# Self Cleaning Ovens Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 11, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438 "2012-10-11T17:45:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/21 "2012-10-12T17:43:01Z")
They also do a fine job of restoring pizza stones to like new condition. Of course, you now need to reseason them, but if you leave them in the oven 24/7 during all cooking like we do, it’s worth it once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/22 "2012-10-12T17:45:01Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Because that’s too hot. 230-250°C is hot enough for pizza. I utterly disagree. 650-800F ( 340-425C)is perfect for pizza (that’s what my [cob oven](http://www.squidoo.com/building-an-earth-oven-cob-oven)gets to.) And the local pizzaria is well over 500F (260C) in a traditional pizza oven. Can you cook one at lower temps? Yes, but the true crisp crust and soft middle takes the nuclear heat. ---
**Author:** ![jacobsta811](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jacobsta811/32/2893_2.png) [@jacobsta811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jacobsta811)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/23 "2012-10-12T18:03:41Z")
Actually, some of the home pizza artisans do use self-cleaning ovens on the cleaning cycle. There definitely is a difference between 450 and 800-1000. I know I saw an article about a guy who buys self cleaning ovens and removes the safety latch. Here’s an article that mentions the phenomena: [Homemade Pizza That Is the Opposite of Fast Food - The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/dining/19pizza.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/24 "2012-10-12T18:56:34Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Because that’s too hot. 230-250°C is hot enough for pizza. I’ll agree with the corrections above. It all depends on the type of pizza you are making. Traditional brick ovens (whether wood- or coal-fired) for pizzas can get above 500C (950F). [Here’s a pizza cooked at around 475C/900F in 60 seconds](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QNDAXmhCn0). For wood-fired Neapolitan style pizzas, a cooking time of 60-90 seconds is fairly typical. Somewhere in the range of 400C-450C is typical, certainly over 350C. Pizzas made this way are usually made with higher hydration doughs and often with more finely milled flour (00 Italian flour) than their regular oven counterparts. I sometimes fake the effect by partially cooking my pizza on the floor of my conventional oven, where it gets to around 350C, as I don’t feel like jury-rigging the self-cleaning cycle in my oven like Jeff Varasano did in his attempts to replicate this style of pizza (successfully) in his home oven. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/25 "2012-10-12T19:11:12Z")
> [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > Wow, 400°C for three hours. I wonder how much that costs. Using my own oven as an example: 30 Amp circuit, 220 V, 3 hour cycle gives 19.8 kWH as an absolute maximum. At 20 cents per kWH, $3.96 worth of electricity. That’s assuming the oven is on using all available power for the entire time. I’m utterly certain it’s not, - all available current doesn’t go to the oven, and the element will cycle on & off during the cleaning. So assuming 15 amps to oven, and on 50% of the time, you’re down to $0.99 worth of electricity. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/26 "2012-10-12T19:49:38Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > Professional pizza ovens get up to 700F (370C) or even hotter, depending on oven type. [Cite](http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/commercial-pizza-oven-types/c27404.aspx). Pizzas will cook at 250C (which is the hottest my oven goes to), but I’m sure you’d get better results with a pizza stone in a really hot oven. Ok, then modify my answer to say “because we’re not talking about professional pizza ovens or brick ovens or any of the other unusual types of ovens that were mentioned as exceptions”. Your average run of the mill consumer-grade electric oven just doesn’t need to get that hot because almost nothing we cook with any kind of regularity requires such high temperatures. Pizza cooks just fine at 250C. I’m also thinking we’d be seeing a lot more house fires if more people were cranking up their ovens to 400 or 500C, perhaps thinking they could save some time by cooking at higher temps. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438/27 "2012-10-12T21:35:16Z")
> [@jacobsta811](#): > > removes the safety latch. Something one of my drunken dorm mates should have thought of one late night. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-cleaning-ovens-question/637438.md?page=1)