OvenGleam

How Often Should I Have My Oven Cleaned?

I'm out cleaning ovens myself at the moment - I'm doing a couple of days a week while the guys are all doing their normal five days week days and alternative Saturdays. I have been asked by clients about how often they should call us in to get their oven cleaned by us. I usually say that it depends on your useage but I would recommend every six months and at least once a year. For AGAs I would recommend a clean once a year when you are switching it off to have it serviced. But what it really depends on is how clean you would like  your oven to be?? We clean it until it gleams which means it won't have any grease or burnt on carbon left on it at all. Some people can live with this and others can't; they need to keep the oven bright and shiny with no dirty stuff in it whatsoever. I cleaned an oven last Saturday and the client had just moved into a house and she said that she just couldn't believe that someone would like get their oven into such a state. To me it was an easy clean at the bottom of the dirty scale!

Some ovens are dirty than others!

I'm  out cleaning ovens a couple of days a week at the moment and really I've forgotten that some ovens are dirty than others! Some people like to have their ovens cleaned every few months, which means they don't have to clean them at all, and at the other pole people have their ovens cleaned when they are really dirty - they wait for the them to be really thick in grease and burnt on carbon before they decide to have them cleaned. Which one are you? I had a day the other day where the first three ovens were not too bad and I was able to clean them in the time allocated for the job and then the last one was really thick in grease and it took me an extra hour to clean that one.

It's Time to Spring into Oven Cleaning!

Now we had more than a few days of 20 degrees plus it's time for Spring Cleaning isn't it? It's time to do a thorough clean of the kitchen and whilst you are doing this it's time to get rid of all that grease and muck from inside the oven and get it looking like new again. Don't attempt to do it yourself, call us in and we will do the job professionally and make your oven look like new using our eco cleaning system.

Keeping Your AGA Clean

Hi all, I've noticed that my AGA has got quite dirty in the last few months - I had it installed in December last year. I tend to keep on top of the grease on the top by having a micro cloth to hand but even so it looks like it will be time to do a proper clean on it, already, which means turning it off and then doing a proper job on it using our Eco AGA cleaning system. One of our guys hasn't been trained up to clean AGAs yet so I will probably use my AGA to carry out his training.

Oven Cleaning Service Resumed.

Last week two of our operatives were sick towards the end of the week so we had to do a bit of rearranging and I went out cleaning ovens on Saturday to make sure that we got all the ovens, that had been booked in, gleamed. I can't remember a time when we've had two off sick but it gave me the opportunity to clean some ovens. The weather was nice and it was great to be out cleaning ovens again. The two operatives are back again this week, so it's full steam ahead to get those ovens gleamed!

The PL TA Postcode Mix Up

We had a call from a lady who said she lived in Yelverton and asked me if we covered that area. I said "Yeovilton" yes we do cover that area. The lady, who had a two oven AGA to be cleaned said she would phone back. She phoned back later in the week and booked in her AGA with another member of our staff. I review our bookings on a daily basis and I noticed that the booking had been made with the town of Yelverton and postcode PL20. I thought this must be wrong and changed the name to Yeovilton and the postcode to TA20. Before sending the jobs out to our guys my wife happened to query the address and discovered that it was infact PL20 and Yelverton. Alan had a long drive down to Yelverton to clean the AGA (and I owe the wife a bottle of champagne for spotting my mistake!!).

Dirty oven - Caustic Oven Cleaner

I cleaned an oven today and it was covered in a well known off the supermarket shelf caustic oven cleaner . This cleaner has on the back on its packet an orange label with two acid bottles picture which means it's a corrosive product and will burn your skin on contact. I think most people tend to overlook this warning sign when they buy it and only find out the problems of using it when it's time to use it back home. When you use it you need to be careful and wear proper gloves, eye protection wear, face mask and ideally an apron, open all windows and make sure there is through current of air. Also keep pets and children out of the kitchen. Once it's been put on don't leave it on for too long as it does damage the enamel of the oven and if it gets onto any painted part of the oven it will strip the paint off - SMEG owners beware as you have painted sides to your doors and they go a very awful white! Also if you don't get it off properly it taints the food when you cook it which is very lovely!

For us it's a nightmare to clean an oven when it's got this stuff on it - it gets on your hands and in your hair and it really isn't nice at all. We tend to wipe it all out first and then once we've got it all out we then switch over and carry out our normal eco cleaning process - nice and easy, fume free, that is safe for everybody including me. Then really I need a shower as soon as possible to get the stuff out of my hair and off my skin.

So watch out and really don't buy the oven cleaner from the shop call in the OvenGleam the oven cleaning professionals.

Scores on the Doors - Oven Cleaning Schedule

We attended an event held by Taunton Deane Borough Council at Taunton School  see http://www.tauntondeane.gov.uk/tdbcsites/envh/envh_fs/foodpremfaqs.asp  and also www.foodscores.co.uk, and http://www.tauntondeane.gov.uk/tdbcsites/envh/envh_fs/starratesyst.asp.

It was a day event to increase awareness of the scheme in the South Somerset and West Somerset Areas. Lots of local businesses were invited and several workshops were held on the day to help increase their awareness and knowledge of the scheme. Businesses were made aware of what was expected in the maintenance and management of systems to ensure the cleanliness of premises and equipment and food management.

We were there as we were interested in marketing our company as a solution to meeting the requirements of the scheme. We would be able to offer a regular eco friendly way to meet the requirement of having a kitchen cleaning management schedule in place.  We marketed our services to local businesses who were looking for a solution to help with the regular cleaning of their cooking equipment and we hope we ge some business out of it - watch this space.

Many thanks to The Food Safety Team of Taunton Deane Borough Council for doing such a good job in arranging the event.

Spring Cleaning Your Oven.

With a lovely day today, bright sunshine and a bit of warmth I have been wondering if it's time to expect an increase in bookings as people start thinking about Spring Cleaning. If you are thinking about having a good thorough kitchen clean for Spring please consider getting your oven cleaned too. We clean it until it gleams and really get it so it looks like new - just what you want to ensure that everything is perfectly clean in your kitchen.

Our Office and Oven Cleaning Booking System

When we started we had a paper diary that we filled in with appointments and I used to take this diary out with me when I was cleaning ovens. I would also forward my main phone to my mobile and then I would take calls off my phone and then phone back callers. I then progressed to having an outside answering service company taking calls for me and I would then phone these  callers back when I got home. Now we have somebody in our own dedicated office all day long and we make oven cleaning appointments immediately. We use a very good software package that suits our needs very well. We send our operatives an appointment sheet with all their jobs on a daily basis by email using this system. In all this oven cleaning booking software system has made us very efficient, allowing us to offer the benefit of immediate booking of oven cleaning, and it has also saved a huge amount of time and money.