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- One pot of bubbling spaghetti sauce can lead to a really messy stove-top. But ignoring the splashed food for a week can make cleaning the stove-top harder. So, what are the best products to keep all of the different types of stove tops gleaming?
- ZEP Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser will tackle the worst spills on baked enamel stove-tops, gas or electric.
- We also tested the best products to leave your ceramic and stainless steel stove-tops looking spotless and make the grates and drip pans on gas and electric stoves shine.
Whether you can barely boil water or are a gourmet cook, stove-tops can get messy. Food gets dropped and then burned onto the surface, pots boil over, hot grease flies everywhere - just preparing one meal can leave quite a problem. Ignore the chore of cleaning up for a couple of days and you've got a real quagmire.
Needless to say, the quicker you clean up a spill or splatter on a stove-top, the easier it will be to remove. It's a good idea to wipe away food and grease from the stove-top after every cooking session. That can usually be done in just a few minutes with the right cleaning tools and product. Then, you can give the stove-top a more thorough cleaning once a week or so depending on how often you cook.
The best product for cleaning a stove-top depends on the surface material: baked paint or porcelain enamel, ceramic (often called a glass cooktop), or stainless steel. There are even some differences in how you should safely clean a gas stove-top and an electric coil stove-top with drip pans.
But for every stove-top, there are some basic steps for a thorough cleaning:
- Step 1: Always start with a completely cool surface and with everything turned off.
- Step 2: Remove as many components like knobs, electric coils, drip pans, gas grates, and burner caps as possible. For gas stove-tops, cover the gas fuel openings with plastic wrap or a coffee cup to prevent splashing any cleaning solution into the opening.
- Step 3: Place the loose components with heavy grease and burned-on food, in cleaning solutions to soak. Wipe down knobs and lightly soiled components so they are ready to reinstall.
- Step 4: Wipe down the entire surface with a damp cloth to remove crumbs and light soil. Tackle tough stains using the proper cleaning product and tools for the specific type of surface to prevent damage and to leave it streak-free.
- Step 5: Reassemble the stove-top and pledge to clean it after every use to make the job easier next time.
After a lifetime of cooking in test labs and at home, I've cleaned every type of stove-top. Because it certainly wasn't my favorite task, I tested dozens of cleaning products and care tips to find the best. Any type of cleaning that requires less elbow grease, appeals to me. I'm always looking for the most effective, easiest to use, and the best value in products for myself and others.
For the simplest cleaning, I swear by daily wipedowns and then a thorough cleaning after a big cooking session. I can promise you that burned-on food and grease will not disappear on its own!
Here are the best stove-top cleaners you can buy in 2019:
- Best baked enamel stove-top cleaner: ZEP Heavy Duty Citrus Degreaser
- Best ceramic stove-top cleaner: Weiman Cooktop Cleaner Max
- Best stainless steel stove-top cleaner: TriNova Stainless Steel Cleaner and Polish
- Best gas stove-top grates cleaner: Austin's Clear Ammonia Multipurpose Cleaner
- Best electric stove-top drip pans cleaner: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
Keep scrolling to read more about our top picks.
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