Aqualift has no Lift

[johnb300m]

Has anyone else had any in-home, personal experience with Whirlpool's Aqualift self cleaning interiors?
I have one on my Maytag range I bought last year, and it was doing sort of ok till now, when I had a real dirty mess to clean up.

I was roasting some chicken and it spattered over most of the interior.
So I pre-washed it with some barely soapy water, and added the required 2 cups of water to the base pan. Ran it on the 40 minute Aqualift cycle.
Came back, after it was done and began to wipe it out.
(While it is still quite warm, because when it cools, it's impossible to clean)
NOTHING really wiped off. Just the grease came up.
All the burned on marks were still on the panels. And as the interior started to cool, it became increasingly more difficult to scrub anything.

I ran a 2nd clean cycle, and did the same thing, this time with a Mr. Clean magic eraser, since by now I've destroyed the sponge that Maytag provided.
This got off a little more, but by now, my elbows and fingers were in pain.
I gave up and ran a THIRD cycle.
This time I scrubbed it out with Barkeeper's Friend.
This is the only thing that was able to get 80% of the grime and burnt stains out. And it wasn't perfect. There's still little black specs everywhere, and spatter stains on the bottom pan. And by now my spry 33 year old body was pretty sore.

It's a joke. There's nothing "self clean" about this.
I complained to WP MT on Twitter, to which they simply replied with the "Aqualift Instructions" on their website.
Then said they would tell engineering about my strife. That's it.

So apparently there's a class action lawsuit out there on Aqualift, with lots of other people claiming its worthless and not Self Clean at all.
I've joined it. Because I'm fed up. It's not self clean. They claim it is. They are misinforming customers.

Don't get me wrong. I think the idea is brilliant. But they sure bunked it up. No work-y. >:-[

Youz out there, don't buy anything that says Aqualift on it............not yet anyway.

It's too bad, because the Maytag stove cooks brilliantly in every way.

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[iheartmaytag]

This system: Aqua Lift

Was the reason I passed over the Whirlpool ranges in 2013 when I bought my range. 

 

My GE range has a steam clean cycle for light cleaning and touch ups, but still offers the High Heat clean for the bad stuff.  Whirlpool ranges did not offer the high heat option as they said it would ruin the Aqua Lift interior.  Hence I passed, and it appears for the right reasons.

 

[ea56]

I wish they would bring back the continuous cleaning oven interiors that I know at least Whirpool offered in the 70's. I lived in 4 different apts. during the 70's that had Whirlpool electric stoves with continuous cleaning ovens. The Hotpoint stove that was in our home when we bought it also had this feature, and it was a 1980 model. They really did keep clean. I would still have to clean the racks if I wanted them to stay shiny, but the ovens stayed clean. The surface of the oven walls was a matte finish that was supposed to cause the grease to burn off during normal oven use, with the only cleaning needed was to wipe them off periodically with a damp sponge or dishrag.

In my opinion this was a much better solution that the high heat self cleaning ovens that will smoke you out of the house.
Eddie

 

[frigilux]

Sorry to hear of your woes, John. I read about the new steam-clean systems and wondered how on earth it could replace a traditional self-cleaning cycle. Now we know; it can't.

Harley, I passed on a Whirlpool range for the same reason. The new GE (which should arrive late this week) has both steam and traditional high-heat cleaning. I don't ever foresee using the steam clean option.

 

[turquoisedude]

Continuous Clean

I'm with you on that one, Eddie!  I had a couple of continuous-clean type ovens and I always thought they were great.  Yes, you had to scrub the racks, but I know so many people who chose to clean the racks from their self-cleaners by hand (fearing discolouration or warping, I guess).  

 

The first continuous cleaner I got to use was the 1974 Baycrest (made by Westinghouse for the Hudson's Bay Co here) that replaced our 1957 Frigidaire Super range.   I did a lot of the cooking and KP duty back then and I thought the oven was a snap to keep clean.  That range was in active service until 2006 when my father gave up his house and moved to an apartment that had a range and refrigerator in it.   In the 90's I got a fancy Lady Kenmore range from a neighbour for the house Hubby and I bought in Mountain Lakes.  We left that one in the house when we moved in 2007 - I fear the new owner had it turned into a Kia....

 

[wayupnorth]

My 22 year old Whirlpool gas range is MOSTLY Continuous Cleaning. You still have to scrub the removable door and oven bottom.

 

[iheartmaytag]

Eugene

I have used the steam clean and it does a good job on light clean up.

At Easter I roasted a ham and the ham grease splattered.  At the end of the day I ran the steam cycle and the splatters just pealed off the oven.

 

I have now owned the range for four years, and have only had to use the high heat function twice.  I usually try to have something under a pan that I think may boil over, and try to wipe things up as soon as the oven cools otherwise to keep it tidy. 

 

[foraloysius]

"I don't ever foresee using the steam clean option."

Ofcourse you do, albeit only to satisfy our curiosity. lol

 

[appnut]

I had a c 1984 Hotpoint continuous clean oven for 31.25 years.  I hated the damn thing from day one and cursed the original homeowners for not spending the extra $200.  Pathetic. .  And AquaLift is exactly why I wouldn't settle for a new KitchenAid slide-in induction range.  I wanted true double ovens and I wanted both to be fully self-cleaning.  And is exactly what I got with the free standing KitchenAid induction range.  I regarded the continuous clean as mediocre at best.  I'm a heavy oven user with lots of roasting and such and I will use convection as appropriate with those meats.    

 

[cuffs054]

Oh boo hoo hoo, I'm living with my first non "anything" cleaning and it sucks! I was OK with cont. clean, but real self clean is the bomb. It was not unusual for the oven in the Manse to imitate a fireplace while cleaning, but damn it came clean.  As I was afraid, the Mini Manse needs much more TLC than planned so the kitchen referb must wait. While shopping for houses I had a very nice older woman who warned me about her WP cleaning issues when I looked at her house.

 

[peteski50]

Aqualift!!

I sell these ranges at home depot - I warn the customers that this not a regular self cleaning cycle! I think the steam clean on GE is a good thing as it is a alternative to a self clean cycle! But it should be up to the consumer how they want to clean their oven, and most want self cleaning.
I also wish they kept the continuous cleaning ovens even though many didn't like it.
If you were careful not to scrub it with anything harsh it worked out well. I think if they were to make them again it might be more durable.
To me the best solution is to have removable panels like they did on some ranges in the 60s. Than you can just wash them in the sink or bathtub and just replace them clean. Even though I have a SC oven I would be happy with removable inside panels that can be washed!

 

[rolls_rapide]

"Continuous Clean"

Do you mean "catalytic lining" - as were once fitted to the main oven in Creda cookers? Side panels, back panel, roof liner. Dark, rough, matt material, speckled with white.

Having looked at the Hotpoint version a five years ago, the panels (like everything else this life) had shrunk - and there seemed to be fewer of them too. These were a silvery-grey colour.

 

[henene4]

Cleaning systems

Here in Europe we do have these 3 systems as well.

One is only a simple enamel of varying quality and thus cleanability. The best is Mieles PerfectClean. No idea what they are doing, but I have seen 10+ year old ovens that are still in pristine condition. Just whipe, and its clean.
I suppose those steam clean ovens don't actually have anything more than simple enamel as coating.

Katalytic cleaning uses highly porous ceramic materials. Because of the high surface area, fat oxidizes at normal temperatures; German manuals state temps of 200C and upwards. I suppose these materials are what that Continous Clean system is.
These were used on most surfaces except the bottom of the oven. A spill would be "clogging up" the material and not oxidize away.
BSH here still uses them quite a lot, either on the backwall or all walls except the bottom, known as EcoClean or EcoClean Plus system. And Miele on the back wall of the PerfectClean ovens.
Trick I heared for those ovens: Just run it at max temp for an hour or so to oxidize away any residue.

And then there is the beauty of true high temp self cleaning. By now, the technology has been advanced to the point where those pull-out supports that run on ball bearings were made self-clean safe, and so were the trays on some models. And some of these models even have a microwave built in.

Having only used one self cleaning oven in my lifetime, I was wondering if anybody has a grading of self clean cycles.
I heared of the most complicated set-ups in US ovens, from reflectors that slide into the door glas (GE P7s I think), to additional heating elements towards the edge of the front of the cabinet or even running some elements at different wattages.
Anybody care to enlighten me?

The most complicated things we had in Germany were sensor guided self cleaning cycles (Miele, didn't work for long, but when it did, it did well) and katalytic air cleaners to reduce smoke and odor, some even with their own heating elements.

 

[johnb300m]

I read something in a forum whereas someone was able to get the Aqualift coating on the sides and back to activate a little better by spraying the inside walls and back with a mist sprayer a couple times during the end portion of the cycle.

Problem is, as it "cools" the condensation built up during the cycle totally dries off everything but the bottom where the pool sits.
So if it's kept moist, it might scrub off easier.

Of course nothing WP will tell you....