Cleaning AGA Cooker Doors? And Other Aluminium Panels On The AGA Cooker?
Ever since the first AGA was first made in the UK (1930s) the tunnels (the shiny strip inside the AGA ovens), the inner lid liners and the inner door panels have been made of Aluminium. Even the brand new AGAs such as the AGA TC or AGA DC have the same Aluminium panels. To me having Aluminium means: “Impossible to clean without scratching“. So why do AGA still have the aluminium panels if they aren’t easy to clean? Well I’m guessing they like the way the AGA looks in the showroom, with its shiny bits gleaming. And they (AGA Rangemaster) feel that this helps the sale.
Over the years that we have cleaned AGAs we have managed to bring back the shine, but there is a cost, a slightly scratchy finish especially on older AGA cookers. People prefer this to the black dirty colour their doors were before the clean.
Most brands that have copied the traditional cooker style of the AGA in producing their own design of the enamelled traditional cooker have put in cleanable panels. For example: the Esse, the Alpha and the Stanley all have enamel inner doors, and inner lids, which are easier to clean. The Everhot has stainless steel inner doors. For us we can dip the Everhot inner doors in our specialist dip tank and they come up as new.
So “How do you clean AGA inner doors and Tunnels?” especially when they are encrusted with years of dirt/burnt on carbon. Well it isn’t easy. It requires lots of effort and the cleaning product that we use is Astonish Oven Cleaner.
First Step Try A Microfibre Cloth
Well if they aren’t that dirty, say the grease on the tunnels looks like grease, that is it is brown in colour, and your AGA is a just a year or so old you can most of the grease off just with a wet microfibre cloth and some Astonish solution (obviously with the AGA off). This will ensure that the shine on the tunnels (they are made of Aluminium but polished to look like stainless steel) will stay mostly intact; that is it will be still be mostly shiny. For the doors and inner lids we always use a soap pad.
But if the grease has to be just grease; as soon as it carbonises then it becomes difficult to get off without breaking the shine. So if the dirt is thicker and carbonised- it will look black- you can probably get the doors close to 100% with a soap pad so a Brillo pad, but of course this is going to scratch it. If you use Brillo on the tunnels be aware that the factory shine is going to disappear forever.
You can restore some of the shine with dry steel scourer but obviously isn’t going to look like the factory finish, its going to be a shiny scratched finish. So it’s your call. But I don’t know of any other way to clean off the dirt without scratching.
Second Step Try Brillo Pads
If the microfibre method didn’t work. Next thing to try is the Brillo (soap pad). It will scratch the dirt off.
Third Step Try Stainless Steel Scourer Pads
If the soap pads are not getting it off. Try a dry or wet stainless steel sourer. Finish off with a Brillo Pad.
Four Step Use a Blade.
If the scourers haven’t worked then it’s time to use the scraper. You will need to back scrape with a blade. Then follow this with the soap pads to get the finish right.
Using a professional oven cleaning like ours.
We have been cleaning these sort of panels now for over 14 years. We get the dirt off using the above methods. But we are skilled at getting the finish right.
If the doors are really thick we have been taking them apart and dipping the linings in our dip tank which does a great job of removing the carbon but they still have to be finished off with a soap pad (Brillo). We have to be careful when putting the door back together so that the seals are in the right place (on AGAs post 1974 – earlier ones don’t have door seals) and you do up the screws tightly. For really encrusted tunnels I use a scraper with sharp blades and back scrape, followed by a soap pad. But as I’ve said, it isn’t an easy job at all.
We do most of our jobs cold and I would recommend that you do the same or do try and do the doors hot take them off and let them cool before you try and clean them or else you’ll burn yourself.
The other alternative is to buy replacement door liners or tunnels. I have noticed that the tunnels on my renovated AGA at home are infact stainless steel which will make them easier to clean.
Also recently the engineer from Spillers who fixed my own AGA last year says that people put foil on the inner doors tied on with brown string to keep them clean! And more recently I have seen that Blake and Bull are now offering teflon coated door and lid liners. They may be worth a look at.
