Sorry, I’ve Been Hiding Something In The Oven

Not to be confused with the curious “bun in the oven” reference, this post was sponsored by HomeRight, who sent me its newest product, the multi-purpose Power Steamer SteamMachine. I cleaned the bejesus out of my kitchen’s oven with it, and while the product was free, the review of this product is my own. 

I have something really horrible to show you, but I think it demonstrates why I was quick to say “Yes, please!” to the folks at HomeRight recently when they offered me to test their SteamMachine, a portable steam cleaner with six purposeful attachments. My oven? I’ve never cleaned it. Cue the vomit, I’m so sorry.

I guess I didn’t consider it that dirty; we don’t use it all that often (we get more use out of the countertop convection oven and stovetop) but when I think back to what has gone on in there–overflowing turkey juices, loose cornmeal from making pizzas on our pizza stone, a small (but quickly extinguished) fire–I’m a little concerned with my priorities and wonder why I didn’t think to clean our oven sooner. It does have an auto-clean setting, but there was so much debris in there I thought for sure it would force the entire oven to spontaneously combust and take the whole house down with it. Denial.

The SteamMachine is good for lots of stuff. I’m also looking forward to using it to clean the shower and around the toilet, and maybe someday for removing wallpaper with the handy steamer plate, but for its maiden voyage in my home I went for my heaviest duty job and gave it a good workout.

The product itself is nice. Compared to our HAAN floor steamer, I’ve found that it’s small and easy to store. With a wheel it is easily pulled, and with a handle, easily carried.

Almost all of the accessories (except for two long extender pieces) fit right inside a little compartment on the unit. The cords and steam gun are left to lay however you can fit them, but other than that the product is compact, like a darling little globe in our closet.

One of the attachments is a brass brush just for the purpose of removing grease and grime found on grills and in ovens, and that’s exactly what I used to get the job done. Steaming’s a good solution for oven cleaning because it not only kills 99% of germs and bacteria, but it’s also chemical free, and once you have the machine, all you need is tap water to make magic happen.

To start, I filled the tank with water (it holds up to 1200 ml or 5 cups of water that can last for up to 45 minutes of steaming).

After plugging it in and turning it on the machine takes 8 minutes to build up substantial steam pressure, but what pressure it has. I wore ear protection during its prolonged use, because that baby blasted it’s music loud.

The power of the steam cleaning was almost immediately visible on the inside of the door and especially on the glass window. I’m equally amazed and disgusted in realizing how filthy the inside of our oven door was. A few bits of grime remained when I snapped this next photo. They were loose on the surface and wiped right off with a rag.

The whole process took me about an hour, and I only had to partially refill the tank once. I had scraped the loosened bits off the bottom of the oven, blasted the inside with the gun, and scrubbed as much as I could bear. The back of the oven was a little more tedious to reach just because I couldn’t get my whole body in there to apply a firm pressure on the end of the steam gun, but what I was able to clean did make quite a difference.

A few things I liked about this product:

• There are buttons telling you when the tank is pressurized for use, and to alert you when water is running low.
• The cap for the tank will not come off until it has de-pressurized to a safe state (no fear of it blasting off when you loosen the cap it, or burning yourself with steam).
• The gun. Period.

Guys, the oven is clean.

The racks really needed the same treatment, but the base is markedly improved.

And the door. And the window. The most dramatic improvement of it all.

If you’re in the market for a new toy, the HomeRight SteamMachine might be right for you. It retails at $99 (learn more at the HomeRight website). I also found it listed on Amazon and at homedepot.com for just $80.