Ugh. Just... ugh.

My oven makes me want to cry. It's got so much caked-on crap, and it's not my fault! It came fairly icky, and it is old (old enough you can't buy parts for it any more). And, sadly, it's in an island, so the only way I can replace it is with another Jenn-Air downdraft range. If that wasn't the case, it would have been replaced long ago, because a regular oven is only a few hundred dollars. A Jenn-Air? Will cost me about $2,000.

It also is getting finicky about working, so we may need to replace it soon, anyway.

I can't get the door off like you could on other ovens, possibly because it's supposed to be self-cleaning. But I don't have the manual (as far as I know) and that feature kinda scares me. But I have to do something to get it to stop smoking all the time...

*goes back to trying to clean it*

EDIT: found the manual. Am attempting a self-clean, but am worried that's what caked on the black stuff in the first place. Will know in 2-1/2 hours.

EDIT II: HOLY CRAP IT WORKED! I don't know why I'm so amazed by that, perhaps 'incinerating everything to a fine smoke' doesn't seem likely, but... there are a few spots where there's still a bit of grundge (perhaps I should have opted for the longer 'heavy soil' option, but it was already late) but it looks amazing, otherwise. Wow.