Aqualift versus Self Clean

Aqualift vs Self Clean

by: +Tom Barber

We get so many customers concerned with the safety of self cleaning ovens. We had to inform you on the newest innovation from the Whirlpool Corporation

Faster oven self-cleaning with low temperatures and no stinky odor is the pitch behind the Aqualift technology found in many of the Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid and JennAir ovens we are currently selling. Why you may ask, what was wrong with traditional self cleaning?

The normal oven self-cleaning cycle takes two and half to four hours plus cool down, it heats your oven up to 800 degrees F, and can create lots of smoke and smell. The fumes are potentially harmful to birds and small animals see this warning from a self cleaning range manual. “The health of some birds is extremely sensitive to the fumes given off during the Self-Cleaning cycle. Exposure to the fumes may result in death to certain birds. Always move birds to another closed and well-ventilated room.” However after all of this the cycle is usually very effective leaving just a small amount of ash left in the bottom of the oven that can easily be wiped out. No elbow grease needed.






According to Whirlpool, the AquaLift system uses water with a temperature about 200 degrees F to activate their proprietary oven coating. The coating allows moisture to release tough baked-on messes in roughly 40 minutes.



You start by pouring approx 2 cups of filtered or distilled water into the bottom of the oven, close the door, and start the cycle. When the cycle is complete you remove the residual water and loosened food with a sponge or cloth.


When we tested this in store we found that it mostly worked as advertised. But did note that it seemed more like an improved method of manual clean then self clean. There were spots that we used the
hard plastic scraper (that came with the oven) to scrape of some of the dirt that had not lifted off the surface. This and the soaking up of the sludge left in the bottom was to me work then self cleaning. But certainly didn’t take me back to having my head in an oven full of spray on oven cleaner with the hairs on my nostrils singed and eyes watering.

My conclusion:

We have so many people concerned about using the self cleaning feature on their stove that this is an amazing option for them. Overall we were pleasantly surprised with how well it worked . However for those that don’t have any concerns or complaints about their current self cleaning cycle they may find this a tad more work and for them I would continue with the incinerate method.

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