What is a self-clean?

Self-clean runs the cavity far hotter than any cooking cycle to reduce soil to ash. It works, but those temperatures stress the door lock mechanism, the elements and the control board, and a strikingly high share of oven failures arrive in the days after a clean cycle — most commonly a door lock that will not release. Customers with a locked door and a lock error have usually just run self-clean, which is worth asking before diagnosing anything else.