Coz you're filthy, ooh and not so gorgeous! (Oven Pride)

Member Name: Princess Leb

Product:	Oven Pride
Date:	16/01/06 (5078 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cleans your oven really well and with minimum effort .

Disadvantages: Only one bag for cleaning your oven racks.

How often do you clean your oven? I'm not even going to admit how many (or few) times I have done mine in the 3 years that I have had it! My oven was a hand me down from my Mum and Dad and my Mum is a cleaning-freak so it came to me all pretty and sparkly.

The first time I cleaned my oven, I used a spray and it smelt all horrible and gave me a headache, then there was a paste thing that I tried which involved a lot of scrubbing - boo! (There's a clue there for those of you who are actually interested in the amount of times I've cleaned my oven!)

Then one day the oven fairy paid me a visit (well, actually it was my Mum!) saying she couldn't believe the state my oven was in (she apparently snuck a peek of it the last time she came around however, it really wasn't THAT bad!). Anyway, my Mum said she had just the thing for me and she handed me the magic box.

Me, being the idle thing that I am, left the box on my kitchen worktop for over a week (I have to build myself up to any major household jobs!) until I could stand my mother's nagging no more.

So here's how it went:

*The Outside*

For all of you statistic freaks out there here are the all important box measurements:

22.5cm long x 10.2cm wide x 7.5 cm deep

The box itself is made of cardboard and is mostly orange in colour (at the top) and this merges into blue (at the bottom) there are twinkly stars dotted around the box and a picture in the middle of a marigold covered hand gripping some oven rails in front of an oven door. At the very top of the box, in blue writing are the words 'The Industry's Secret'. Oven Pride is obviously not familiar with the concept of secrets!
On the bottom right hand corner of the box there's a yellow blob with the words As Seen On TV! written within it (in red if you really must know!).

The most interesting thing about the box (oh no, the fun doesn't stop there!) is the fact that in a circle in the top left hand corner we have the lovely Charlie Dimmock, bottle in one hand and a marigold on the other! My goodness, she loves to clean her oven! In the background we have Tommy Walsh sporting a face mask whilst reading the instructions on the box (oh dear, I hope Charlie hasn't started already!) The bizarre thing is that Charlie isn't wearing a mask! I guess that's supposed to be an attempt at humour or Charlie may just be double hard and has lungs of steel!

On one side of the box you have the Directions For Use including a helpful picture of that floating marigold hand again. Holding an oven rail (again) in front of an oven (again).

On the back you have the obligatory Do's and Don'ts. I won't list them all but they include:

DO make sure you wear gloves and cover arms and wrists at all times
DO protect surfaces thoroughly from any leakage

DON'T use on a hot oven
DON'T use for any purpose other than as directed (just because Miss Dimmock's on the front doesn't mean you should weed your garden with the stuff!)

*The Inside*

On opening the box, the first thing you see is… well it depends what your eye is drawn to first! For me it was the bottle which is in a white plastic with a sticker matching the box and contains 500ml of the good stuff!

Then you've got a huge clear thick plastic bag for you to place your oven racks. It's got the instructions on the outside and 'Important Information" about wearing gloves.

The gloves are also provided - but they're those horrible surgical, powdery feeling type gloves. Unfortunately, there were no marigolds, floating or otherwise!

*Using Oven Pride*

The first thing you need to do is glove yourself up and arm yourself with either a brush or a sponge. Well, I had neither but thought a dishcloth would be fine. The one down point really is although on first appearance the instructions seemed clear, when it came down to actually doing it, there was no clear advise on how much of the stuff you were supposed to use -

'Using a brush or sponge, carefully apply to the surfaces inside of your oven'

On opening the child proof bottle top, I was expecting to get an almighty rush of chemically smelling nastiness (understandable considering the bright orange CORROSIVE sign on the bottle and the mask donning Tommy Walsh on the box!) however, this was pleasingly not the case. There was a faint smell of, well nothingness really.

Presuming this was going to be a liquid I cautiously covered the top of the bottle with my dishcloth only to be pleasantly surprised again (who knew oven cleaning could be so enjoyable?!) Out came a thin gel in a pretty pinkish sort of colour. I decided the quickest way would be to drizzle some over the bottom surface of the oven - so I did and I was right, it was quicker. Being careful not to slosh it about too much I wiped it around the whole of the inside of the oven taking care not to splash any on the door or the glass seals as instructed I then added a dollop more for good measure.

Well, that bit was easy. Just a case of leaving it now for at least four hours or overnight. I opted for overnight considering it was 8:15pm already!

Another thing the instructions didn't state all that clearly was whether you had to close the oven door or not. I presumed you did, considering the oven racks would be sealed inside their own special plastic bag but I had a slight nagging in the bag of my mind that it may cause some sort of corrosive explosion. Ah well, there was an address on the box that I could write too if such circumstances arose!

Now for the racks:

In contrast, the instructions for cleaning these were a lot more clear and concise. The fact that they were on the outside of the bag in large-ish blue writing made it so much easier. Basically you place one or both of your racks inside the bag, pushing them down into a corner. You then carefully pour in just enough of the Oven Pride gel to cover the racks then you tilt the racks/bag making sure you cover the really grotty bits! After 2 hours you then go back and add a bit more gel and repeat the tilting. After all of this, I had only used half the bottle, so there was plenty left for another cleaning session (which will probably be around this time next year!) As with the oven you can either leave it for four hours or overnight.

After a good nights sleep, interrupted only once by a nightmare of Charlie Dimmock living inside my oven, I was ready to see the wonder that was my clean oven.

*The Results*

As per the instructions I wiped away the excess liquid inside my oven and rinsed it with got soapy water. Well that was easy enough. And as for the racks, well I was anticipating messiness - the inside of the bag was smeared with goo and there was a puddle of what looked like treacle sitting in the bottom. The instructions advised to carefully remove the racks and rinse, again, in soapy water. I found this impossible to do without making some mess, but it wasn't as tricky as I thought (I had visions of treacly gunk splattered over my kitchen walls!)

*The downsides*

Well, there aren't many to be honest. The main gripe I had was that, although I only used half the bottle, there was only one bag provided for your racks and there's no way you can clean and reuse the original bag - I guess you could use your initiative and use a black bin liner!

Oven Pride is also unsuitable for the following surfaces: aluminium, zinc, copper and painted surfaces and cannot be used on self -cleaning oven linings.

*The price*

Mine cost £4.99 from Wilkinsons. It came with a free 'Erase Away' sponge for removing scuffs and marks from surfaces (also very good). I've not actually seen it anywhere else, but I'm sure it's available in most good supermarkets!

*Overview*

I would definitely recommend Oven Pride. Despite the physically impossible task of removing the racks from the bag without making ANY mess, it is actually very easy to use. It made the whole mundane task pretty effortless which is good for the lazy boned among us! It is definitely worth the £4.99 as you could get at least 2 applications out of it depending on just how filthy your oven is!

Oven Pride has definitely made me proud of my oven!

*Other Info*

HomePride
Midsummer Court
314 Midsummer Boulevard
Milton Keynes
MK9 2UB

Tel: 01908 357707 www.pride-range.com

Hope you have enjoyed reading!

Sarah

Summary: An easy to use product for what must be the worst household job in the world!