Automatic cleaning in a combi oven – is it worth the money?

Automatic washing is one of the features that can be difficult to value when comparing professional ovens. An oven without automatic washing can be cheaper, and the oven cavity can of course be cleaned manually.

However, if the oven is used heavily for cooking, it is our experience that automatic washing is a feature you quickly come to appreciate. It is about both a cleaner oven cavity and the labor time spent on cleaning.

How much time does automatic washing save?

A thorough manual cleaning of a combi oven can easily take 45–90 minutes from start to finish.

This does not necessarily mean that an employee is standing there scrubbing for an hour and a half. The oven may first need to run with steam, the cleaning agent needs time to work, and then the oven cavity must be scrubbed and rinsed.

But throughout the process, there is an employee who must be attentive to the task and return to the oven several times.

With automatic washing, the oven dispenses the cleaning agent and water itself and carries out the wash program. The employee can therefore spend their time on something else.

A long wash program is not the same as long labor time

This is an important distinction.

An automatic wash program can indeed take a long time, but that is machine time – not employee time.

For example, the wash can be started after the final service, after which the employees can go home. On UNOX CHEFTOP and BAKERTOP PLUS models, the wash can also be scheduled so that the oven, for instance, starts cleaning automatically the next morning before the employees arrive.

Automatic washing also provides a cleaner oven

Time savings are only one of the benefits.

Our experience is that an oven with automatic washing is generally cleaned more thoroughly and consistently than an oven that is always washed manually.

This is not necessarily because manual cleaning cannot be performed thoroughly. The problem is rather that it must be performed thoroughly every single time, even after a long and busy service.

With an automatic system, the process becomes much more consistent.

How often should a combi oven be washed?

That depends entirely on the production.

An oven that is used intensively for various dishes, including meat, can advantageously be washed every day after service is finished.

If the oven is primarily used for bread, bake-off, or other products that do not release much fat and dirt, the need may be significantly less. In this case, once a week, or even less frequently, may be sufficient depending on the production.

It therefore does not make sense to set the same cleaning interval for all commercial ovens.

Automatic washing is especially relevant for meat and fat

The more fatty the production is, the greater the advantage of automatic washing becomes.

Roast pork, bacon, chicken, and the like can leave behind both fat, food residues, and odors in the oven cavity.

If the oven is subsequently to be used for, say, bread or cakes, cleaning also becomes part of production planning. You do not necessarily want to bake cakes in an oven cavity that still smells of the day's roast pork.

If the kitchen has two ovens, this can be another reason to distribute different types of production between them.

For baking, the need is lower

Automatic washing is not equally important for everyone.

If the oven is mainly used for bread, cakes, and bake-off, the oven cavity is usually not loaded with fat in the same way as with regular cooking.

That is why we also sell ovens without automatic washing to these types of customers. Here, a cheaper oven without a washing system can be a perfectly reasonable choice.

For a restaurant kitchen with varied food production, however, we would normally recommend automatic washing.

How much does the cleaning agent cost?

Consumption naturally depends on how often and how intensively the oven is washed.

As a practical rule of thumb, we see customers with high washing activity using around 10 liters of cleaning agent a month. With less intensive use, 10 liters can, for example, last for about a quarter or longer.

It should therefore be considered as an ongoing operating expense, but weighed against the labor time that would otherwise be spent on manual cleaning.

Does the washing system need maintenance?

The washing system itself usually does not require much attention from the user in day-to-day life. The most important thing is to ensure there is cleaning agent and to follow the oven's instructions and any service messages.

On UNOX ovens with SENSE.Klean, the oven can also assess the degree of soiling and suggest an appropriate wash program.

Does automatic washing require water treatment?

Water treatment is important for many combi ovens, but it is not the automatic washing system itself that is the primary reason.

The need is linked to the oven's use of water for steam and the risk of limescale deposits. Therefore, water treatment must be chosen based on the oven and the local water quality, not based on whether the oven has automatic washing.

What happens if the oven is washed too rarely?

The most visible result is, of course, a dirty oven cavity. But the problem is also about odors, hygiene, and the accumulation of fat and food residues.

Over time, inadequate cleaning can also cause problems with the oven's components and functionality.

A professional combi oven should therefore be cleaned according to the production it is actually used for, regardless of whether the cleaning is done automatically or manually.

Is automatic washing worth the money?

For a kitchen with daily and varied food production, our answer would usually be yes.

The biggest gain is the combination of a consistently clean oven cavity and less employee time spent on cleaning.

For a bakery, a café with limited bake-off, or other places where the oven is primarily used for products that create very little mess, the calculation is different. Here, an oven without automatic washing can easily be the right choice.

The deciding factor is therefore not whether automatic washing is a good feature, but whether it fits the way the oven is to be used.

Also read our guide on the difference between a combi oven and a convection oven, or see our selection of professional combi ovens.