Oven Cleaners

Selleys seals the deal in oven cleaners ratings

There aren’t many household chores that evoke quite the same sense of dread as cleaning the oven, particularly if you don’t have a self-cleaning model. But there are a few things you can do to make the job a little easier, including regular cleaning, and cleaning with the right tools. While we can’t make you pull out your rubber gloves every couple of months, we can help you find the best oven cleaner for your needs with our annual consumer report card.

This year, we asked more than 700 Aussies for their feedback on the oven cleaners they purchased and used in the last 12 months. Consumers rated respective brands on effectiveness, ease of use, smell, environmental friendliness, packaging design, value for money and overall satisfaction. Those which received the minimum required survey sample size of 30 responses are featured in our results.

Selleys has made a huge comeback since sitting at the bottom of the leaderboard last year. It scrubbed up best in our 2020 ratings, being the only manufacturer to earn a five-star rating for effectiveness, ease of use and overall satisfaction. It also scored full marks for value for money and packaging design.

Best Oven Cleaners

Here are the best oven cleaners in Australia, as rated by consumers in Canstar Blue’s 2020 review:

1. Selleys
2. Oven Power (OzKleen)
3. Jif
4. Mr Muscle
5. Easy Off
6. ALDI Power Force

Selleys outshined last year’s winner ALDI Power Force, which dropped to the bottom of our ratings in 2020. Selleys scored five-star reviews in most categories, including overall satisfaction. The only exceptions were environmental friendliness and smell, where it scored three stars in both categories. Oven Power (OzKleen) and Jif followed closely behind, ending on four stars, while the remaining brands ended on three stars overall.

Other noteworthy performances include Jif, which managed to beat this year’s champion on smell. OzKleen’s Oven Power similarly scored five stars for packaging design, alongside ALDI Power Force and Selleys. Oven Power was also the only other brand to get full marks for value for money.

How to find a good oven cleaner

Picking the best oven cleaner for your needs and budget is no easy feat. Not only will you find numerous products on supermarket shelves, but it also tends to be the most expensive type of household cleaner. There are more factors to consider than you may realise, especially things like product design and ease of use – because there’s little point having an effective oven cleaner if you can’t use it properly. To offer a guide on what to look for, our research identified these important drivers of satisfaction.

• Effectiveness: 36%
• Ease of use: 22%
• Value for money: 17%
• Environmental friendliness: 11%
• Smell: 7%
• Packaging design: 7%

Our research revealed that many Aussies aren’t fans of using elbow grease to clean their appliance, with one in three survey respondents (37%) wishing they had a self-cleaning oven. Nearly half (46%) have tried multiple oven cleaners, but just 16% would actually recommend something to their family and friends.

A good portion of respondents generally stick to the same brand of oven cleaner (30%), while others simply opt for the cheapest product or whichever is on special (22%).

Oven Cleaners Compared

Selleys

Perhaps best known for its DIY products like liquid nails and sealants, Selleys also makes a range of cleaners. Part of the Dulux Group, Selleys has its fingers in all kinds of home improvement pies – oven cleaners included. There are three key products in the line-up – a heavy-duty gel, a spray cleaner, and wipes for easy and regular cleaning.

• Selleys earned a five-star rating in most categories, including effectiveness, ease of use, value for money and packaging design. It also got three stars for smell and environmental friendliness.

OzKleen Oven Power

OzKleen is proudly Australian, manufacturing all its products in SE Queensland. OzKleen offers an oven ‘power kit’, similar to ALDI, featuring a closure bag, where racks and trays are popped in and smothered in ‘Oven Power’ for four hours, or overnight. After that, it’s a simple rinse with hot water and detergent and you’re on your way. For inside the oven, you simply smear the product and leave it for the same time period, before wiping down.

• Oven Power impressed in the value for money and packaging design categories, scoring five stars for both. It also landed on a respectable four stars for effectiveness, ease of use and overall satisfaction.

Jif

A global brand from the Unilever Corporation, Jif’s most standout product for cleaning ovens is probably the 500ml Oven and Barbeque Spray, with its fume-free application. Jif has also been commonly-known for its oven ‘creams’, but it seems these products are currently hard to come by in Australia.

• Jif managed to edge out this year’s champion when it came to smell, being the only brand to achieve five stars for the category. It got three stars for effectiveness, ease of use and packaging design, but ended on four stars for everything else, including overall satisfaction.

Mr Muscle

A famous brand in the cleaning aisle, Mr Muscle’s range of oven cleaners includes two varieties, a heavy-duty option, as well as an odourless option. Its heavy-duty option is boasted for its unique self-scouring foam formula to emulsify baked on messes, while the odourless oven cleaner is claimed to have a non-caustic formula with no fumes.

• Mr Muscle impressed consumers when it came to ease of use and packaging design, where it got four stars. But it ultimately finished on three stars everywhere else, including for overall satisfaction.

Easy Off

Famous for its ‘Bam’ cleaning products and TV commercials, Easy Off also boasts a supposedly high-powered spray oven cleaner. The brand claims this requires no scrubbing and insists the spray can work on a warm oven in five minutes, while a cold one takes half an hour.

• Easy Off achieved a four-star rating in most categories, including effectiveness, ease of use and value for money. But it scored two stars for smell and environmental friendliness, and ended on three stars for overall satisfaction.

ALDI Power Force

ALDI comes to the oven cleaning game with an interesting alternative to the old ‘spray and wipe’ or cream formulas – instead offering a complete oven ‘cleaning kit’, which includes a pair of gloves, oven cleaning gel and a closure bag. The closure bag is designed to help make cleaning easier by allowing users to cover the racks and trays in the cleaning gel, then pop them into the bag to soak in. After that, simply rinse them out, and the oven is ready for dinner time.

• ALDI Power Force received five stars for packaging design and four stars for value for money, ease of use, smell and eco-friendliness. It rounded out the results on three stars overall.

Other Cleaner Ratings

• Toilet Cleaners
• Bathroom Cleaners
• Multipurpose Cleaners
• Carpet Cleaners
• Floor Cleaners
• Glass Cleaners

About the author of this page

This report was written by Canstar Blue’s home & lifestyle journalist, Tahnee-Jae Lopez-Vito. She’s an expert on household appliances, grooming products and all things grocery and shopping. In addition to translating our expert research into consumer-friendly ratings reports, Tahnee spends her time helping consumers make better-informed purchase decisions on all manner of consumer goods and services, while highlighting the best deals and anything you need to be aware of.

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Picture credits: Budimit Jevtic / Shutterstock.com.