Sticky aluminum half sheet pans - Self cleaning oven - What would happen?

I'd be mighty cautious about putting aluminum pans in your oven's self-cleaning cycle. It's melting point is 660 degrees C, and although your oven isn't going to reach that it will probably get to the point where they will warp.

I accidentally left a aluminum sheet pan in the oven during the cleaning cycle. It certainly cleaned it up nice and new looking, however, it altered the molecular strength of the aluminum. It made it softer and easy to bend. I decided to throw it away because I was not sure that it was safe anymore to cook food on it.

I have put aluminum baking sheets as well as a toaster oven pans in the oven set to self clean and haven't seen warping or discolorations. All the "gunk" stuck on a pan is made of polymerized oils left over from cooking sprays and food. The oven is burning off all the organic matter and all that is left is a grey dust that is made of minerals like calcium.

The oven door locks during self cleaning to help prevent excess oxygen from entering the oven and risking spontaneous ignition of the organic materials (as well as safety). As long as the door remains shut there shouldn't be any oxidant that can enter and discolor the pan.

I do worry about warping because of the thermal stress that the high temperatures can cause. These pans are designed to be heated and cooled hundreds if not thousands of times in their life-cycle, so running them through a self cleaning oven may shorten the time the pan has before it warps or fails.
Despite this theory, my rule of thumb is to only self clean pans that I would not miss if they became ruined in case I am wrong. Lastly, I would never self clean a pan that has any kind of protective or non-stick coating.

I put my aluminum half sheet pans in my self cleaning oven and they come out shining. I'm considering putting the toaster oven tray to self clean but it's a much lighter aluminum so I'm not sure if that will warp.

We did this last night with an aluminum sheet pan that was completely covered front and back with burned on black gunk. It came out perfect. Of course, it was this or throw away, but it certainly does not need to be thrown away.

We’ve put the grids from our cooktop and grill and some other stuff that was extremely messed up in a cleaning cycle and everything has come out fine. We’re a bit hesitant to put our stained stainless steel chicken fryer through a cycle, though.

I left an aluminum sheet pan in the oven during the cleaning process and it turned brown. Pretty ugly. Now I just leave it in the oven on the bottom rack to catch drips.

Aluminum has a much lower melting temperature than steel or iron. I'd be very worried about exposing it to the high temperatures of a self cleaning cycle.

As a kid, I melted a pie iron in a campfire. As the name implies, most pie irons were made of cast iron - but I had a model that was cast aluminum instead. I've been very wary of exposing aluminum to high temperatures ever since.