Question:
Hi i read through your material but was still unsure of some points.
1) When using a self clean oven to kasher- after leaving it for 24 hours, you run the self clean cycle for about an hour as far as I understood. Does this process also work to kasher the oven racks? Or do those still need to be covered or replaced?
2) When Kashering a sink with hagaala, does the kettle itself from where we pour the rolling boiling water need to be also pesach-dige? Or can we use a clean water boiler that is used during the year?
Incidentally, I found that by holding down the on button on certain kettles, the heating element stays on the entire time ensuring that the water is boiling even when you are pouring.
Answer:
- The self clean cycle will also kasher the racks, and they do not have to be replaced, as all the chometz inside of them is burnt out.
- Halachically you may kasher the sink even with a chometz pot. However the minhag is to use a pesach one if possible, since there are strict opinions not to kasher with a chometz kettle. If the pot that is being used isn’t really chometz, such as most electric kettles, which usually aren’t used to cook chometz in them, then it is fine to kasher with it even though it isn’t a pesach one.
We should be careful to do the kashering before the fifth hour of erev pesach, otherwise it surely has to be pesach, and there are other conditions, which will make things complicated.
Sources:
M:B 452- 13, Emek Hateshuva 6-122, Ohel Yackov siman 452 pg. 83. Poskim
