Our current cooking range is almost ten years old. For some reason, condensation or other stuff somehow was between the glass panes on the oven door window which makes it look unsightly. It is not an unusual problem. My wife has been wanting to try to clean the inside of the panes for sometime now. This will be the tale of our cleaning the oven door, and how it was accomplished.
It was a Monday, near mid-afternoon, and I was at the kitchen table doing something I cannot now recall (so it must have been important) when something struck me, perhaps it was a conversation I was having about the same time with my wife. At that point I grabbed the I-Pad to look up cleaning the interior of oven glass panes. The top Google search was a video form GE on how to clean the between the panes of glass on your oven door. Great, I thought, other than being stainless steel, the oven looked similar to ours. The video noted how you can take off the oven door and dampen a wash cloth or dishcloth soaked in water and dish soap. attached to a yard stick by a rubber band. You then stick the yardstick with the cloth up some openings in the bottom of the door and angle back and forth to clean. A spacecraft can be sent to the far reaches of space, but the best way to clean between the oven door glass is with a yardstick and a rag. Well, before taking off the door I got on my back and looked up and sure enough there two slots about a 1/4" wide and a few inches long along the bottom of the door between the glass panes. I got a drop cloth to put on the counter and the wife and I took off the door, per the video directions. It was rather simple really, moving two clamps all the way to the door while the door is down, shutting the door to about 3" from close and lifting it out. I was surprised how easy it came out from its mooring at each side of the oven opening.
My wife noted that the wood yardstick with a cloth would not fit. I tried and she was right. Lucky, we have a thinner metal yard stick. We grabbed one of the cotton cloths that we often use in lieu of paper towels to attach to the yardstick with one of the greatest inventions ever--a rubber band. Yes, according to the video instructions that is how to attach the cloth to the yardstick. Well, the grooves in the oven door in the video must be wider than our because we could not get the cloth and the yardstick in to the door. My wife went downstairs and grabbed an old sheet from which we tore a couple pieces off. We then followed the directions of using dish soap in water to dampen the cloth and put up in the groove(s) and move the yardstick up and down and around to clean the glass. What we noticed is that the rubber bands prevented the sheet from getting good contact with the glass. So, besides not cleaning very well there was also streaking.
But, we were not done. The directions said to use the same cloth rinsed in clean water and use again to remove the soap. I figured some of the streaking would come off with rinsing, so we tried the rubber band way and the lack of contact meant not much was happening., the streaks remained, and we had made it worse. I took off the upper rubber band and kept only the lower on one hoping the sheeting rag would not come off and make an even bigger quandary. Due to deft and expert handling of the yardstick, and keeping eye on the rubber band which attached the sheet rag only in one place I was successful in removing the streaks. The window is not perfectly cleaned, sometimes you have to leave well enough alone. We used a dry sheet rag and a hair dryer to help further dry the inside. The video said to wait an hour before placing the door back, but my ever non-rule following wife said she was not going to worry about that. I think she used a certain term to describe me. The two guys doing the cleaning in the video made it look much easier and simpler than it turned out in real time.
The last thing was to put the door back in. The video made this seem really easy. Essentially it is a reverse of the process, but a groove on each hinge needs to get in the exact place and then you pull the door down parallel to the floor. The door will not go down parallel to the floor if the grooves are not properly set in the accepting part of the oven. We must of tried twenty times to get the door in place. We took the door out several times, we looked at it to see if everything looked good, we watched the end of the video about four times, we even tried to find other videos. It was so desperate we even found the directions and read them a few times. Everything looked in order. One thing that can go wrong, our research showed, was that the hinges may end up in the wrong place.
Not sure what the situation was with the hinges, I left home about 4 pm to take the door to Birrenkott Appliance, from where we bought the range in November of 2010. The gentlemen there thought it looked right. They went over to what appeared the same model and pulled that door out and sure enough it has the same mechanism. He easily put the door back in. We again looked at our door and realized the hinges seemed correct. The worker at Birrenkott took out the door on the range in showroom once again, and tried our door. It went right in. He took it out. The door, we now knew was taken our correctly and the hinges were in the proper position. I realized, it was just getting the hinges in the proper place in the opening. As I left, it was approaching 5 pm, and I told them they may get a call tomorrow morning if I was not successful.
We were doing everything right in positioning the door, it was just not getting properly set. I thought of it like putting on a mower on a power take off--the ring won't go back unless it is in the right position. Realizing that this could be a hopeless situation, on the way home I said a prayer to St Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes. My wife would probably be the first to admit I am near a hopeless cause, so I thought this appropriate. Perhaps, St Jude would like me, although more likely he would probably take pity on me. I got home, and the first try it seemed to set better, but no luck, I was thinking that perhaps one side got set, but not the other. While in place I tried to lift up slightly and set back down, but again no luck. I then fully removed the door and while doing so, said another quick prayer to St Jude. The third time was a charm, as I set it in place, it felt as if it was properly set, I lowered the door to fully down, the hinge locks released and we dropped them in place. The door was on. Don't ask me how I did it.
My wife was impressed that I got it, (I told her I said a quick prayer to St Jude) and with that she gave me a handshake. While I thought the method of cleaning with a rag and a yardstick was funny, the simplest method is probably the best. Oh, and by the way, the door was out for over an hour, per the instructions. The moral of the story--most things are not as easy as they seem.
It was a Monday, near mid-afternoon, and I was at the kitchen table doing something I cannot now recall (so it must have been important) when something struck me, perhaps it was a conversation I was having about the same time with my wife. At that point I grabbed the I-Pad to look up cleaning the interior of oven glass panes. The top Google search was a video form GE on how to clean the between the panes of glass on your oven door. Great, I thought, other than being stainless steel, the oven looked similar to ours. The video noted how you can take off the oven door and dampen a wash cloth or dishcloth soaked in water and dish soap. attached to a yard stick by a rubber band. You then stick the yardstick with the cloth up some openings in the bottom of the door and angle back and forth to clean. A spacecraft can be sent to the far reaches of space, but the best way to clean between the oven door glass is with a yardstick and a rag. Well, before taking off the door I got on my back and looked up and sure enough there two slots about a 1/4" wide and a few inches long along the bottom of the door between the glass panes. I got a drop cloth to put on the counter and the wife and I took off the door, per the video directions. It was rather simple really, moving two clamps all the way to the door while the door is down, shutting the door to about 3" from close and lifting it out. I was surprised how easy it came out from its mooring at each side of the oven opening.
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| Our oven door reinstalled after cleaning between the glass panes |
My wife noted that the wood yardstick with a cloth would not fit. I tried and she was right. Lucky, we have a thinner metal yard stick. We grabbed one of the cotton cloths that we often use in lieu of paper towels to attach to the yardstick with one of the greatest inventions ever--a rubber band. Yes, according to the video instructions that is how to attach the cloth to the yardstick. Well, the grooves in the oven door in the video must be wider than our because we could not get the cloth and the yardstick in to the door. My wife went downstairs and grabbed an old sheet from which we tore a couple pieces off. We then followed the directions of using dish soap in water to dampen the cloth and put up in the groove(s) and move the yardstick up and down and around to clean the glass. What we noticed is that the rubber bands prevented the sheet from getting good contact with the glass. So, besides not cleaning very well there was also streaking.
But, we were not done. The directions said to use the same cloth rinsed in clean water and use again to remove the soap. I figured some of the streaking would come off with rinsing, so we tried the rubber band way and the lack of contact meant not much was happening., the streaks remained, and we had made it worse. I took off the upper rubber band and kept only the lower on one hoping the sheeting rag would not come off and make an even bigger quandary. Due to deft and expert handling of the yardstick, and keeping eye on the rubber band which attached the sheet rag only in one place I was successful in removing the streaks. The window is not perfectly cleaned, sometimes you have to leave well enough alone. We used a dry sheet rag and a hair dryer to help further dry the inside. The video said to wait an hour before placing the door back, but my ever non-rule following wife said she was not going to worry about that. I think she used a certain term to describe me. The two guys doing the cleaning in the video made it look much easier and simpler than it turned out in real time.
The last thing was to put the door back in. The video made this seem really easy. Essentially it is a reverse of the process, but a groove on each hinge needs to get in the exact place and then you pull the door down parallel to the floor. The door will not go down parallel to the floor if the grooves are not properly set in the accepting part of the oven. We must of tried twenty times to get the door in place. We took the door out several times, we looked at it to see if everything looked good, we watched the end of the video about four times, we even tried to find other videos. It was so desperate we even found the directions and read them a few times. Everything looked in order. One thing that can go wrong, our research showed, was that the hinges may end up in the wrong place.
Not sure what the situation was with the hinges, I left home about 4 pm to take the door to Birrenkott Appliance, from where we bought the range in November of 2010. The gentlemen there thought it looked right. They went over to what appeared the same model and pulled that door out and sure enough it has the same mechanism. He easily put the door back in. We again looked at our door and realized the hinges seemed correct. The worker at Birrenkott took out the door on the range in showroom once again, and tried our door. It went right in. He took it out. The door, we now knew was taken our correctly and the hinges were in the proper position. I realized, it was just getting the hinges in the proper place in the opening. As I left, it was approaching 5 pm, and I told them they may get a call tomorrow morning if I was not successful.
We were doing everything right in positioning the door, it was just not getting properly set. I thought of it like putting on a mower on a power take off--the ring won't go back unless it is in the right position. Realizing that this could be a hopeless situation, on the way home I said a prayer to St Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes. My wife would probably be the first to admit I am near a hopeless cause, so I thought this appropriate. Perhaps, St Jude would like me, although more likely he would probably take pity on me. I got home, and the first try it seemed to set better, but no luck, I was thinking that perhaps one side got set, but not the other. While in place I tried to lift up slightly and set back down, but again no luck. I then fully removed the door and while doing so, said another quick prayer to St Jude. The third time was a charm, as I set it in place, it felt as if it was properly set, I lowered the door to fully down, the hinge locks released and we dropped them in place. The door was on. Don't ask me how I did it.
My wife was impressed that I got it, (I told her I said a quick prayer to St Jude) and with that she gave me a handshake. While I thought the method of cleaning with a rag and a yardstick was funny, the simplest method is probably the best. Oh, and by the way, the door was out for over an hour, per the instructions. The moral of the story--most things are not as easy as they seem.
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