Identify the system before choosing a product. Pyrolytic burns the cavity clean at around 500 degrees with everything removed. SteamBake softens rather than removes. A catalytic liner is a rough panel that must never be scrubbed or sprayed, because the coating is the cleaning mechanism.
AEG is one of the few brands that will sell you three fundamentally different cleaning systems under one badge in the same year, and the instructions for one are actively harmful to another.
That is the whole difficulty with an AEG. Everything else about the appliance is straightforward.
Work out which of the three you have
The model number is on the rating plate inside the door frame. Then look at the cavity and the controls.
Pyrolytic. There is a Pyrolytic or Pyro cycle in the menu and the door locks itself while it runs, staying locked until the cavity falls below roughly 300 degrees. AEG markets some of these as SteamPro or MaxiKlasse models.
SteamBake or steam assist. A water reservoir or a recess in the cavity floor that you fill before a cycle. It produces steam that softens residue. It is genuinely useful on light soiling and it does not remove anything on its own.
Catalytic liners. Rough, matte, slightly porous panels on the rear wall and sometimes the sides. They look exactly like an area of cavity that has been neglected for years, and they are not. They are the cleaning system.
If it has catalytic liners, do not touch them
Where an AEG carries catalytic panels, they are the cleaning system rather than dirt, and cleaning them by hand destroys them permanently. That rule is the same on every brand that uses them, and our oven cleaning guide covers what a catalytic liner is, why it looks the way it does, and how to regenerate a saturated one with heat.
The AEG-specific part is that you cannot assume from the badge. The same model year offers pyrolytic at the top, steam in the middle and catalytic panels lower down, so an AEG owner has to look rather than infer. Anyone who cleans a friend's AEG and applies the same method to their own has a reasonable chance of being wrong.
The SteamBake reservoir
If your AEG has a water reservoir, it needs descaling. Most of Sydney is not especially hard water, but a reservoir that has been filled and heated a few hundred times will still scale, and a scaled reservoir delivers less steam while the appliance reports that it is working.
Use the descaling procedure in the manual rather than a general kettle descaler, because the circuit runs through parts that a strong acid will damage.
Cleaning the enamel
Whatever system the oven has, the floor, the door and often the roof are ordinary vitreous enamel and take a straightforward approach.
- 1Cold oven, off at the wall, everything out. Racks, trays, telescopic rails and side racks. Note which way round each rail sits, because left and right are not interchangeable.
- 2Soak the racks and rails in hot water with a non-caustic degreaser for an hour, in a lined tub. Do not leave telescopic rails in a strong degreaser for hours, which strips the light lubricant in the sliding sections.
- 3Apply a non-caustic oven cleaner to the enamel only. Nothing on a catalytic panel, nothing on the seal, nothing on the fascia. If you are unsure whether an area is catalytic, leave it.
- 4Give it thirty minutes, then work it with a non-scratch pad. Enamel takes firm pressure.
- 5Rinse repeatedly, then glass and frame last.
What pyrolytic does not reach
- Everything comes out first, including the telescopic rails, which discolour permanently at pyrolytic temperatures.
- The door glass is not cleaned, because the film between the panes is outside the sealed cavity.
- The seal ages with every cycle, so run it a few times a year rather than monthly.
- The frame, fascia and controls are untouched.
What never to use
- Any cleaner, detergent or abrasive on a catalytic liner.
- Caustic oven cleaner near the door seal or the fascia.
- Steel wool or scouring powder on enamel or glass.
- A blade held flat on the door glass.
- A general descaler in a SteamBake reservoir.
- Long degreaser soaks for telescopic rails.
What actually goes wrong
A scrubbed catalytic panel, believed to be baked-on dirt. The most expensive AEG mistake and the least recoverable.
A telescopic rail refitted the wrong way round, which then will not extend and gets blamed on the clean.
A scaled steam reservoir delivering less than it should while reporting normal operation.
Blued rails left in during a pyrolytic cycle.
A smell after a spotless clean, which is the fan chamber behind the rear baffle.
Should you do it yourself?
Do it yourself on the enamel areas with a non-caustic cleaner and a proper dwell.
Run the pyrolytic cycle yourself with everything removed, then do the door and frame by hand.
Get someone in if a catalytic panel has already been scrubbed and you want to know whether it is salvageable, if the door needs to come apart, or if the oven has years of hard carbon on the enamel.
AEG shares group engineering with Electrolux, so the same logic applies across a mixed kitchen. See how to clean an Electrolux oven.