In my bid to keep my new kitchen spangaly and clean. I popped into Lakeland, I totally love this shop and am a little bit addicted to it. I think it is because it makes me feel like a domestic goddess if I shop there, although I always come out with stuff they made me think I couldn't live without. Anyway, back to my new oven. I wanted to buy a decent oven cleaner that would be easy to use and more importantly work . Here is how I got on....

The oven mate comes in a box with everything you need to get your oven sparkly. You get the solution, some latex disposable gloves and a little stubby brush. There are also easy to follow instructions.

Using it - The most important thing is to wear the gloves provided, it really is strong stuff and I got a little bit on my hand and it started stinging straight away, I do have sensitive skin but even so !!
The lid is child safety capped so you need to squeeze and turn, I found this really tricky so it would be very hard for people with arthritis or limited strength in their hands. Although it is a good safety feature as it is highly corrosive.
The oven cleaner is in the form of a clear gel, the top of the bottle is a thin nozzle so this stops you from going heavy handed and wasting it.
You use the little brush to 'paint' on the gel. You can use it on all the trays, shelves, sides and bottom of the oven. You can also use it on glass doors and metal hob rings etc. The only thing you need to be careful about it touching is the rubber seal around the door, if it touches this it can corrode it quite quickly.
The gel goes on clear and the idea is that when it turns brown, it is ready to be wiped off. As my oven was fairly new on it's first application it only took about fifteen minutes. The instructions say anything between three minutes to three hours, it depends on how much cleaning it has to do.
I bought it to my mums to do her oven. Her oven hadn't been cleaned for about 5-6 months and the silver shelves were brown. I didn't really expect the oven mate to totally clean them, but by golly it did. It took about an hour and a half and then I wiped it off, it was like magic. A few bits needed a little scrub but in general it just came up sparkling, we were both really shocked.

It can be quite a messy job, Lakeland do sell a special tray for the trays and shelves to go in whilst being cleaned but I don't really have anywhere to store it, so I clean mine in the bath.

It is quite expensive for an oven cleaner at £8.49 but there is enough in the bottle for approx 3 applications and it really is amazingly good and leaves you with very little scrubbing, if any. So actually I think it is pretty good value especially considering the amount I have spent over the years on oven cleaners that just do not work.

I would recommend this to anyone with an oven, you won't believe how good it is.

You can buy this little beauty in Lakeland shops or online. There is a £4.95 postage charge for online orders under £50.