Oven cleaning

I recently spent a morning engaged in elbow combat with my oven. After repeated doses of washing soda with vinegar poured over and lots of scrubbing with steel wool, the oven was eventually back to its former glory. If you’re using washing soda as a cleaning agent and it’s struggling, pour on vinegar to make it fizz. This gets off most grime. You can find washing soda at hardware stores or in the laundry aisle of your supermarket.

Dear Wendyl, I burnt a pot on the stove and now there’s black stuff baked on to the top around the element. We got most of it off, but what is left we’d really like to remove. What do you suggest I use? Help! Aroha, email

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It’s washing soda for you too, Aroha! Sprinkle some on, then dampen it with a little water and leave it sitting for half-an-hour or so. If you give it a good scrub and some comes off, then go for it. If it’s still stubborn, pour a tiny bit of white vinegar on so it starts to fizz. Again leave for half an hour and that should do it. If not, repeat, repeat and repeat.