It is getting so hot that it melts off the sticky burnt gunk on the oven. The heat also disinfects.

It does smell terrible, but it also works, so use it, but keep some windows open!
Permalink | Report

step 1) you bolt the oven closed with that sliding lever,

step 2) you set it to "self clean" and it gets to be like 600 F in there.

step 3) you wait for it to cool, then clean the oven.

the good news is, you have a self cleaning oven. those have more insulation than regular ovens and use less power (both for cooking and air conditioning your house.)
Permalink | Report

It does not really clean, it basically heats!

A self-cleaning oven stays closed and locked until after the high temperature heating process which cleans is completed. The self cleaning oven was first patented in 1982, is used to keep the oven door locked and closed during and immediately after the high-temperature cleaning cycle, which lasts approximately three hours, to prevent possible burn injuries.

Only after the temperature cools to approximately 600 °F (approximately 300 °C) can the door be opened.

Self-cleaning ovens usually have more insulation than standard ovens to reduce the possibility of fire. The insulation also reduces the amount of energy needed for normal cooking.
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-cleaning_oven http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question559.htm

Permalink | Report

You nailed it with your question, and confirmed by others - it gets really hot.

But, the real thing to know is that there is a "magic" point for organic stuff where it burns up and goes "poof". Remember the book Fahrenheit 451. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 Well, that's a good starting temperature for your mental framework.

Or, you can read this horribly convuluted abstract which points out 673K (750F) as the temperature where "C" turns into "CO" and "CO2". i.e. The black gunky stuff in your oven is mostly Carbon. And, if you get your oven up to 900F, I'm assuming you'll convert a lot of what's sticking to the sides into relatively harmless CO2. (i.e. Carbon Dioxide)

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B7GWS-4TMYK3X-5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=61ed3f2e3185c79f4d1a6943c88c7439

The nasty smelling stuff, oh, don't worry and quit whining. PAH's won't kill you, really.... http://health.yahoo.com/experts/healthnews/4499/grilling-meat-and-your-cancer-risk (NOTE: I HAVE NO IDEA IF PAH's ARE IN SELF CLEAN OVEN "SMOKE". I'm just being a smarty pants. The risk is SLIGHT, even if they're in there. Besides, how many people eat grilled food every day of their lives without the cancer?)
Permalink | Report

Well, it is basically what the function does - it burns-up to approx. 900 degree Fahrenheit (482 degrees Celcius) to burn off leftovers. The best thing of the 'self clean' button is due to the non-chemical solution to clean your oven.

Don't worry - it's safe! Your oven uses a mechanism that lock the oven door during the self-clean :)
Source(s):
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question559.htm

Permalink | Report

Yeah, it can smell pretty bad, so you want to open up some windows when you run it. Basically it heats up the oven extremely hot in order to burn all the residue in the oven turning it into ash. When it's done, you just take a wet rag and wipe up all the ash. It's actually a really nice feature to have. The house I'm in now doesn't have one, and I really miss it.
Permalink | Report

That's really all it does, in the cleaning mode the oven heats up to about as hot as it can get, and holds that temperature for a time before slowly cooling. The idea is to burn everything off, so you will still need to hand clean the oven if you don't want the bits of carbon it'll leave behind. It's not going to burn down your house, but if there is a lot of gunk in the over, then you'll definitely smell it when the oven burns it.
Permalink | Report

It heats your oven so hot that all the spills inside burn up. You just have to wipe out the ash afterward.
Source(s):
Personal experience

Permalink | Report