Spills sometimes drip down the air vents at the top of the oven door and wind up staining the inside surfaces of the door’s glass. These interior glass surfaces are difficult to reach. The best way to reach interior oven door spills is to remove the door and take it apart it, so you can thoroughly clean all of the glass.
Keep in mind that this task is somewhat complicated. If you aren’t completely confident that you can remove the oven door, take it apart and properly reassemble it yourself, schedule a Sears Technician to visit your home and complete this task.
If you’re certain that you can tackle this project yourself, follow these steps to clean interior door glass.
Gather Your Supplies
To clean the oven door yourself, you’ll need these tools:
- Phillips screwdriver
- Flat-tip screwdriver
- Nut driver
- Work gloves
- Glass cleaner
- Scraper
- Cleaning cloths
- Towels for padding
Remove the Oven Door
Find and follow the steps for removing the oven door in the owner’s manual for your range or oven.
For many ovens, you’ll need to follow these basic steps to remove the oven door:
- Allow the oven to cool if it’s hot.
- The oven door is heavy so have a helper ready to assist you when removing the oven door if you need it.
- Open the door all the way and use a slot screwdriver to pry down the locking tabs to the unlocked position on both sides of the door.
- Partially close the door to the broil stop position, which is about 1/4 open. Grip both sides of the oven door and then lift up and out to remove the door. Use your helper if necessary.
- Set the oven door on a padded surface with the inner panel facing up.
Here’s a video that shows how to remove the oven door and clean the inner door glass for a common type of range:
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Although some oven doors differ from the one shown in the video above, you’ll typically need to follow these basic steps to pull apart the oven door:
- Remove the screws that secure the door handle and vent to the top of the door and pull off the door handle.
- Carefully flip the door over.
- Lift the side trim rails slightly and pull off the vent.
- Remove the screws from the bottom door trim.
- Lift the outer door panel off and set it on a padded surface with the inner side facing up.
Clean the Interior Oven Door Glass
If the inner side of the glass on the outer door panel has streaks from a spill, clean it with glass cleaner. If the surface has a textured coating like this glass, don’t use a scraper to remove spills. Scraping can damage the textured coating.
Clean the outer surface of the middle door glass if it’s dirty. This middle glass surface doesn’t have a textured coating, so you can use a scraper to loosen food streaks.
If the inner surface of the middle door glass has grease drips or you see spills on other inner door glass surfaces, remove the bracket screws and lift off the middle door glass with the brackets still attached. Set the middle door glass and bracket on a padded surface and clean the inner surface.
Clean the outer surface of the inner door glass if it’s dirty.
The inner door glass on this range has double panes of glass. If the inner surfaces of the inner door glass are dirty, flip the door over and remove the door hinge screws.
Lift the door and move the door hinges out of the way.
Flip the oven door back over and remove the heat shield screws and lift the heat shield off.
Lift the glass to access last glass surface layers and clean them thoroughly.
Reassemble the Oven Door
Reverse the procedure that you used to disassemble the door. The video shows how to reassemble a typical oven door.
If you get to a point where you’re unsure how to reassemble the oven door, have a service technician visit your home and reinstall the oven door on your stove.
Once you get the inner door glass cleaned and get the door back on your oven, your range will look like new again.
To keep your oven in top shape, schedule annual professional maintenance on your range. A Sears Technician will visit your home and perform the following tasks:
- Inspect the entire electrical system for proper grounding and secure connections.
- Visually check readily accessible wiring insulation for cracks and/or peeling.
- Check oven controls for maintaining accurate temperatures.
- Check the oven door and door gasket for proper alignment.
- Clean the door gasket.
- Level the range and make sure the anti-tip device is installed.
- Test the self-cleaning lock mechanism.
- Check the electronic controls to ensure proper functions.
- Check and adjust the clock as needed.
- Check all surface and oven burners or elements.
- Clean around Burners
- Clean and wipe down exterior of the appliance.
Scheduling annual range maintenance ensures that your stove will stay in its best working order all year round, and will provide you with years of reliable service.