silly Q re oven takes ages to cook - does it need a deep clean?

[hairylemon]

My first venture onto the Good Housekeeping boards

I havent had my oven properly cleaned, ever. Its now 6 years old

Ive noticed for a while that if something says it takes 30 mins to cook, it actually takes more like an hour. Could this be because I have 6 years of ingrained crap in the oven?

Ive just booked an oven cleaner at a cost of £80 (double oven, they take all the doors off, do the tops, apparantly it it like new afterwards)

Will this be money well spent? Im slightly quaking at the thought of spending nearly £100 to get something clean but if it will help then it will be money well spent I guess....

I would think it could possibly be something like the heating element may need replacing - not sure if ovens not being cleaned would affect it's effectivenss by as much as you say. However, if it does need replacing you would probably rather it was replaced when it was gleaming so if the clean doesn't work maybe it will still be money well spent (and you'll have a gleaming 'new' oven as well)

Is it a fan oven?
I found this with ours and it was the fan at the back that had stopped. It sounded different too.
I poked around with a fork for a bit (with elec off) and found the back panel was pushing on the back too much. Fixed now.
Other than that could be the heating element.

Can you buy an oven thermometer and check that the temperature on the dial corresponds to the actual temperature inside?

If it is the heating element it is really easy to change yourself, good video on you tube to guide you

Its not a fan oven, hmmmm, might buy a thermometer and check before I get it cleaned. if its going on the blink Id rather just put the £80 towards a new oven. I really noticed it last night when I cooked a chicken in sauce thing that should have taken 35 mins and it took nearly an hour!

Gah! Everything in this house is falling apart. Last week both the fridge and washer died, the week before it was my vacuum cleaner gah!

its a gas oven so maybe its the jets that just need a good clean

haha, just googled "oven takes longer to cook" and a MN AIBU came up regarding the very same subject

Could also be the seal on your oven. My oven seems to be taking longer to cook stuff, and I've just realised that there's quite a lot of heat escaping from the top of the door.
I think (and hope) that's something you can buy over the internet and fix yourself.

my guess would be faulty thermostat, or as it's gas, it could be that a safety device (or grime) is preventing the burner coming full on. Look for a good blue flame, full length of the burner, that starts out tall and goes short once it reaches the set temperature. If it had been electric I'd suspect that one of the elements had failed.

I'd start with the oven thermometer.

A non-fan oven, especially gas, is always hotter on the top shelf than the bottom.

It could be the seal actually, ill check it tonight when I do tea. Better get it in now :)

Thanks piglet, haven't checked the burner yet.

Eeek I didn't realise how totally lazy I've been