How-To Clean a Rational SelfCookingCentre®

The Rational SelfCookingCentre® (SCC) combi oven enables chefs to consistently provide outstanding food quality. In order to keep your Rational SCC oven operating at peak efficiency and maximise uptime, a daily cleaning routine is key.

Rational have made daily cleaning effortless through the CleanJet®+care automatic cleaning system, included on every SelfCookingCentre®. To get started, you will need two types of genuine Rational cleaning tablets, available from Parts Town UK:

  1. Rational Detergent Tablets – part number 56.00.210
  2. Rational Care Tablets – part number 56.00.562

Rational Cleaning Tablets available from First Choice

The detergent tablets, also known as Rational red tablets due to their red and silver foil packaging, are sold in buckets of x100 tablets. The detergent tablets provide an intensive clean when used with the CleanJet®+care system.

The Care Tablets, also known as Rational blue tablets due to their blue foil packaging, are sold in buckets of x150 packets. Although the Rational Care Tablets are usually associated with reducing limescale in the SCC’s steam generator in hard water areas, they also play a vital part in the cleaning process and should be used in every cleaning cycle; acting as a rinse agent to neutralise the chemical detergent.

Safety notes before beginning an oven clean:

  1. Always wear gloves when handling cleaning chemicals
  2. Allow the oven cabinet to cool before attempting to begin a cleaning cycle
  3. Never open the oven door during the cleaning cycle
  4. Only use genuine Rational branded tablets as others may damage the oven and void the manufacturer’s warranty

Running the Rational CleanJet®+care Cleaning Cycle

Step One: Remove all grids, containers and food debris from the oven. Once your oven has cooled, remove any grids or containers that may still be present. Also ensure to remove food debris that may have collected in the bottom of the oven cabinet, particularly around the outlet drain.

Cleaning a Rational SCC oven - remove grids & containers

Step Two: Select a cleaning cycle. Tap the CleanJet®+care button on the SelfCookingCentre® touchscreen panel. This will bring you to the Efficient CareControl screen. Here you will see a cleanliness metre that will indicate how dirty the oven is based on usage since the last clean. Your SelfCookingCentre® will also suggest recommended cleaning programs based on the cleanliness metre by putting a Rational symbol on the relevant buttons. Tap to select a cleaning cycle.

The CareControl screen will then display the number of packets of detergent and Care Tablets to use for the cleaning cycle selected. It will also show a reminder of where the tablets should be placed.

EfficientCare control screen on a Rational SCC oven

Step Three: Add the Rational detergent and Care Tablets to the oven. In order to access the detergent basket, open the left-hand side rack which is situated in front of the fan baffle. This is easily moved by lifting and twisting the rack.

While wearing gloves, remove the protective foil packaging from the detergent tablets and place them into the basket in the fan baffle. Ensure to replace the left-hand side rack, locking it into its original position as this is integral to the cleaning cycle.

Next, open the foil packet of Care Tablets and tip them into the blue drawer on the front of the unit and then close the drawer.

Note: The Rational SCC’s screen will display the number of packets of tablets to use for the selected cleaning cycle, not the number of individual tablets. If x1 Care Tablets is displayed, this means one whole packet, not one individual tablet.

Detergent tablet locations on Rational SCC oven

Step Four: Begin the cleaning cycle. To start the CleanJet®+care cycle, simply close the oven door and the unit will automatically begin cleaning. Once the cleaning cycle has completed, your SelfCookingCentre® will go into standby mode.

Step Five: Check for detergent residue. Wake your oven by tapping on the control panel or opening the oven door. The oven cabinet will illuminate, allowing you to check for any detergent residue that may have been left over after the cleaning cycle. In this case, while wearing gloves, simply wipe with a clean cloth to remove the residue and then rinse using the hand shower.

You now have a clean, dry oven – ready to cook.

Parts Town UK are a Rational Approved Partner for all genuine OEM parts, accessories and consumables. We offer the highest in-stock availability in the UK with same day delivery available for thousands of items.

How-To Clean a Rational SelfCookingCentre® Video Guide

Parts Town UK's training division's Technical Manager, Martin Dagnall walks you through the whole SelfCookingCentre® cleaning process in the video below, with added technical insights. Our training division also offer technical training courses for service engineers working with Rational equipment.

A full transcript of the video is below.

Martin Dagnall: “Hi, welcome to Parts Town UK. My name's Martin Dagnall. I'm the technical trainer here in our training division and today we're going to talk to you a little bit about your Rational SelfCookingCentre®.

“And what we're going to concentrate on is your cleaning cycle for your Rational. Obviously from Parts Town UK here, we supply you with all your cleaning chemicals required for the Rational units. And today we're going to concentrate on what those cleaning chemicals are.

“So, on your SelfCookingCentre® here, I want to give you a little bit of an overview of what the cleaning system does.

“Now there are two different types of tablets that you'll find you need for the SelfCookingCentre®. There's a detergent tablet that goes inside the oven and I'm going to show you where in a moment and also, there's what we call a Care Tablet which actually goes in a little blue drawer on the front of the unit here.

“Now the Care Tablets are designed to incorporate with the cleaning process on the Rational, actually as a maintenance process for the steam generator that's used to create the steam for the oven.

“So, in areas where we have hard water, we can build up limescale in that steam generator and that can lead to quite hefty maintenance visits required.

“But with the Rational SelfCookingCentre®, the Care Tablets actually maintain that steam generator for you every time you wash the unit.

“So, when you actually put your unit onto a wash, and I'm going to show you how to do that in a moment, the first thing the unit will ask you to do is remove any grids and containers from inside the oven.

“So, you'll take out your trays or any other containers that you have inside the oven.

“Also remove any food debris that may be in the bottom of the oven especially around the outlet drain there. So, if there's old potatoes, carrots bits like that, move food debris out.

“You'll also find that to insert the tablets into the oven you actually need to open up this side rack.

“These side racks need to stay in the oven during the cleaning process. They're an integral part to the cleaning.

“But to open this side rack, you just need to lift it and you can twist it out. I'll show you how to do that.

“And with the side rack open we can then see in the front of the fan baffle there's a little basket here and that's where we're going to put the detergent tablets in a little while.

“But also, just to give you an overview of what the unit does, during the cleaning process it sprays water into the oven, and it comes from a nozzle in the top of the oven here. And that water drops down and it's supposed to hit on this left-hand side rack. So, it's important this rack is in position.

“That allows the water to break up and it gets sucked into the circulation fan through the centre of the fan baffle and then it gets dispersed all around the interior cabinet of the oven.

“Ok, so when we talk about the tablets that you'll need, there are two types. There is the detergent tablet – now these are in a little red and silver packet and they come in a bucket of a hundred tablets when you purchase them.

“And you'll also need the Care Tablets, these little blue packets. The blue packets of Care Tablets come in a bucket of a hundred and fifty packets.

“But what you'll actually find in the blue packets is there's actually four tablets and you'll see that later on when I empty the packet into the drawer.

“But when the unit asks for 1x or 2x it's asking for packets of, not single tablets.

“So, you'll see when I actually load the tablets into the drawer later, I'll tip the whole packet in.

“Now our detergent tablets, in the red and silver packet, you take that out of the packet, and it goes into our little basket in the fan baffle here.

“Our Care Tablets the blue ones here again, open the packet and you tip them into the little blue drawer on the front.

“Very important to remember that even though these Care Tablets are there to maintain the steam generator with regards to hard water and limescale, they also have a major process to play during the cleaning of the oven.

“So, your unit will always ask you for at least one packet of Care Tablets for every clean where it's using detergent because these tablets are also used as a rinse tablet and they neutralise the chemical detergent from the cleaning process.

“Ok, so you've finished your day's cooking with your oven. Now you want to clean and maintain your unit. So, at the end of the day the idea is that you go to this symbol here which is the CleanJet®+care symbol and it takes you to this EfficientCare control page.

“And what you'll actually find is during the cooking processes that you've used throughout the day this cleanliness display at the bottom here will actually go from clean to dirty.

“And depending on how far and how much the oven's been used, the oven will actually recommend to you the cleaning cycle that it wants you to put it on. And it will do that by putting a little Rational symbol on the cleaning mode that's recommended here.

“Now, when you select a cleaning mode for example, let's select a light clean what you'll actually find is the unit again prompts you to remove any grids and containers from the oven.

“It also tells you how many packets of tablets to put in and it also just prompts you again to show you that the red tablets go inside the oven and the blue tablets go in the drawer and you're going to see me do that in a moment.

“Ok, so you've seen me place the tablets into the oven, the detergent tablets in the fan baffle and the Care Tablets in the blue drawer here.

“I've closed the side rack here. Very important that that's closed and locked back into position.

“And then all I need to do to start the cleaning program is close the oven door.

“Ok, so we left our oven cleaning. The idea is that when you put the oven on to a clean at the end of the day you can actually walk away and leave the oven then. You can go home if you like because the unit, when it's finished cleaning will automatically go into standby mode.

“So, we've come back to the unit now and it's finished its cleaning and it's gone into standby mode.

“As soon as I operate the unit, open the door or touch the screen it will tell me that the cleaning was complete, and I can just press the back arrow.

“Takes me back to the home screen, I've got a clean, dry oven ready to cook.”