Using oven cleaners with pets in the house?

[tricollie4me]

I tried to do a search on this but couldn't track down any old messages...I would like to clean my oven for the holidays -- I did buy some Easy-Off oven cleaner but I'm not sure if it's safe to use with my pets in the house. Bijou's crate is in the kitchen, and I don't know if she can be safely crated overnight while the oven cleaner is working, or if I can just crate her elsewhere temporarily, or if I should scrap the whole idea and just use a ton of baking soda and vinegar!

Any thoughts? It's bitter cold where I live right now so opening lots of windows, etc., is impossible. My oven is in desperate need of a deep cleaning, however, so I do need something that will really work!

Thanks.

[ChrisH]

I don't think I would use it without some ventilation for your health as well as the pets, and I would certainly make sure Bijou wasn't in there while it was working.

Can you not get a cleaner that doesn't take so long to work? That way you could just keep the pets out of room plus have the window open without too much bother.
The one I used the other week cleaned well (my oven badly needed cleaning too )and the maximum time you could leave it on was two hours, in fact there a warning was printed on not to leave overnight. I don't know if you can get the one I used over there - Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner - but maybe there is something similar.
Chris

[ramanth]

If you won't open the windows, don't crate Bijou in the kitchen while cleaning the oven. That would be bad.

I'd say go ahead and clean your oven, but you really should at least crack windows for ventilation. If your bedroom is on the other side of the house, just shut the door with Bijou in the room with you and bundle up. It won't take that long to rewarm the house once the windows are closed.

[elizabethann]

Here is a natural oven cleaner "recipe" you could use:

Sprinkle baking soda all over the bottom until it is covered completely with about 1/4 of an inch of baking soda. Then, using a clean spray bottle, I spray the baking soda with water until the baking soda is thoroughly damp but not flooded. After that, this lazy cleaner goes off and does other things. When I think of it, I dampen the baking soda again if it is drying out. Before I go to bed, I do that again. When I wake up in the morning, the baking soda can effortlessly be scooped out of the oven with a sponge, bringing all the grime with it. That's it! The only downside is that you need to rinse out the white residue left by the baking soda, but it sure beats cleaners with fumes!