Best oven cleaners 2024

The best oven cleaners cut through months of baked-on grease, are easy to remove and ideally work fast so you can quickly get back to doing something more fun.

We test oven cleaner sprays, gels and pastes from Mr Muscle, Oven Pride and more to find the best for tackling heavy dirt and oven racks.

Two oven cleaners beat the others when we combined our scores for how well they clean and how easy they are to use. They're both Best Buys.

The best oven cleaners

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The oven cleaners we tested

All the oven cleaners we tested are listed in alphabetical order below.

Only logged-in Which? members can view the best oven cleaners from our tests.

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Astonish Specialist: Anti-bacterial oven & grill

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Amount 250g

Suggested time to leave cleaner Five minutes, reapply where necessary

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; comes with double-sided sponge; product contains abrasive substance - care is needed on delicate or polished surfaces to avoid scratching; don't use on non-stick, Teflon, brushed or polished stainless steel or stickers

Cif Oven & Grill Specialist Cleaner Spray

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Amount 435ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner Up to 30 minutes

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; don't spray on oven trim, pilot light, heating or fan elements; don't use on aluminium, copper, brass, marble, painted wood or appliance lettering

Ecover Oven and Hob Cleaner

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Amount 500ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner One minute, longer for stubborn stains

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; don't use on hot surfaces

Elbow Grease Oven Cleaning Kit

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Amount 500ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner Four hours for oven, six hours for racks, for best results leave overnight

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; comes with disposable gloves and bag to put racks in to soak; don't use on oven door seals, trims, pilot light or heating and fan elements; don't use on aluminium, zinc, copper, tin, painted damaged, self-cleaning ovens, non-tempered glasses or non-stick surfaces

Want to free yourself from cleaning your oven? A pyrolytic oven cleans itself. Read our reviews of these in freestanding ovens and built-in ovens.

HG Grill, BBQ and Oven Cleaner Spray

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Amount 500ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner Three to five minutes, repeat two or three times on heavily marked areas

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; for best results, warm up the oven until the bottom is lukewarm; don't use on untreated aluminium or the outside of the oven, grill or barbecue  

Mr. Muscle Oven Cleaner

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Amount 300ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner Up to 30 minutes, repeat for stubborn stains

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; don't use on oven trim, pilot light or heating elements; don't use on self-cleaning ovens, microwave ovens, hot ovens, exterior surfaces; don't use on chrome, aluminium, zinc, copper, plastic or polished/lacquered surfaces

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Oven Mate Oven Cleaning Gel

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Amount 500ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner A few minutes up to 3 hours

Need to know Suitable to use on oven door; comes with disposable gloves, disposable arm protectors and scrubbing brush; don't use on self-cleaning ovens, hot ovens; don't use on aluminium, brass, copper, stainless steel, Teflon-coatings, painted enamel or anodised, cracked or painted surfaces

Oven Pride Complete Oven Cleaning Kit

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Amount 500ml

Suggested time to leave cleaner Four hours, ideally overnight

Need to know Not suitable to use on oven door; comes with disposable gloves and bag to put racks in to soak; don't use on oven trim, hinges, glass oven door, door seals, pilot light, heating or fan elements; don't use on aluminium, zinc, copper, tin, painted, damaged, self-cleaning or non-stick surfaces

Best kitchen cleaning sprays, best kitchen drain unblockers

How do homemade oven cleaners compare?

We've tested some of the most popular homemade oven cleaners, to see how they compare to store-bought ones.

We found they did a decent job, with comparable final results to some of the better oven cleaners we've tested.

But be prepared to put in a lot more elbow grease if you have a heavily soiled oven; plus they take longer to clean up after use.

So if you're looking for the best oven cleaner for convenience it's worth buying one of our Best Buys.

Bicarbonate of soda

How to do it Mix equal parts bicarbonate of soda and water in a bowl to form a paste. Apply to the oven and work it into the dirt with a sponge. 

Leave for at least one hour, or a few hours if there are stubborn areas of burnt-on food.

Use a scrubbing brush or scourer to lift and remove the dirt. Apply water as needed for lubricant, and avoid using on a glass door as this can introduce tiny scratches to the glass surface.

Wipe clean with a damp sponge, and remove residue with a kitchen towel or cloth. Repeat this if needed to get all the residue off.

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Bicarbonate of soda with water vinegar solution

How to do it Mix equal parts bicarbonate of soda and water in a bowl to form a paste. Apply to the oven and work it into the dirt with a sponge.

Mix three parts of water with one part of white vinegar. Decant into a spray bottle and apply to the oven. The vinegar will react with the bicarbonate of soda, making it fizz and bubble. 

Leave for at least one hour, or a few hours if there are stubborn areas of burnt-on food.

Use a scrubbing brush or scourer to lift and remove the dirt. Apply water as needed for lubricant. Avoid using them on a glass door as this can introduce tiny scratches to the glass surface.

Wipe clean with a damp sponge, and remove residue with kitchen towel or cloth. Repeat this if needed to get all the residue off.

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Dishwasher tablet

How to do it Fill a bowl with water. Remove the casing from a dishwasher tablet, and add any loose parts (like the red Powerball on a Finish dishwasher tablet) the the water.

Dip the bottom of the tablet into the water for a few seconds. Then rub the tablet over the inside of your oven. Apply water as needed for lubricant.

Repeat this until the burnt-on food is all lifted. Use another tablet if your current one crumbles apart.

Wipe clean with a damp sponge, and remove residue with kitchen towel or cloth.

Repeat this if needed to get all the residue off. 

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How we test oven cleaners

We test the most popular oven cleaners, widely available in the UK.

We also buy every oven cleaner we test, so you can be sure our reviews are honest and unbiased.

We regularly revisit the oven cleaners on sale to see if there are popular models that need testing.

Cleaning performance

• We make a mixture including cake batter, beef drippings, rosemary, breadcrumbs, jam and more.
• We apply this evenly to the oven floor and racks before turning on the oven to bake it in.
• We follow the instructions on each oven cleaner to apply the cleaner to the oven and racks, leaving it for the minimum length of time suggested to really test each cleaner.
• We remove the cleaner as per the instructions and apply it a second time if the packaging says you may need to.
• Our panel of testers each independently assess the finish to rank each of the oven cleaners for their cleaning ability.  

All the oven cleaners we've tested work, but the best oven cleaners do a brilliant job in their minimum time, while others would need to be left longer, or used multiple times to get better results. 

Ease of use

We rate each oven cleaner for how easy they are to use. Our test factors in clarity of instructions, whether necessary equipment, such as gloves and brushes, are included, the minimum time the cleaner is recommended to be applied and how easy the oven cleaner is to apply and remove.

While no oven cleaner we've tried is hard to use, the best are easy to evenly apply and require little elbow grease to do so.

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What's the best way to clean a really dirty oven?

If you have months and months of burnt-on food, you may want to start by using a spatula or oven scraper to lift off the heavy dirt.

Oven grease can be difficult to shift, so you'll get the best results using a dedicated oven cleaner.

These often have strong chemicals in them, so make sure you wear gloves and long sleeves, and crack the window open to allow fresh air into your kitchen.

We also found the best oven cleaners for cleaning really dirty oven racks to be the ones that provide you with a bag that lets you soak the racks in the cleaner.

They take longer (typically recommending you leave the racks for at least four hours) but by soaking in the cleaner it gets into all those hard-to-reach joins of a wire rack. So afterwards you can just remove the racks and rinse off the cleaner.

How to clean your oven. Find out more about other oven cleaners, including self-cleaning ovens, and how to clean a glass oven door. 

Three things we learnt testing oven cleaners

1. They all do a decent job, but some cleaned better in a shorter time We wanted to see just how well each cleaner performed in the minimum amount of time it claimed it needed to work. In these conditions, we found some cleaned the oven better than others.
2. Some oven cleaners are easier to apply than others Aerosol cleaners coat the oven visibly and evenly. Spray-on oven cleaners are easy to apply, while gels and liquids need a bit of spreading. Pastes need to work into the dirt, so require more effort.
3. Some oven cleaner packs come with the equipment you need Oven cleaners, on the whole, use strong chemicals to cut through the grease, so need gloves to handle them and cleaning equipment, such as clothes or brushes to apply. You may already have these in the kitchen, but a few oven cleaners we've tried come with some or all of these.

Get our top cleaning tips. How to clean a dishwasher, How to clean a smelly washing machine, How to clean your coffee machine