Here’s my first bit of research on oven cleaners and their little toxic cleaning chemicals friends. While researching, I discovered to my delight that a great resource for taking apart any cleaning product (chemically) is our own government. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has already done lots of homework with their household Products Database.
So I created a little comparison chart of a few oven cleaners. Looks like most of the data they had is from around 2001, but it probably hasn’t changed much.
Two toxic chemicals are very common across the 11 variations of oven cleaners examined (marked in red). So I picked one of them to research, called Sodium Hydroxide.Also known as lye, lower grades of this chemical are commonly found in both oven cleaners and drain cleaners, and can cause chemical burns if it contacts your skin. Lye can be fatal if swallowed. I could go on, but isn’t that enough to avoid using it in your oven? I mean, people cook FOOD in there! I know, lye is also used in food preparations, but that’s food grade lye and I believe the lye is processed out of the food or is chemically altered into something else by natural processes. Before you end up eating it…
Ingesting lye is serious. Fortunately, I wasn’t planning on eating any, but using it as an oven cleaner is dangerous enough all by itself. Reading the symptoms from actual cases reported by poison control centers and other data is downright depressing. Let’s just s
ay best not to get any lye on your skin, mucous membranes or your eyes. In short, any exposure to lye is a bad idea.Ok, so what happens if I miss wiping some oven cleaner out of the oven after cleaning it? Dangerous fumes. Contact with body. Probably hospital trip in either case. Yep, time to green your home with something toxin-free! Still open to suggestions, although I’m sure I’ll find an adequate substitute soon.So far the only oven cleaners without lye are Easy-Off Fume Free Max Oven Cleaner, Microwave Oven Magic (old product) and Zep Oven and Grill Cleaner. Not that I’m recommending using any of them. Let’s see if any of the above toxic cleaning chemicals survive my next project, the chemical Monoethanolamine (MEA). Part 3 coming up!
ay best not to get any lye on your skin, mucous membranes or your eyes. In short, any exposure to lye is a bad idea.Ok, so what happens if I miss wiping some oven cleaner out of the oven after cleaning it? Dangerous fumes. Contact with body. Probably hospital trip in either case. Yep, time to green your home with something toxin-free! Still open to suggestions, although I’m sure I’ll find an adequate substitute soon.So far the only oven cleaners without lye are Easy-Off Fume Free Max Oven Cleaner, Microwave Oven Magic (old product) and Zep Oven and Grill Cleaner. Not that I’m recommending using any of them. Let’s see if any of the above toxic cleaning chemicals survive my next project, the chemical Monoethanolamine (MEA). Part 3 coming up! 
If your dishwasher goes out, you have got to wash plates by hand. Microwave foods could be meant by it for the remainder of the week, if your range fails. Combining both an oven and a stovetop in one appliance makes collections quite versatile when it comes to cooking.