The holidays are upon us and some of you may be thinking of self cleaning your ovens in anticipation of cooking for your family and friends. Keep this in mind before your holiday feast and plans are ruined.
When you self clean your oven what you are doing is turning your oven into an incinerator. 600 up to 700 degrees for 2 or 3 hours at a time. I personally recommend self cleaning no more than once or twice a year. Although this cycle is very convenient it is very destructive to your appliance. Over time it cooks wiring, control boards and warps plastic parts.
This is the most important part, if you do self clean for the holidays make sure you do it well in advance. If the outside oven cavity gets to hot during a self clean cycle you have a chance of blowing your thermal fuse. If this happens your oven will no longer heat and there is a good chance the oven door will be stuck in the lock position.
You would be surprized at the number of people who have an oven with no heat the day before Thanksgiving!