Caring for your oven room
The boiler room, or the room where the boiler is located, is generally low on a homeowner’s maintenance list. Many times the room is located in the basement and is rarely used. However, for your heater to work properly, you will need to regularly clean and maintain the room where the heater is located.
There are many reasons for this. First, cleaning will reduce the risk of fire. Second, a clean oven room will make it easier to repair the oven in case repairs are necessary.
The good news is that keeping your oven room clean and tidy isn’t a lot of work in the long run. Of course, if you’ve used your oven room as a storage area, it may take some time to clean the area and make sure it’s safe.
Here’s a simple checklist of things to do to keep your oven room clean to minimize the risk of fire and keep your family safe.
- Make sure there is enough space around the heater so that it can operate safely. Some families tend to fill the room with unused items or use the room to store things. This can create a fire hazard and may interfere with the operation of the oven.
- Do not hang clothes or laundry lines from your oven to dry. Although clothing can dry quickly, this definitely poses a fire hazard. If you place the laundry on a drying rack in the oven room, make sure the rack is a safe distance from the oven.
- Do not place your cat’s litter box near the oven. Ammonia in cat urine can corrode parts of the oven. Additionally, odors from the litter box can get trapped in the ventilation system and circulate through your home.
- Do not store chemicals, cleaning products, or laundry soaps near the oven. If you must store items in the room with the oven, make sure the items are in an airtight container.
- Never store flammable products such as gasoline, pool chemicals, kerosene, or paint thinner anywhere near the oven. These items can easily start a dangerous fire.
- Keep the area clean. Do not leave old and dusty furnace filters or broken furnace parts lying around the furnace room. This not only clutters the area, but can also create a fire hazard.
- Be sure to dust and vacuum the oven and oven room regularly. This means dusting the area and vacuuming around the oven and floor to keep dust build-up to a minimum.
Once you’ve given the area a good clean, you only need to spend a few minutes a week making sure the area is clean. Even if it takes a lot of work to clean the area at first, the peace of mind you get is worth the work.
