The Best Way To Clean Dirty Oven Racks

Knowing how to clean your oven racks may not be as crucial as knowing, say, how to clean the inside of your oven. However, it’s still an important part of the oven-cleaning puzzle, along with cleaning the inside of your oven door and cleaning between the glass on your oven door.

(Of course, there’s also plenty worth learning about cleaning your range, too, like the best way to clean your stove burners and an easy way to clean your range hood filter. But this post is primarily about dirty oven racks, so let’s not get sidetracked!)

The Best Way To Clean Oven Racks Is… In Your Bathtub?

We all know that oven racks can get caked in baked-on food and grease over time, but lucky for us, there’s a way to clean those racks that’s easy as can be! Some time ago, I ran across THIS little tidbit while reading about uses for dryer sheets:

“An easy way to clean grill grates or oven racks is to line your bathtub with used dryer sheets, set the racks on top and fill the tub with warm water. Let sit overnight and then wipe clean. The power of the antistatic in dryer sheets helps to separate the food from the grates.”

I was intrigued enough to give it a try, and it ended up working like a charm! Here’s how this bathtub soaking methods works so you can do it with your own grimy oven racks.

How To Clean Oven Racks With Dryer Sheets And Dish Soap

You’ll need:

• Dryer sheets
• Dawn dish soap
• Scrub brush or sponge

Directions:

Place 6-8 dryer sheets into your bathtub, then get your oven racks and set them on top of the dryer sheets. Fill the bathtub with hot water until the racks are covered by several inches of water.

For additional degreasing power, I like to add around 1/4 cup of Dawn dish soap at this point. (This is totally optional, and wasn’t part of the original method I mentioned earlier, but Dawn has never let me down before, so I figured it couldn’t hurt!)

After adding the dish soap (if using), let the racks soak in the tub for a few hours, or ideally overnight.

After soaking, grab one of the wet dryer sheets from the tub, put it on an old towel, and use it to scrub the racks — a lot of the “gunk” should slide right off! For any extra tough gunk, using a little elbow grease and a scrubber or the back of a sponge should take care of it. Rinse your clean oven racks, dry them with an another old towel, and return them to your oven.

Check out these “before” and “after” photos – what a difference, right? That’s all it took to get my oven racks shiny and new again!

Note: If your racks are rusted, don’t place them in the tub. Instead, toss them inside of a large garbage bag so that the rust doesn’t transfer to your bathtub.

A Note About Self-Cleaning Ovens

If you have a self-cleaning oven, I’d recommend you remove the racks before using the self-cleaning feature, as high heat may discolor your oven racks. Racks left inside the oven during self-cleaning can also become stuck — if that happens, use a bit of olive oil to loosen them up. 

More Ways To Clean Oven Racks In Your Bathtub

Baking Soda And Vinegar

You can also take advantage of the fizzy reaction between baking soda and vinegar to clean oven racks. Just put the racks in your tub, sprinkle baking soda generously over them, then pour vinegar over the top. When the fizzing stops, cover the racks with hot water and leave them to soak overnight, then rinse clean in the morning.

To help cut through the grease, add several drops of lemon or orange essential oil when you add the vinegar and baking soda. (Citrus oils are some of my favorite essential oils to clean with, because they’re all-natural, effective, and smell great to boot!)

Dishwasher Detergent

Put your dirty oven racks in the bathtub, cover them with hot water, then add 1 cup of powdered dishwasher detergent (or a handful of homemade dishwasher detergent tabs) and agitate the water until the powder dissolves. Let the racks soak overnight, then rinse and dry them in the morning. (For any remaining stubborn bits of gunk, use something abrasive like washing soda to remove the grease.)

How To Get Your Oven Racks Clean Without Soaking

Bar Keepers Friend

Bar Keepers Friend is an amazing cleaner with a lot of uses, including cleaning oven racks. Take your racks to the kitchen sink or bathtub, then wet the racks and sprinkle Bar Keepers Friend over the top (or squeeze the cleanser over the racks, if you aren’t using the powder formula.)

Scrub the greasy racks with steel wool, then rinse and dry well. This cleaning method takes a bit of elbow grease, but it will make your oven racks sparkle like new!

Commercial Oven Cleaner

Store-bought cleaners like Easy-Off Oven Cleaner can help you get oven and grill racks clean, and they even have a “fume-free” formula now. Take the racks outside and set them on a dropcloth, a few plastic bags, or whatever you won’t mind throwing out. Spray the oven cleaner on the racks according to the manufacturer’s instructions, then wipe clean with a rag.

Ammonia

Head outside, put your dirty oven racks in a large, clean trash bag, then pour a cup or so of ammonia into the bag. Tie the bag closed and let it sit out in the sun throughout the day and overnight to allow the warm ammonia fumes to break up all that tough grease. Rinse the racks off with your garden hose, they should be clean and shiny!

Steel Wool And Soapy Water

This particular method has a couple of advantages — it’s safe for stainless steel racks, and there’s no overnight waiting period. It will likely require quite a bit of scrubbing though, depending on how dirty the racks are. Just head outside when it’s nice out, get the racks wet, and scrub them with steel wool dipped into soap water.

The Takeaway

Sometimes it can be hard to know how often to clean appliances, but when your oven racks are dirty, it’s fairly obvious. My best cleaning tips for oven racks are to clean them before they get thoroughly caked in grime, and to quickly wipe up spills — both will make cleaning so much easier!

I’d go so far as to say the first method (the bathtub soak with dryer sheets and dish soap) is the best way to clean oven racks, but it never hurts to have options!

How do you tackle the job of cleaning your oven racks?