Miele [F23] fault codewhat it means and how to fix it

There is a paradox built into pyrolytic cleaning that F23 exposes. The cycle burns residue to ash at temperatures well over 400°C, so people quite reasonably save it for an oven that badly needs it — and an oven that badly needs it is the one most likely to fail the cycle. Miele’s published cause is that the pyrolytic cleaning temperature has not been reached, and that this may be caused by significant amounts of residual soiling in the oven compartment.

Their remedy is to switch off the oven, remove any coarse soiling from the compartment, and start pyrolytic cleaning again, escalating to customer service only if it persists. The mechanism is worth picturing. Heavy deposits burn off as thick smoke, and the volume of that combustion can hold the cavity below the temperature the cycle needs to sustain. The instruction is not to clean the oven before cleaning the oven — it is to lift out the loose and heavy material, the spills and pooled fat and lumps of carbon, so that what remains is the baked-on film the cycle is designed for.

1. 1

   Switch the oven off and let it cool completely before opening it up to work in.

2. 2

   Remove the coarse soiling — pooled fat, spilled food, loose carbon. You are not trying to clean the oven, only to take out the material the cycle cannot cope with.

3. 3

   Check what Miele say about your runners before you start. On their ovens the FlexiClip HFC 72 runners are documented as safe to leave in, which is not true of every manufacturer’s rails.

4. 4

   Start pyrolytic cleaning again and ventilate the kitchen well. Miele warn that steam released during the cycle can irritate mucous membranes, so open a window and keep the room clear.

   Keep children and pets out of the kitchen and do not linger in it yourself — Miele’s own instruction. Ventilation during a pyrolytic cycle is a genuine precaution rather than a comfort measure.