Tackling baked-on oven grease is rarely anyone’s favorite chore, but the shortcuts you take to get the job done could be silently wrecking your cooker.

According to one appliance expert, several well-meaning cleaning methods can damage your appliance’s surface and reduce its performance.

While you might feel confident with how to clean your oven, Ecem Uslubaş, senior product manager for cooking at Hotpoint, says, “a lot of common habits are based on what’s always been done rather than what works for each surface.”

And she adds, “Getting it wrong doesn’t always cause obvious damage straight away, but it can impact the performance of your appliance without regular care.”

So, before you slip on your household gloves and give your oven a deep clean, consider these six common oven-cleaning mistakes — and the safer routines you should adopt instead.

Reaching for the same abrasive scourer for the cooktop, the oven interior and the exterior trim is one of the most common habits.

“Enamel, glass and stainless steel all respond differently to abrasive materials," explains Uslubaş. “A sponge tough enough for baked-on food can leave fine scratches on glass or dull the finish on stainless steel over time.”

Instead of using the same cleaning sponge for all surfaces, she suggests keeping a softer cloth aside for delicate surfaces and reserving anything abrasive for tougher, more durable areas, as it will help protect each surface for longer.

Wiping a spill away once the cooker has cooled is far easier than dealing with it after several more cooking cycles.

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