance manufacturers understand that self-cleaning cycles are a problem. Customers demand self-cleaning options. They're so highly desired that it's very difficult to sell an oven without one. And yet  when using the self clean option it's pushing an oven to do something that is fairly extreme and difficult to engineer, and so there are genuine risks of damaging the oven.

Self-cleaning, often with temperatures that go over 1000°, is a particular problem. The elements and the oven just get so hot — much, much hotter than the 350° to 500° range of normal baking — that sometimes fuses pop and control panels burn out. Not to mention the smoke and smells from self cleaning your oven. If the oven does have a problem after self cleaning, those hidden heating elements can make it much more expensive and difficult to fix. The entire oven has to be pulled out from the wall and fixed from behind, which makes it a more expensive service call, involving more time and trouble. The electronic control panel can be at greater risk of failure when subjected to the high temps in the self-cleaning cycle. If you have a self-cleaning oven, we do recommend that you use Easy-Off no bake-no smell oven cleaner for self-cleaning ovens which will be less harsh on the porcelain finish and far less expensive than an oven repair.

Also, when cleaning your range top or cooktop be very careful with the amount of water or cleaning solution you use around the knobs and also around the ignition device. We all know that water conducts electricity, hence when you splash water on a igniter that uses electricity to ignite it’s flame you run the risk of short circuiting the system and this can be very frustrating and scary as it will often cause burners to click excessively or sometimes spark, pop and burn up. It is not usually a fire hazard but using a damp cloth and a light amount of " Bar Keepers Friend " is more than enough to clean the unit and not scratch the smoothtop.

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