Help is at hand to clean that greasy oven for christmas
AS turkey time approaches it is a must to clean the oven for Christmas, a task despised by every housewife. But now help is at hand thanks to the initiative of an English man who has settled in Kiltimagh, writes Tom Gillespie.
Rob Bennett had been employed in the building trade but the bust left him out of work. After some research and training, he set up iClean Ovens, an environmentally friendly way to get the grease and grime removed from your oven. He specialises in domestic and commercial oven cleaning. In the back of his van he has a gas heated stainless steel tank into which the oven components are steeped to clean.
Rob, from Treenkeel, Kiltimagh, covers all of Connaught and has worked as far away as Longford.
He told me: “I moved over from England five or six years ago. My wife Elizabeth (Judge) is from Kiltimagh. I was originally in the building trade and when I came over here there was not much work. I was unemployed for a little while.
“I saw on the internet a FÁS course on start your own business and I had come across this oven cleaning on the internet. There were guys doing it in Dublin. I decided to give it a go.
“The FÁS course was very helpful. I never had my own business before. It gave me a little insight into what to expect and I got some valuable experience from the people there. I got some help from the Back to Work Scheme. They helped finance for the tank. I had to pay so much. I spoke to a guy in England who was supplying all the stuff and he gave me some tips on how to do it.
“That was about a year ago and it has just gone on from there. I like the idea of the environmentally friendly side. I am dealing with people’s cooking appliance. As soon as I am finished they can cook straight away. There is no waiting for it to burn off. People are shocked that this is available.
“Depending on the condition of the oven, it takes about one to two hours for a single oven and a double from two to four hours. It all depends on the condition.
“With every service I supply bulbs and the paper filters for the extractors free.
“The rubber seals are the hardest to clean as any heat on them could warp or break them. So what I do is put them in the tank for 10 minutes when it has cooled down. I take all the doors off and clean in between each section of glass and once I put it back I give it a final polish.
“I do end-of-tenancy cleaning and build cleaning when someone has built a house and they need it cleaned up before they move in. It is my main focus to get the oven cleaning going. No one likes cleaning their oven. It is the one job they do not like. You can shut the doors and you don’t have to look at it and that’s where I come in. For €55 you get to clean your oven, leaving it as good as new. If you have a really big family and you are cooking every day you should get it cleaned every six months but normally once a year is enough. Everything that is removable from the oven is steeped in the tank for an hour. There is no risk of damage to any of the items. It just cleans them.”
Rob cleans the following: ovens from €55, ranges from €70, Agas from €100, hobs from €5, extractors from €10, combo microwaves from €30, microwaves from €10 and barbecues from €50.
Rob can be contacted on (086) 1262097 or email icleanovens@gmail.com.