Oven Cleaner vs Citristrip Paint Remover & Sanding Furniture 

I’m not saying this to be mean, I’m just trying to help, there is a much more efficient way to use stripper. After removing the plastic wrap, and scraping with spatula,apply another thin layer with fine steel wool, scrubbing lightly! The remainder will be much less heavy and can then be removed with mineral spirits. Less messy and then just toss steel wool with the plastic wrap!

Thank you so much for this video!!! We were going to attempt the oven cleaner "hack," but have decided to look into the appropriate paint stripper now to save us some hassle :) This is so helpful and appreciated; Your overheating was not for nothing lol!

Your no makeup day looks GLORIOUS! thank you for the tips, just what I was looking for. Will be following your channel.

Thanks for doing this video! I am about to start a project and your video helped me start my first refinishing wood furniture!

From the UK and I did a cabinet today using oven cleaner. In all fairness it did remove the wax but I powered washed it to and this really did help.

I used the Easy Off on 6 old pieces of solid wood furniture. It did a GREAT job. I scrubbed with a brush and a yellow /green Scrubber for dishes. I rinsed with a hose after. I did something else because I wanted the wood a little lighter. I sprayed all the 6 pieces with Chlorox Cleanup and scrubbed again with the pot/dish scrubber. I am really happy with the results. I have beautiful raw wood furniture and can’t wait to find more solid wood junk furniture to strip down. It’s the easiest method but does need to be done outside due to the amount of water needed to rinse

Getting ready to strip kitchen cabinets, and am excited to try the saran wrap part of it to keep it all moist. I haven't done that before with Citristrip, and I know it will work even on the vertical parts of the cabinet frames that I'm leaving in place to strip. Thanks for doing this video!

Im currently using citristrip and LOVING it!! I tried the 2 minute paint stripper and HATED it. Fumes and the amount needed to remove the paint was ridiculous. Loved your video.

Lovely pieces of furniture! Im about to use citristrip, so i appreciate seeing how it works! Great job!

grace thank you so much ! your effort on this saved me so much time so thank you !

Thank you for posting this video. You did a great job!

Great post! Really impressed with your test and analysis!

Thanks for the video, gonna stick with Citristrip after considering oven cleaner method.

Thank you ! This was a great test. I appreciate the help on Citrus stripper

Thank you so much!!! English is my 2nd languge. But I was able to understand your explaination (easier than other videos.) I will try citiristrip.

I enjoyed watching you strip……haha…….I bought my first project today and I sure hope it will be worth the hassle……thanks so much for your help…..👍👍

Thanks for the tips. I love sanding cause it can be completed right away, but I get you about the dust. Try attaching the sander to a shop vac to suction majority of the dust.

This is so helpful. I have a cherry wood bedroom set and my parents' old hickory dining set that I need to refinish. I was a little hesitant about the oven cleaner method (mostly because we have a well and livestock, so I don't want anything washing off into the soil), but this video really saved me a lot of headache.

So much information! Thanks for trying all three. You’re cute as a button, no makeup needed!❤

Thank you for this video. You were thorough and I think you look great without makeup!

Well done iam 72 n gonna restore myself since cant find a man to help

those tables are gorgeous ❤

Great video. Thank you!

You look great no worries on the makeup. Attempting to finish my first ever. Hand sanding, bleh. Didn't even know about the Citristrip. THANK YOU.

Enjoyed Your video and the comparisons with 3 different tables.

Your presentation was perfect thx for the info

Thanks for your help

I really appreciate you doing the experiment it was fun to watch. I always thought that citrus strip said to clean it up with water instead of mineral spirits? I guess it works with both

Excellent tutorial.

Labor of love. Nice job.

It looked SO HOT out there! Lots of great information here.

Watching your channel for the first time. 1 min into this video and loving it! Subscribing!

Great video- thanks for toughing it out. LOL, we'll just save the EZoff for the oven!

Good job thanks

The Chemical free world is always beneficial. Thanks for the info.

Great job ty

Excellent !

love your video thank you so much

You can also cover the oven cleaner with plastic wrap.

Omg that shirt is amazing 🤣 great video!!!

I use both methods, they both strip the finish and stain equally well. It really depends on what the individual wants to use.

Thank you ☺️

Sanding smaller pieces is relaxing and fun. I wish I had a shirt that says, " SANDING IS MY CARDIO". I have used citri-strip and it works well to get most of the old fi ish off. I removed two layers of pain t with it. Good product. I don't even use oven cleaner on my oven----too toxic.

Tip when I did the oven cleaner I covered it with plastic keeps it from drying out then scrub it. I love sanding but didn't feel like dealing with the dust lol

I don’t know if you ever tried this, but I took the little bag off my sander, and attached it to my shop vac, and I have very little dust. You have to get a attachment to fit into the shop vac, but I had one on hand, so I didn’t need to do anything. I think I got the shop vac accessories a long time ago and it was just hanging around in my garage. Anyway, it helps with all the dust from the sander.

Great video! Ty

You are so cute! i loved this helpful video, i just picked up a baby pink vintage maple wood dresser for FREE outside an apartment complex.. wish me luck!

I think though the harder you have to scrub the more chance you have to damage the wood you’re trying to refinish. I wouldn’t even try that oven cleaner. I think sanding is always going to be the best bet, but in hard to reach with sand paper groves, that Citrustrip is gonna be the goto.

It’s the HEB bag for me 💜

Thank you for this video.. definitely a new follower! You are appreciated. I am going to see if you have a cherry wood before and after strip.. that is my challenge right now 😊😂

I like how you attempted to control the variables. I might be wrong, but it looked like to me that you scraped off the citristrip top but didn't scrape off any of the oven cleaner table top. If you'd scraped off the oven ckeaner top, too, this would truly be a real apples to apples comparison. As it is, it's not quite a true comparison. Yet, I'm thankful you did what you did. There's a great amount of knowledge in it, so, thanks again 😊

Thank you for this! I am about to refinish my kitchen cabinets, I’ve never done it before!

I have always had zero results from both the oven cleaner and the Citri stripper. My chemical of choice that works very well is Strip-Eze. It has never failed me.

In my experience with the citristrip on veneered surfaces, I only had to let it sit for a few hours and a plastic scraper from DollarTree. The finish came off easily in multiple layers at once. Cherrywood be gone.

Your recommendations to strip paint off of wood baseboards and window/ doorways? I'm having trouble getting all of the paint off.

Would these Products work for Stained ,Grained Doors? Or a window Frame? Good video

I'd just use denatured alcohol and some steel wool, wipe with shop towel.. it won't mess with the grain.. it works on shellac and varnish, deep cleans your wood and doesn't lift the veneers. And you get to keep your patina/original stain color..

I use a concoction of caustic soda (Draino), water and some corn starch to make a quite effective paint stripper. Been using it for years and does quite well. There are different recipes found on the Internet. Try the different ones to see what works best for you.

Love to see the best type to use on 100 plus year old fireplace mantles with what appears to have at least three layers of what might be lead based paint? Sanding, turns the lead based paint into a gum or what appears to be asbestos? What a pain, it starts burning the wood

Your shirt rocks

Haha, Thanks for doing this, Very useful,

This is very fascinating although you made me extremely anxious constantly mentioning how hot it was... I was watching the guy behind you with the hose trying to somehow telepathically get him to come over and hose you down

Is there a reason you didn’t cover the oven cleaner table, as you did the Citristrip?

Do you think covering the table with oven cleaner would keep it moist and work better. Also, removing the finish with the same tool you used on the citristrip?

Do you ever have problems with your furniture warping with so much water that you're using?

I love citrusent i found that a putty knife/ scraper to scrape off much better and easier.

Looks like a good candidate for acetone based "Furniture Refinisher". Yes, there are viable products ten times cheaper than "Formby's", that work the same way. Once upon a time, Formby's was just as inexpensive. Anyway, that would be about ten minutes worth of work with an acetone based chemical, steel wool and paper towels. Could conceivably leave a final finish as well!

Beginner here. Could you just sand off the finish? Or do you have to use the citrus strip?

Now try the Gel Nail polish remover method. Pour carefully onto peice, spread , wait a minute, scrap but leave debris, let dry (short wait) debris will turn into crispy chips you just brush off into trash. No goop mess. Since it works quickly work manageable area. Lightly sand.

When I use Easy off I leave it on for 3-4 hrs

How about stripping an old desk that has drawers, spindle legs, etc? It's from the 20-30s and has the black finish over the pretty wood. How shall I start?

Well MS/MRS grace your a daisy dear i literally just bought easy off and citri strip to strip an antique bed frame that im restoring and wanted to know which works better thank you maam

Super strip 👍👍👍👍

You have to use the oven cleaner with fumes. The fume less kind is weak. I use the regular ez off to clean 30 year old engine blocks of paint and grime!

I turn so red when I get hot. People always ask me if I’m ok 😂 Yep. I’m fine. My skin just thinks I’m dying. 😂

Hi whats the best way to clean french style furniture with alot of flower and carved detail please ? Happy Holidays

Soooooo you not going to count using the putty knife and then having to use the mineral spirits??? Plus the price for both? Think oven cleaner is the best option according to your vid. Thanks for posting

I have a few different sanders like 4

Does anyone happen to know anything about the tables style? I recently thrifted an Antique Canterbury with almost the same stylings as the legs of these tables!

I almost lost my nail with that orange citrí strip it ate through my gloves and got on cut I had on my cuticle. It was a nightmare after that.

Interesting, do you think the oven cleaner could have plastic wrap too?? And which is less damaging to the wood?

You live in Texas I bet? I know that kind of heat very well

What I’ve learned from the Easy Off method: 1. Make sure your using EASY OFF. Some of these videos are using just “oven cleaner”. I don’t know if this makes a difference but I don’t want to find out. 2. Make sure you’re using the Heavy Duty (yellow can). Some of these videos are using the regular strength (blue can) and claiming it’s not working so well. And apply it good and thick. Wait 30 minutes. I buy from Home Depot or Lowes because they carry the bigger cans that grocery stores don’t carry. 3. MOST IMPORTANT: DON’T USE WATER TO WIPE OR CLEAN IT OFF !!!!!! I saw one of these videos say to scrub with soap and water and rinse with water. In the video, her table was visibly warped afterwards (which she didn’t bother to mention). When I tried this, the wood began to warp AND crack. Wood and water NEVER get along. After 30 minutes, wipe it off with a dry rag. The paint will just smear. Don’t worry and don’t bother wiping/scrubbing too much. Wipe top layer and let it be damp/tacky. Then use a wire brush to gently scrub AGAINST the grain. The paint should crumble off like eraser shavings. When I scrubbed WITH the grain, it started digging too deep into the soft parts of the wood. You may need to do a second application at this point. Wait 30 min. Wipe. Then gently scrub. 4. Now clean the wood with pure acetone. Gently sand with 400 and paint or sand.

Isn’t the full strength, easy off oven cleaner supposed to work better than the low odor one?

Great video. PLEASE no music. It is so distracting.

I use oven cleaner wait 30 min then use soap and water. Then reapply

Just did whole kitchen remodel. Cabinet repainting. Promise oven cleaner is not the way to go. Citrus was way easier and more professional looking results.

What do mineral spirits do exactly?

I think you should have probably also wrapped the oven cleaner-for the same reason you wrapped the gel remover -it probably would have worked better 👍🏼

Are these tables still for sale?

I just got home from doctors and cvs I’m exhausted so I’m taking a nap then I’m getting up to go to store

Perhaps you should have used original or heavy duty oven cleaner. Not the new (not improved)less fume nice smelling type. Especially since your stripping furniture.

I’m repurposing a very heavy old, I don’t know how old, wooden workshop furniture that was used as a painting box for painting riding lawn mower parts for repairs and repurposing it into a elevated chicken coop with a ramp. I’m going to remove the all the peeled flaky paint on the outside wall. Worried about possible lead from the old paint poisoning to myself, I thought of sanding but that might cause the dust particles plus don’t want the dust particle going into ground or air for our chickens. I’ll be far away from chicken run. I can wear a dust mask and safety glasses. Would sanding be best or use the paint stripper gel or oven cleaner? There is old paint spray on the inside, not sure if any engine oil leaked into wood when repairs were done into the wood I found an old lawn mower engine sitting inside this piece. I was going to clean the inside and add linoleum for easier cleanup of chicken poop and caulk around the edges to seal from weather. Outside walls, remove old peeling paint, sand, and add fresh new barn red exterior paint that has primer in it and add white trim to match the barn we have. Any ideas on safe paint removal & possible engine oil removal would be so appreciated. I want to make this safe for my chickens so it’s not toxic for them. Btw this old wooden workshop piece hasn’t been used in possibly 13 years or longer.

The Oven Cleaner table needs to be covered with Saran wrap to keep it moist, without it, the cleaner dries too quickly, then scrub and clean it off, try it and see the difference???

You should’ve just lacquered those pieces as is.. they actually looked kinda cool.

Using a metal brush doesnt scratch the surface?

I will use the oven cleaner. It removed most of the red undertones of the wood.

SOS pads work also

You need a cute bandana to keep sweat out of your eyes! You're working your boots off!

@1:44 😊