How to Clean a Whirlpool Self-Cleaning Oven

Most modern Whirlpool ovens have a self-cleaning oven function that helps you quickly and easily clean your oven. The self-clean function works by heating up your oven to very high heat so that all the loose food and other debris incinerate. In theory, all you need to do is turn it on and then wipe it out after the cycle ends.

Depending on how dirty your oven is, a self-cleaning cycle for your Whirlpool oven should take between 2 to 6 hours. To get the best results from the self-cleaning cycle, follow our simple step-by-step instructions in this article.

This guide covers most major Whirlpool oven models, including:

1SF014BEW0

1SF014BEW1

1SF014BEW2

1SF034PEW0

1SF034PEW1

1SF034PEW2

RF263LXTB1

RF263LXTB3

RF263LXTQ1

RF263LXTQ2

RF263LXTS1

RF263LXTS2

RF263LXTS3

RF263LXTT1

RF263LXTT2

RF263LXTT3

RF263LXTW1

RF263LXTW2

YWFE361LVB0

YWFE361LVQ0

YWFE361LVS0

Step 1 – Prepare Your Oven

The first step is to get your oven ready before turning it on to a self-cleaning cycle. Doing these few things will help make your oven come out much cleaner:

• Remove all of the racks from the oven. You can leave them in, but some people prefer to clean the racks separately with hot, soapy water – which you can do while the oven is running through its self-cleaning cycle.
• Remove everything from the stove and storage drawer (if this applies to your specific oven model). This is because your oven gets very hot during the self-cleaning cycle, so anything on the stove or in the drawer might get damaged.
• Quickly wipe the interior of your oven to remove any large debris – this will help speed up the cleaning process and avoid strong burning smells from occurring during the cycle. Make sure you don’t use any chemicals when cleaning your oven out, as this can be a fire risk.

Step 2 – Set the Cycle

Once you’ve prepared your oven for a self-cleaning cycle, the next step is to set the cycle. You can do this by selecting your desired cleaning setting. Most Whirlpool ovens have three self-cleaning settings: light, moderate, and heavy. The setting you choose will depend on how dirty your oven is.

If you’re not sure, your Whirlpool oven manual should have some recommendations for you. Once you’ve determined the correct setting, you can set the cycle.

Step 3 – Run the Cycle

Once you’ve set the correct self-cleaning cycle, you can turn it on. Once the cycle starts, it will heat your oven to very high heat so that all loose food debris, grease, and grime incinerates. The fan will then turn on and cool your oven down until it reaches a low enough temperature for you to start using it again. You can expect the self-cleaning cycle on your Whirlpool oven to take anywhere from 2 to 6 hours depending on the specific make of your oven. For example, wall ovens will take about 4 to 6 hours to go through the full self-cleaning cycle.

During the cycle, the oven will lock so you are unable to open the door. This is to protect you and other household members from coming into contact with the inside of the oven, as it is extremely hot. Here are a few other safety precautions you should take:

• Make sure all pets (especially small ones, like birds) are kept out of your kitchen while your oven is going through a self-cleaning cycle.
• Make sure small children don’t enter your kitchen during the cycle, as they could touch the oven, which gets hot – even on the outside.
• Open your kitchen windows and turn on the extractor fan to help ventilate your kitchen during the cleaning cycle.

Step 4 – Finish Up

The final step is to clean up the mess in your oven. Thankfully, this is very easy to do, as your Whirlpool oven has a special enamel coating in it. All you need to do is grab a cloth and wipe the surfaces in your oven until all of the remaining debris has been removed. You can then put all the oven racks back in and start using your (very clean) oven again!

Final tip: If food spills onto your oven surfaces when cooking or baking, it’s a good idea to wipe your oven out when this happens with a damp, soapy cloth. This will reduce how often you have to run your oven through a self-cleaning cycle.