How often should you clean your toaster oven?

You need to look after your unit regularly and every time you use it. Look after if any food is stuck or dropped around the heating parts of your toasting ovens. One precaution which you need to strictly follow is that you should never put metallic utensils inside the toaster ovens. After you have used it, wait for some time so that all of its heating elements cool down completely. Just put a glance visually after using it, in this way you can avoid a lot of unnecessary accidents of catching fire by your unit due to dropped food in the heating elements. But remember one thing for long-term maintenance and cleansing you need deep cleansing of your unit. But like all other such household appliances, the toaster ovens also become dirtier with extensive usage and with the passage of time.

The following are the items required for the scheduled deep cleaning of your toaster oven.

• Cleaning brush
• Dish soap
• Rags
• A pastry brush

Unplug the toaster oven.

First step is to unplug your toaster oven from the electrical circuit. If it has been used recently then let it cool first. Never even think of cleaning a heated toaster oven. Then you need a comfortable place where you get more convenient cleaning. You can choose a place near the garbage can or sink or some heighted place. Here two things are important to remember. Firstly never place your unit in the tub or bucket of water. Secondly if before sparring cleansing solution on it let it cool down first otherwise it’s heating elements can catch the fire.

Soaking in different parts

Now disassemble all the removable parts such as trays and the racks followed by soapy water preparation. Soapy water can be prepared by adding a small quantity of common dish washing soap with the warm water. Then put all the disassembled parts into it. For this purpose a bathtub, sink or a plastic bin can be used.

Removal of the crumbs

For this purpose a bathtub, sink or a plastic bin can be used.Unplug the toaster oven.

Wiping inside of the unit

To wipe out stuck food particles in your toaster oven, you can choose things such as soapy rag or damp to thoroughly clean non-stick interior surfaces. For the metallic part of the toaster oven, you will be needing stronger scrubbing pads which leave no particle or sticky material left behind if used with care. Abrasive scrubbers are never helpful, remember that. 

Remove racks and trays.

In the beginning of this whole process, you had taken out all removable parts from the toaster oven and placed these into a soaking solution. After a few hours of soaking, take these parts out. If these parts had contained any sticky material, they would have been softened now due to immersion in the soapy solution. You can use a rag to dislodge and remove any material or dirt from these racks and trays.

Washing metallic parts

After you are done with cleaning disassembled parts, take a dry rag, dry these removable parts thoroughly and then put these parts back into their place one by one.

Wipe sides of toaster oven Wiping sides of the toaster oven

The outer surface cleansing must be a part of your regular cleaning activity.Take a clean cloth or a soft rag, soak it with the soapy solution and clean the outer surface of your toaster oven thoroughly.

Baked-on grease spots cleansing

Being a regular user of the toaster oven, you can face the problem of removing the baked-on grease from your unit. These are the stubborn spots and difficult to remove with superficial cleansing. You can use the same cleansing technique to that of a common oven. Make a homogenous mixture of water paste and baking soda, and sprinkle it over the sticky spots area and let it act for a few hours. Use a common rag with wash off all problematic areas. In this way you can dislodge and clean all such problematic sticky spots from the toaster oven.

Davide Mazzaferro

Davide Mazzaferro is one of the famous Italian cafeteria trainers and writers on the coffee machines and kitchen equipment. He is heaving wide knowledge on the coffee machines, coffee beans, restaurants, and kitchen equipment. Davide Mazzaferro is a former trainer in Italian barista school and Aicaf Accademia Italiana Maestri del caffè. Right now he is working with M.T. Group as a technical assistant of restaurant and bar equipment.