Until this afternoon, I'd never even known how one works. Cooking in it is easy. Bake, broil, warm; I seem to have enough on the ball to do that much. But the concept of an oven which cleans itself seemed foreign. After all, no other appliance I own can boast such amazing feats of cleanliness. The idea, though, was appealing and fascinating.
A quick internet search turned up www.howstuffworks.com, a wonderful site which would prove useful for finding answers to any number of perplexities. It turns out that "Question #559" deals with the whole oven issue quite thoroughly.
In working its magic, the oven superheats to about 900 degress Fahrenheit, turning every little burnt piece of crud stuck inside to ash. The process takes about 3 hours. It also creates a bit of smoke -- say. . . oh, I don't know. . . about enough to suffocate a small village. These things should come with a spare oxygen tank.
In fact, the smoke was robustly pouring out of every window and door I had opened, as if trying to escape its own acrid fumes. I thought the neighbors might call the fire department, but realized their concern was likely subdued by the pity they surely felt for my imagined dinner guests. Maybe they'll drop by later with leftovers. . .
But I digress.
Somehow, I managed to escape without succumbing to either smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning. If only someone would invent "self-cleaning dishes," my life would be complete. On second thought, I'm not a very good swimmer.
