Cloudy ammonia - is it dangerous?

Question

Hi - I hear putting a bowl of cloudy ammonia in your oven overnight is excellent at removing grease. It stinks unbearably however. Is it dangerous to breath in the fumes? If so, I am thinking I may as well get one of those horrible caustic oven cleaners to clean it. I've inherited this oven from previous tenants and it smells of smoke, is covered in tonnes of grease and black gunk and it's HORRIBLE. Please help.

Answer 1

I find that the fumes from ammonia bother me much worse than the fumes from oven cleaner, if the oven isn't heated. I would get oven cleaner that specifically works in cold ovens overnight (I always use Easy Off and I think it works the best). Make sure the area is well ventilated. Spray on at night and wipe off the next day, with warm-hot water and an old rag. Since the oven doesn't get hot, the fumes don't penetrate the whole house. Use rubber gloves and put down old newspaper to protect the floor. Since your oven is really bad, it may require 2 treatments. Hope this helps. Good luck!

Answer 2

The fumes are a major problem but they are no worse than those from spray on oven cleansers.

Keep a window open or keep an exhaust fan running so you won't be breathing them.

To minimize how long you need to have the fumes first take a single-edge razor blade and scrape off as much of the baked-on crud as you can.  Then go for the strong cleaners like ammonia or oven spray for the rest.