Exeter Oven Cleaning
Range and AGA class cooker cleaning
Wide range cookers and cast iron AGA class cookers, cleaned in the same careful way but over a much longer job, priced by the hours it takes.
A range cooker is not a big oven, it is several appliances behind one front: two ovens, a grill, sometimes a warming drawer, and a hob wide enough to have five or seven burners on it. Every one of those is a separate piece of work, which is why a range is a half day where a fitted oven is two hours.
AGA class cast iron cookers are different again. Enamel front, chrome lids, hotplates, and ovens that hold heat rather than blowing it around. They are handsome and they are grime magnets, and there is no version of cleaning one quickly.
The method is identical to a standard oven. There is simply more of it, so it is priced by the hours taken rather than squeezed into a figure that would not cover the work.
What is included
- Both oven cabinets, and the warming drawer where there is one
- The grill compartment, its runners and the grill pan
- Every rack, runner and tray, soaked in batches because there are too many for one tray
- Hob surface, burner caps, crowns and the cast iron pan supports
- Splash back and the control panel surround
- Enamel front, chrome lids and handle rails on AGA class cookers
- Hotplates cleaned back on cast iron cookers
- The gap either side of the cooker, which is where the worst of it usually is
Why a range takes about twice as long
It is arithmetic rather than difficulty. A standard double oven has two cavities, six or so racks and one door to take apart. A seven burner range has two cavities plus a grill, ten or twelve racks and runners, seven sets of burner parts, cast iron supports that are heavy and awkward to soak, and two or three doors.
Each of those is a small job. Together they are a half day, and that is with everything going smoothly. A range that has had a roasting tin overflow at some point and has not been properly cleaned since will run beyond it, which is a conversation to have before the day rather than during it.
Cast iron and enamel need a lighter hand
The vitreous enamel on an AGA class cooker is a glass coating fired onto cast iron, and it is tough but not invulnerable. Nothing abrasive goes on it and nothing harsh sits on it, because a scratch or a dulled patch on that front is permanent and very visible.
Hotplates are the opposite problem: they are meant to be worked back to clean metal, and being timid with them leaves a cooker that still transfers heat unevenly. Knowing which surface takes which treatment is most of the skill on these cookers, and it is why they are not a job to hand to somebody who cleans ovens by pouring on a chemical and waiting.
Hot or cold, and how long the cooker is off
A cast iron cooker that is normally left on has to be off and cold for the ovens to be done properly, which for most models means shutting it down the night before. That is worth planning around, particularly in winter in a house where the kitchen is warmed by it.
A lighter clean, the fronts, the lids and the hotplates, can be done while a cooker is up to heat. Whether that is enough depends on the state of the ovens, and it is an easy thing to judge from a photograph before anything is booked.
On the day
How a ranges and agas runs
- Step 1
Work out the order
On a big cooker the order matters. Soaking starts first and in batches, because there is more metal than any one tray holds, and the sequence is what keeps a long job moving.
- Step 2
Hob and supports
Pan supports and burner parts off and soaking, the hob surface degreased, and the burner ports checked and cleared so the flames come back even.
- Step 3
Ovens in turn
Each cabinet done separately, top down, with the degreaser given time to sit rather than being wiped straight off.
- Step 4
Fronts and rebuild
Enamel and chrome cleaned and polished on cast iron cookers, everything dried and refitted in the right order, and the cooker run up before the kitchen is handed back.
Behind the work
Kit, cover and qualifications
One person, named
Sam Hembury does the work himself. The person who gives you the estimate is the person standing in your kitchen.
Hembury Contracting
Exeter Oven Cleaning is a service line of Hembury Contracting, Sam's Exeter contracting business. Same trading entity, same invoices, same VAT registration.
Public liability cover
Insured for work in your home. A copy of the certificate goes over by email if you want to see it before booking.
By hand, with time
Professional degreasers, removable parts soaked, cabinet and glass done by hand. No shortcuts that leave the door glass looking like a fog.
Ranges and AGAs
Range and AGA class cooker cleaning questions
- How long does an AGA class cooker take?
- It is priced by the hours rather than by a fixed figure, because the range in condition is enormous. A cooker that gets a wipe over regularly is a different job from one that has been running for years untouched. Send a photograph and you will get a straight estimate.
- Do I have to turn the cooker off?
- For the ovens, yes, and on most cast iron models that means the night before so it is cold to work in. If only the exterior, lids and hotplates need doing, it can be worked around a cooker that is on.
- Can you do the hob at the same time as the ovens?
- On a range that is normally the same job, since the hob is part of the same appliance. It is included in the hours rather than added as an extra.
Where
Range and AGA class cooker cleaning across the South West
Get a time estimate
Book an oven clean with Exeter Oven Cleaning
Tell us what cooker you have and roughly what state it is in. Sam Hembury will come back with the hours it should take, what that costs, and the next free slot.