Keep every cleaner away from the brass. Caustic and even strong non-caustic degreasers tarnish ILVE brass trim, caps and fascia rails permanently, and polish does not bring it back. Clean the enamel cavities with a non-caustic cleaner, soak the trivets separately, and never lift a wide door alone.
An ILVE arrives in a kitchen as a statement, and it gets cleaned like an ordinary oven exactly once. After that the owner has usually learned something expensive.
The difference is not that an ILVE is delicate. The cavities are tough enamel and the cast iron is close to indestructible. The difference is that a single appliance carries enamel, cast iron, stainless, chrome and brass, all within reach of the same cloth, and one of those five is ruined by things the other four shrug off.
Brass is the whole story
Most ILVE range cookers carry brass somewhere: burner caps, the trim rings around the burners, the rails and beading across the fascia, the surrounds on the control knobs, and on the Nostalgie styling a good deal more of it.
Brass is a copper alloy, and caustic cleaners attack it directly. So do many strong non-caustic degreasers. The result is not a film you can buff off, it is the surface of the metal going dull, blotchy and often faintly pink or grey where the zinc has been leached out of it. Metal polish will lift a light tarnish. It does not recover a chemically etched surface, and on a brushed or lacquered brass finish polishing makes it worse by cutting through the lacquer.
The practical rule on an ILVE is simple and it is worth being absolute about: cleaner goes into the cavity, and nothing goes on the brass except warm soapy water and a dry cloth. Not the same cloth you used in the cavity. A separate one.
This is also why the run-down matters. Cleaner sprayed inside a cavity runs out over the lower door edge and down the fascia, straight across the brass rail below it. Spray onto the cloth, not into the oven.
Work out how many ovens you actually have
ILVE sells 60cm built-ins, but the appliances people mean when they say ILVE are the freestanding ranges, and those are multi-cavity.
- A 90cm range is usually one main oven plus a smaller second cavity or a separate grill.
- A 100cm or 120cm Majestic or Nostalgie is commonly two full ovens plus a grill compartment, sometimes three cavities.
- Wider models often add a teppanyaki plate or a fry top into the hob surface, which is a separate surface with its own rules.
Each cavity has its own door, its own seal, its own racks and its own runners, and they are not always the same size. Photograph the layout before anything comes out, because racks from a second oven do not fit the main one and it is genuinely difficult to work out afterwards.
This is also what decides the price of a professional clean. A 120cm ILVE is not one oven, and it is not priced as one.
The cast iron trivets
An ILVE hob sits under heavy cast iron trivets, and on a 120cm range there can be eight to twelve separate pieces.
- 1Lift them off cold, and lay them out in the order they came off. They look identical and several are not, particularly the ones flanking a central wok burner or a fry top.
- 2Soak them flat in hot water with a non-caustic degreaser for an hour, in a bath or laundry tub lined with an old towel. Cast iron chips porcelain and the towel prevents a second problem.
- 3Work them with a stiff nylon brush, not wire. ILVE trivets are usually matte enamelled cast iron and wire leaves bright scars through the coating that then rust.
- 4Dry them completely and immediately. Any exposed iron flashes orange within hours in a Sydney summer.
The burner caps come off with them. Brass caps do not go in the soak, they get washed separately in warm soapy water and dried straight away. Enamelled caps are fine in the soak.
The doors
ILVE doors on the wide ranges are heavy, multi-glazed, and built like the rest of the appliance.
- Treat any door on a 90cm or wider range as a two-person lift. They routinely run well over ten kilograms and the hinge springs carry serious force.
- Never let a hinge close on itself. Release both hinge locks, close the door to the angle the manual specifies, then lift straight up and draw it towards you with both hands and a second person.
- Lay it face down on a padded surface, never on stone or the floor.
- Keep every spacer, grommet and screw in order. Multi-glazed doors do not seal if a single spacer goes back in the wrong slot, and a door that does not seal costs heat on every roast afterwards.
If that sounds like more than you want to take on, that is a reasonable conclusion, and it is the most common reason ILVE owners call someone.
Cleaning the cavities
The cavities themselves are ordinary vitreous enamel and they are forgiving.
- 1Cold, isolated at the wall, racks and runners out.
- 2Apply a non-caustic oven cleaner to the enamel only. Cavity walls, roof, floor and the inner face of the door glass. Nothing on the seal, nothing on the fascia, nothing anywhere near brass.
- 3Give it the full dwell time, then work it with a non-scratch pad. Enamel takes firm pressure.
- 4Do each cavity separately rather than working across all of them at once, so cleaner is not sitting on one surface for an hour while you are elsewhere.
- 5Rinse thoroughly, several passes with clean water.
- 6Do the fascia last, with warm soapy water and a fresh cloth, working around the brass rather than over it.
What never to use on an ILVE
- Caustic oven cleaner anywhere on the appliance. On brass it is instant and permanent. On the enamel it is unnecessary.
- Any cleaner at all on the brass, including most branded degreasers.
- Metal polish on lacquered brass, which cuts through the lacquer and leaves a patchy finish.
- Wire brushes on enamelled cast iron trivets.
- A cavity cloth used on the fascia. This is how brass gets ruined by people who were being careful.
- Leaving cast iron wet. It rusts fast.
- Lifting a wide door alone. A dropped ILVE door is an expensive afternoon and a genuine injury risk.
What actually goes wrong
Tarnished brass, by a wide margin. Usually from run-down out of a cavity or from one cloth doing the whole appliance.
Trivets back in the wrong positions, so the hob rocks and pans sit unevenly. Photographing them first takes ten seconds.
A door that no longer seals after a glass clean, from a spacer in the wrong slot.
Rusted trivets dried by air rather than by hand.
A second cavity that has never been cleaned at all, because it is rarely used and nobody thinks of it until it smokes on Christmas Day.
Should you do it yourself?
Do it yourself for the trivets and burner caps. Soaking them is straightforward, it makes the biggest visible difference, and there is nothing to damage provided the brass caps are kept out of the soak.
Do it yourself for a single cavity with light soiling, using a non-caustic cleaner and keeping it strictly inside the oven.
Get someone in if the doors need to come off, if there is brass that has already started to dull, if a second or third cavity has years of build-up, or if the range is 100cm or wider. At that size it stops being a cleaning job and starts being a half day with the right equipment.
The hob above shares the same brass and cast iron. See how to clean an ILVE cooktop, and how to clean an ILVE rangehood for the extraction, which on these ranges is usually a wide canopy working hard.
Keeping it clean
- 1Wipe the fascia and the brass with a damp cloth after cooking, before anything has a chance to bake on. Brass that is kept clean rarely needs anything stronger.
- 2Lift the trivets for a soak every month or two.
- 3Run the second cavity empty at temperature occasionally, so it is not the appliance's forgotten corner.
- 4Deal with spills in a cavity while it is warm rather than hot.
- 5Never let a cleaner cloth touch the front of the appliance. One rule, and it prevents the expensive outcome.
When the trivets have set hard or the doors need to come apart, book a clean online or check we cover you on our service areas page.