As the old saying goes, while there are always more ways than one to skin a cat, we’ve taken away the guesswork and outlined our best strategies below.
You will need:
How to do it:
Step 1: Start by waiting. It might sound like a no brainer that the first thing you need to do before you start cleaning is wait, but yes, you do need to wait for your burners to completely cool off before you start. Only once they are cool can you proceed to remove your burners and set them aside. This is essential for stove cleanup sans unnecessary pain and gruesome burns. Of course, if you aren’t doing this after cooking then you can skip this step.
Step 2: Brush off all loose crumbs or residue that isn’t stuck. You can use a dry cloth or paper towel to do this.
Step 3: Take a good dishwashing soap and combine it with lukewarm water. Use a scrub brush to gently scrape off stains. Make sure you’re careful not to get any electrical components of your stove wet. It’s wise to have your stove’s manual on hand for easy reference, because you could easily damage your electrical stove if you were to wet those areas.
Step 4: You will probably notice that gentle scraping with dish soap doesn't help much with stubborn stains, only in helping to remove recent stains. If that’s the case, you’ll need to make a mixture of baking soda and water and let it rest on the stains for 10-20 minutes. The time interval will depend on how stubborn the stain is. You can always test a certain area after a few minutes to see how much more time it will need. Typically oil stains that are weeks old often take the longest to lift.
Step 5: Once you have managed to remove all the stains from your stove burners, all you need to do now is wipe them down. Use a clean cloth to wipe off all that soap and baking soda away and viola! Clean stove burners that look as good as new.
Step 6: If you have a gas stove, the process of cleaning gas stove burners doesn’t deviate that much. You’ll use the same supplies and start by wiping your burners clean with a damp cloth and scrubbing the stove top burner coils in case they have bits and pieces of food on them. Clear out the debris under the burner heads and use a toothbrush for hard to reach areas.
Step 7: Make sure the burner is completely dry before you fit it back in. Try to follow the instructions in the manual as you reassemble the burners back to their original positions.
Step 8: Light the pilots to fully dry them. This works double duty by allowing you to test the stove and make sure no parts were damaged during the cleanup. Electrical lights are often the most susceptible to damage while cleaning, which is why you have to be so careful when cleaning an electric stove.
Our 8-step cleanup encompasses the essentials rules to cleaning your stove top burners successfully. We highly recommend keeping your manufacturer’s manual on hand while cleaning just as a reference, because you wouldn’t want to do anything to accidentally damage your stove.