Is oven door glue all you sell? We are often asked…

Well really, “Yes”, is the answer. But we do sell worldwide, and there are a lot of ovens in the world!

Read on… to understand how the Oven door glue kit came about, and why you can be confident that it is exactly what you need and from a small family company that you can trust to help you get the job done so that it lasts…

You have probably found our website following what appeared to you to be a strange occurrence – the glass falling off your oven door, or perhaps it is just the seal coming away from the oven. Most people do not realise that their oven is “glued together”! That is until the glue fails.

Knowing that just any glue will not work – it’ll need to withstand high temperatures and be safe to use for a start, and perhaps having already tried the local shops with no success, a search of the internet is commenced, in the vain hope that something may be found – when to your surprise, you stumble across a site called “Oven Door Glue”!

Well around 2007 we were in exactly the situation that perhaps you are in now…  but when we turned to the internet there was no website for “Oven Door Glue”. The glass of our oven had pulled away from the door. We could see, to our surprise, that the glass had originally been glued. We found many people on forums with a similar problem.

Times were hard and we really did not want to be spending out a whole lot of money on a new door, or even perhaps a new oven. We realised that logically if the door had originally been glued, provided we could find the right glue, took care in cleaning,  there should be no reason why we would not be able to repair it. So, we took a trip around B&Q, Homebase etc, but could find no glue that would withstand the temperatures. We continued our search online, to see what we could find.

Several types of glue appeared to be potentially suitable – some even mentioned oven glass. We made a purchase, and duly stuck the door glass back on – there were no specific instructions with the glue. These companies were selling a tube of glue that might be used for many purposes alongside hundreds of other products that they sold; they were not in the business of helping people with a problem mend their oven doors, they were just retailers. There were few if any instructions.

Unfortunately, the repair did not last, so it was back to the internet to search again.

Through wider research, we found tubes of glue remarkably like those that we had tried and like those below offered on the wholesale Chinese website, Alibaba. It transpired that the products we had been trying were primarily sealants, rather than glues, and so the bonding strength was not the primary feature and not really up to the task of holding the weight of a glass panel. They were all made in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), and often seemed to look similar in appearance with some slight changes to branding – as the companies on Alibaba offered.

Fortunately, a family member is an Industrial Chemist. He was able to guide us to a company in the UK that made a glue that he thought would be suited to the task, the problem was that it was only sold in large quantities. It was also expensive as adhesives go. But we reasoned that if it was up to the task there was an opportunity to make what we now call our “Oven door glue kit” – a kit with the right glue for the job, as well as the basic tools needed to properly clean the surfaces, prior to gluing, and instructions to carry out the repair to the oven door. From the internet forums where people were asking about similar problems, we knew there must be a demand for such a product. Furthermore, we knew that if we provided a kit with the right amount of glue – rather than a large tube where most of it will simply be wasted, we could keep the kit at a competitive price.

We managed to get a sample of the glue, tested it over an extended period, and yes – it worked brilliantly. It had excellent adhesion properties, could easily withstand the heat, gave off no fumes or odours once cured and required no special tools to cure (no mixing or UV light). One downside was that the adhesive had a short shelf life within which it should be used, however as a small company we could manage that, and ensure all glue left us fresh. We do recommend that it is used within 90 days of purchase, but for most customers, the need is immediate so this is not a problem.

Whilst having gained a little knowledge of the problem from our own experience, we set out to research further and found that many makes of oven potentially would need the kit. We contacted our local authority waste collections department, who put us in touch with the department responsible for collecting old large appliances. We could gain access to many of the old ovens that had been collected by the appliance collection service to research how the oven doors were assembled and fitted to the ovens, and also could be removed and disassembled. Our intention was not to simply be a seller of the right glue –but to help customers with their repair as far as possible. So we needed to understand how the different models of oven door were assembled, in order to be able to advise our customers. We now have a collection of several hundred used oven doors. Whilst not really advertising the parts, we are often able to help customers with a replacement part for their door (glass, brackets, handles, plastic parts) that might otherwise be obsolete or very expensive to purchase new.

To sell the oven door glue kit we set up the “Oven Door Glue” website. As well as the detailed instructions that come with the kit, we try to help customers through the “live chat” facility on the website and with a freephone helpline.

We now send the Oven Door Glue kit worldwide, selling through both the ovendoorglue.co.uk website as well as the ovendoorglue.com website. Over the years since we launched the oven door glue kit in late 2008, we have helped many tens of thousands of customers repair their ovens…

Sometimes a customer will ask us if the glue can be used for a different task if we have no experience of that specific task we will say so, but some customers choose to try it anyway. It was through a customer using some leftover adhesive to repair an oven seal that we found the glue was excellent at repairing them, holding oven seals in position where they come unstuck, or, in some cases, just keep pulling away. Customers have also used it to repair glass lenses on the lights within the oven or to hold heating element brackets in the oven, where the screw hole has become rusted and can no longer take the screw. We have also had customers use the glue for non-oven related uses – a lighting company has used it in the manufacture of high-quality bespoke lamps, and several customers have used it to glue the glass lenses onto halogen lamps and disco lights.

With the original knowledge gained through personal experience, the research we carried out, as well as that picked up over the years of helping customers, we will do our best to help and guide you. Every other seller of a glue that they claim to be appropriate for glueing your glass will almost certainly just be offering a product as one of very many. The glue they offer will be an off the shelf product that perhaps has been relabelled for them, probably made in China, simply to add to their wide product range. Instructions, if any are supplied will in all likelihood be as you normally get on a tube of glue “ensure surfaces are clean and dry”. There is unlikely to be a helpline to help you with your repair should you encounter a problem.

As a small business, dedicated to providing the best customer service, we provide a freephone helpline as well as online chat. With the marvels of communication in the current age, we will often be available 7 days a week until 10.00pm to answer customers questions, by email, through the website chat, or through our helpline, as well as take orders by phone (though they can be placed through the website cart 24 hours a day). I say often simply because when away from the office or home, it is simply not possible to have access to the internet or a mobile phone signal on all occasions. But in those situations, we will aim to get back to you the same day if you leave a message.

If you need to repair your oven door or glue the oven seal back in place you can count on us to provide the right high-quality adhesive for the job, to provide detailed instructions to help you, and to be there to help you should you have any questions, because… to answer the original question… Yes, oven door glue is all we sell (well, apart from the used oven door parts)!

On the website, you will find thousands of reviews from our customers. We email customers approximately 6 – 8 months after selling the glue to request a review. We wait this period before asking a customer to comment on our product and service simply because of our early experience in finding many types of glue only lasted a few weeks. As well as a page dedicated to the most recent reviews left by those customers, reviews are also categorised by the make of oven. We are proud of the reviews that our customers have left, which we feel are a testament to our approach as a small business and the quality of the product we provide. If you want to be sure of the right product for the repair of your oven, receive detailed instructions, the reassurance of a helpline and online chat if you need it, and the knowledge that you are dealing with a dedicated small company, we believe our both our service and product are head and shoulders above anything else you can buy.