Check whether yours is a French door model before touching the hinges, because two independently sprung half doors do not come off like a single door. Series 9 is usually pyrolytic. Everything below it is plain enamel that takes a non-caustic cleaner and a proper dwell time.
Fisher & Paykel has been in Australian kitchens long enough that most people think of it as a local brand, and its ovens turn up constantly in newer Sydney builds and apartment fit-outs where the whole kitchen was specified at once.
There is one thing about them that genuinely differs from every other brand in this guide series, and it is worth knowing before you start rather than halfway through.
The French door, and why it matters
Some Fisher & Paykel wall ovens have a French door: two half-width doors, hinged at the outer edges, that open outward from the middle like a cupboard. It is a genuinely good design in a narrow kitchen, because neither door swings into the room the way a full drop-down door does.
It also means the oven has two independent doors, each with its own pair of spring-loaded hinges and its own seal, and almost nothing written about oven door removal applies to it.
- Do not try to lift one off while the other is attached. They are balanced as a pair on some models and the mechanism does not appreciate being loaded on one side.
- Check the manual for your specific model before releasing any hinge. Fisher & Paykel publishes removal instructions and they differ between the French door and the conventional drop-down ovens in the same range.
- The seal runs around both doors and down the centre join. That centre join is where heat escapes first when a seal starts to go, and it is the part people never inspect.
- Each door is lighter than a full-width door, which makes them feel more manageable than they are. The hinge springs still carry serious force.
If yours is a conventional drop-down door, treat it like any other: release both hinge locks, close to the specified angle, lift straight up.
Which system do you have?
The model number is on the rating plate inside the door frame.
Series 9. Usually pyrolytic. There will be a cleaning cycle in the menu and the door locks itself while it runs.
Series 7 and below. Generally plain vitreous enamel, no self-clean. Some models offer a steam-assisted softening function, which helps with light residue and does not replace a clean.
AeroTech. Fisher & Paykel's fan and vent arrangement, found across much of the range. It is a cooking system rather than a cleaning one, but it matters here for one reason: the airflow design means fat gets moved around the cavity efficiently, and a good deal of it ends up on the rear baffle and in the fan chamber behind it.
Cleaning the cavity
- 1Cold oven, off at the wall, everything out. Racks, trays and side racks. The side racks on most models unclip or come off with a single fixing each.
- 2Soak racks and trays in hot water with a non-caustic degreaser for an hour, in a lined sink or bath.
- 3Apply a non-caustic oven cleaner to the enamel, roof first. The roof is where cleaner drains off fastest, so laying a dampened cloth against it keeps it in contact.
- 4Wait the full dwell time, then work it with a non-scratch pad. Enamel takes firm pressure without harm.
- 5Get behind the rear baffle if the model allows it. On an AeroTech oven this is worth the effort, because the airflow puts more fat back there than you would expect and it is the usual source of a smell that survives a spotless-looking clean.
- 6Rinse repeatedly with clean water.
- 7Doors last. On a French door model, do each door separately, and pay attention to the inner edges either side of the centre join where grease collects out of sight.
What pyrolytic does not reach
On a Series 9, the cycle burns the cavity residue to ash at around 500 degrees.
- Take out racks, trays and side racks first. They discolour permanently at those temperatures.
- The door glass is not cleaned, because the film between the panes sits outside the sealed cavity.
- The seals are not cleaned and age with every cycle. On a French door oven there are two of them plus the centre join, so this is a slightly bigger deal than on a single-door model.
- The frame, fascia and controls are untouched.
Run it a few times a year, not monthly, and open a window while it runs.
The vent above the door, and the cabinetry around it
Fisher & Paykel ovens turn up more often than most in tall cabinetry, built into a bank of joinery in a newer kitchen rather than under a benchtop. That installation is neat and it introduces a problem worth knowing about.
Every built-in oven vents steam and hot air, usually through a slot along the top edge of the door or just above it. On a fresh installation that vapour leaves cleanly. As fat accumulates in and around the vent slot, the opening narrows, and steam that cannot escape forward finds another way out: up the back of the cavity and into the void behind the joinery.
The symptoms are easy to miss and easy to misread. The cabinetry directly above the oven discolours or the veneer lifts at the front edge. Condensation appears on the inside of the door glass and takes longer than it used to to clear. The kitchen smells faintly of cooking hours after the oven has been off.
None of that is a fault with the oven and none of it is fixed by cleaning the cavity. Check the vent slot with a torch when the oven is cold, and clear it properly rather than wiping across it. It is a two minute job that prevents a joinery repair, and it is the first thing we look at on a built-in that has never been done.
What never to use
- Steel wool, scourers and scouring powder on the cavity or the door glass.
- Caustic oven cleaner on the door seals, which perishes them, and on the fascia, which lifts printed markings.
- A blade held flat on the glass. Shallow angle with a ceramic scraper, after softening.
- Force on a French door hinge. If the door does not release as the manual describes, stop.
- Water poured into the cavity of a pyrolytic model to speed the cycle.
- Cleaner run into the fan chamber to the point where it reaches the motor.
What actually goes wrong
A damaged French door hinge, from someone applying the standard single-door removal method. It is the failure specific to this brand and it is the reason the door section leads this page.
A leaking centre join, on a French door oven where the seal has aged and nobody has looked at the join because it is not an obvious place to look. The symptom is heat and browning on the cabinetry above the oven.
A smell that survives a full clean, which on AeroTech models is almost always the fan chamber.
Discoloured racks left in during a pyrolytic cycle.
Cabinetry damage from steam on built-in installations where the vent is partly blocked by hardened fat, which is worth checking on any oven that has never been done.
Should you do it yourself?
Do it yourself for the cavity and the racks on any model. It is an ordinary enamel clean and a non-caustic cleaner with a real dwell time handles it.
Run the pyrolytic cycle yourself on a Series 9, with everything removed, then do the doors and frame by hand.
Leave the doors alone on a French door model unless you have the manual open in front of you and it describes the procedure for your exact model. This is the one place on this brand where confident improvisation is expensive.
Get someone in if there is a smell after cleaning, if the oven has never had a full clean, if the centre join is browning the cabinetry above, or if the doors need to come off at all.
If the cooktop is also Fisher & Paykel it is usually induction or gas, and both are covered in how to clean a Fisher & Paykel cooktop.
Keeping it clean
- 1Wipe spills while the oven is warm rather than hot.
- 2On a French door oven, wipe the inner edges either side of the centre join when you do the glass. It is out of sight and it is where grease accumulates.
- 3Check the vent above the door is clear. A blocked vent pushes steam into the cabinetry.
- 4Cover fatty roasts for part of the cook, which reduces what the AeroTech airflow carries to the back of the cavity.
- 5Use the pyrolytic cycle sparingly if you have one, for the sake of two seals rather than one.
When the fan chamber or the doors are the problem, book a clean online or check we cover your suburb on our service areas page.