Oven Cleaning Blog

During the winter months the cold can affect our vans greatly. We have a water barrel, water pump and a hose reel in the front section and these can all freeze in an ice cold van overnight when the temperature reaches -10c.

The water barrel is lagged with a hot water cylinder jacket to prevent it from freezing. We then wrap t-towels around the water pump to prevent this from freezing as does sometimes happen. When these freeze it means replacing the pressure switch on the pump which is an annoyance.

We put pipe insulation on the hose in the back of the van and wrap silver foil around it . The nozzle is then left on top of the dip tank overnight which keeps it warm.

During the day the cold weather can also cause the dip tank to cool down more than we would like. As the tank works much  better when it’s hot we lag the tank with insulation boards and again finish off with silver foil around the outside and underneath. We then place a thick dustsheet on top of the tank during the day.

We have managed to get through the last few bitterly cold winters relatively unscathed. Of course it always helps when the snow does not fall, that we cannot do anything about.

The picture here is that of a Smeg range oven door. This is the smaller oven door that sits side by side with the larger oven. The front of the door has been removed and as you can just about see here the inside has a middle pane of glass which has been slid into rivets leaving a small gap between it and the front of the door. 2 metal plates then hold the glass in place (in this picture they have been unscrewed).

Unfortunately these middle panes of glass are not only slid into place and held there with metal plates but  they are also GLUED into place which mean there is no way of removing them! This would be fine if there was no way of dirt getting between this middle pane and the front of the door but that is not the case. Unfortunately there are small vent holes at the top of the door which allow for drips to run down between the 2 panes of glass.

Smeg have confirmed via email that there is no way of cleaning this area as it is not designed to be cleaned. We can only assume it is a design flaw. Not all of smeg doors have this  design build, there are many that we can clean fully it’s just a shame when a customer pays a lot of money for a nice Smeg range and then discover that it is impossible to clean inside the door fully and be able to view what is cooking.

We had a lady phone up recently who had a bad experience of oven cleaning. A chap from the company turned up with an off the shelf  aerosol and preceded to spray the oven, shelves and door with it. Obviously this smelt the house out and was not to the liking of the customer whom believed that she could have done the same job for a lot less money. She politely asked the gentleman to leave.

Unfortunately the lady in question was some distance outside of  our catchment area so we referred her to another TAAOC member near to her.

The standard of oven cleaning has vastly improved over the last 10 years and people rightly so, expect a professional job to be carried out without the use of caustic aerosol products. Oven Ready never use caustic products inside a customers home. There are never any nasty smells left behind after we have cleaned a customers oven.

Moving house is one of the most stressful times of your life, especially when you move from a rented property. Anyone who rents will know that a significant amount of money is left as a deposit at the beginning of the tenancy. When you leave the rented property, you will want to ensure that you get the deposit back in full. As we know, only too well the house/flat is required to be cleaned to an exceptionally high standard before you hand back the keys.  Here at Oven Ready we can take care of the appliances in your kitchen and clean them to the required standard. New for 2011, we now clean white goods including fridge freezers, washing machine, tumble dryers and dishwashers. This not only benefits the tenant, but the landlord also, it will make every viewing easier to sell. A dirty kitchen in a property will discourage any potential tenants or buyers. So why not give Oven Ready a try, we can take some of the stress away from your workload at competitive prices.

It’s the time of year that brings a smile to everyone’s face. The winter and the long dark nights have passed for another year and the spring and summer is gradually creeping upon us bringing the lighter mornings and longer days.  The crocuses and daffodils are starting to appear and it’s a wonderful time to feel refreshed and vibrant in body and soul. It is a time of new beginnings, new birth and growth. This also applies to your home, a good old spring clean refreshes and de-clutters your living environment.  Spring cleaning your home can seem a major task to some people. You just need to find the motivation and of course, the time to get cracking. Here, at Oven Ready we can help take some of the kitchen spring cleaning away with our new concept of white goods cleaning. Not only do we clean your ovens, hobs, extractors and microwaves but new for 2011 we can clean washing machines, tumble dryers, fridge freezers and dishwashers.  Now that’s a big load of your mind. Giving you more time to enjoy the spring and the nice weather with your nearest and dearest.

Next Sunday afternoon April 3rd, the Oven Ready team and family members are all off to Wembley for a special treat to watch the ‘Mighty Reds’ (Brentford FC) take on Carlisle United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy Final.

As most of us have West London roots it will be a great day for all of us to get together and cheer on the Bees in one of the most prestigous finals in world football.

In true Brentford tradition the team that we all know and love wont bother turning up and we will be left watching an under 15s five-a-side team putting in their flatest performance of the season and losing miserably to another team from oop norf.

Nevertheless, many beverages will be consumed and the result will long be forgotten within 20 paces of leaving the stadium and heading for Nando’s.

COYR.

We clean these on a regular basis. These ranges cost a LOT of money so you would think that they are the bees knees when it comes to build quality and cooking prowess. However, from what our customers say that does not appear to be the case. Upon most visits to a customers property, the customer nearly always has an issue or has just recently had an issue with their Britannia range ovens.

I have lost count of the number of times a customer has asked me if I replace elements on these ranges. This is without doubt the most common problem. Nearly always a customer mentions the fact that they have just had to have the element replaced or they are about to have one replaced, once the range has been cleaned. If that is not the problem then the glass has shattered, or the attachments to hold the glass in place have snapped or the transfers have worn off the knobs. There is always something that has caused an issue. At £200 upwards to get a Britannia engineer to come out and fix a simple problem such as an element change and servicing at £180 these ranges are not cheap to maintain.

I have personally also found that when cleaning them, especially around the fascia panel area you cannot use any tpye of soap pastes as the paint lacquer can come off very easily and cause the fasica panel to look faded. The same applies to the painted extractor hoods made by Britannia. The enamel hob racks also looks very jaded over time and do not keep their shiny jet black look as you would expect.

At the steep prices charged and the pitfalls that come with them they would not be my cup of tea when looking for a new range oven to go in my kitchen.

January has been a busy month for us. Normally it is a fairly quiet month as everyone hurries to have their oven cleaned before Christmas, ready for the inlaws to inspect! People also normally feel the pinch having not been paid since mid December and then spent a fortune on prezzies. This year however has been different with many people deciding to have the oven cleaned after Christmas, infact it’s been just as busy after Christams as it was before, which is rare.

I’ve spoken to other business owners that I know, not just oven cleaning companies, and they have all said the same, business really has been booming during January. Maybe the feel good factor is back and people are spending again enabling the economy to pick up. Well lets hope it is and it’s not just a false dawn.

We receive a lot of phone calls from companies trying to sell us advertising. The truth is in my opinion, most advertising doesn’t work but the sales people have a job to make you believe it does.

Some of these advertising companies use underhand tactics and slight of tongue with plenty of jargon thrown in to try and get you to sign a contract. My worst experience happened back in 2008 with a company called Yellow Partnership. They also trade under other names such as Strawberry Education. They had some real fast talking, aggressive people hiding behind their phones lines. Like a some other companies who call me, they claim to be working on behalf of  charity organisations and a percentage of their profit goes to good causes. After receiving the spiel from their sales adviser about my advert being placed in one of their calendars or wall charts I said I would think about it (ie I would check their company on the net and see what experiences other people had had with them, all of which I  found to be very bad so did not get back to them).

A week later I received a calendar with my companies logo & phone number on it, which they had pulled off the website. It was nothing inspiring but it came with a covering letter thanking me for agreeing to advertise with them and an invoice to boot. The calendar was one of 200,000 that was being sent out to people in my area, allegedly. I wasn’t impressed and phoned them up to tell them I had not agreed to advertise with them. The sales person agreed and then went on to advise on the large volume of calendars that would be distributed, but would not give specifics on who exactly these calendars would be distributed to, just ‘people in my area’. Then the emotional blackmail with her soft tone and almost crying/wining type voice and constant repeating of “We’re doing this for the kiddies”. This can be very affective, unfortunately I’ve heard it dozens of times before from other ‘fund raising organisations’. Genuine fund raising organisations such as RSPCC just don’t use tactics like that.

In the upcoming weeks the invoices kept landing on the door. I kept phoning to tell them I would not be paying for something I did not agree to. The advisor told me I had agreed verbally over the phone and I was now tied into a ‘verbal contract’ which was legally binding and they have the recording on tape. They would not let me listen to the tape, they said it was for their use not mine. Now, if I had agreed which I know I did not then the simple thing to do would have been to let me listen to the recording.

Then came the debt collection letters and threats of bailiffs visiting my premises to recover monies owed. Then came the phone calls from someone claiming to be from Kingston Bailey Debt Collection Services. Their phone number was one digit different from Yellow Partnership so they were obviously in the same building  and collaborating together. They were loud and aggressive shouting down the phone at me. “We are going to bankrupt you then we are going to put your company into liquidation if you don’t pay”, blah blah blah. I couldn’t believe the crap they were throwing at me, they really were cowboys hedging their bets hoping that I would do what others might do and give in and pay them their dirty unearned money. I openly invited them to take me to court and to bring with them their tape recording of their verbal contract. I never heard from them again.

As an aside I did contact their Finance Director by phone posing as an interested advertiser and politely quizzed him on the percentage of profit that his company give to charity organisations. Needless to say he was extremely edgy and went all round the houses explaining what a great job his company does for charities and because they have new projects on the horizon he could not give me any figures for the current year. I asked him for percentages and actual amounts from previous years that were given to charity organisations and he got bolshy and wanted to know more about my business and who I am. He was never going to divulge so I hung up.

It is companies like this that give legitimate advertising companies and genuine fund raising organisations a bad name. For this reason Oven Ready never advertise with companies that call us. If we want to advertise with you then we will call you.

I have just done a quick google on the Yellow Partnership after writing this and have found that they were folded down in 2009 in the High Court. About time too, they traded for 10 years and took a lot of money from many small businesses.

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2009/03/end-of-the-road-for-yellow-par.html

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/2010/10/two-jailed—at-last—for-the.html

http://www.blagger.com/db4/company_id/2652/companyname/Yellow-Partnership.html

As we now cover most of Buckinghamshire, South Oxfordshire, Berkshire and parts of the LU postcode area it is getting increasingly difficult to accommodate every customers required cleaning date.

We aim to endeavour to accommodate where possible. All booking dates are subject to location and as long as the logistics for the day are ok, we will be able to cover. At the time of writing this we are currently scheduling  jobs 2 weeks in advance dependant on location.

To avoid disappointment this Christmas we are advising our customers to book well in advance as October, November and December are our busiest time of the year. This year I shall be  calling and sending reminder leaflets to our valued regular customers to make sure they have the opportunity to have a clean before the festive season. Most are extremely grateful for this service as we do not like to turn away our  repeat customers because of the Christmas rush. The ideal scenario would be to have your oven cleaned after Christmas so we can get it looking sparkling for the new year after all the turkey trimmings have been devoured!