Kitchen cleaning query. Please help!

[lupo pazzesco]

Ok, so we’re cleaning house right now and the stove…well, the poor range has been poorly neglected. I know, I know, SIN!! Especially for someone like me who loves to cook. It’s a white gas range, ceramic, I think. Any ideas how to get stains out and make it white again? Right now we’re using Arm and Hammer Naturals cleanser, because I tend to have a bad skin reaction to most other products, like 409.

We have some Bar Keep’s Friend cleanser (not the powder stuff) and I’m oddly ok using that on things like my stainless cookware, but dunno how it’d react on the stove. And I know not to use a steel wool scrubber, but now I’m stumped. I want the ooky stains off, and I swear here and now if we manage to get it white again it’s getting daily wipedowns, which we SHOULD have done…but didn’t.

Advice, please? As Kanalah said in chat, "clean stoves are serious bzns"

Thanks so much in advance!

[ArcticChicken]

Take Citra solv, put in a spray bottle, spray on grease, let it sit for a while. Scrub. Repeat as necessary. You might want to take a paint scraper to the more stubborn stains.

You ought to be able to take the top off the stove so you can wash it in the sink, provided your sink is large enough. Just FYI, on most gas ranges it is possible to take the burners out and clean them separately.

[flybye023]

Is this dirt and grease you're trying to remove or is it just the stains left over?

If it's just stains, try putting undiluted bleach on it (very carefully of course). We had an enameled stove like you're describing and what happens is you get very fine cracks in the finish. You can't scrub it out but soaking in bleach will removed the stains.

[csquared]

Is the stain on the surface or in the ceramic? Run your finger across it. Can you feel a texture? If so, soak it in you cleaner. Soak a rag with your cleaner. Lay it on the stain. Place a pot on top of it. Let it set for a couple of hours.

If the stain is in the ceramic, you will probably have to bleach it out.

If you want a really good cleaner, Purple Dragon. This stuff is NOT nice. Wear gloves. Use in a well ventilated place. It is what I use to clean auto parts.

[lupo pazzesco]

it's baked on, caked on stains from previous uses, and there are scratches in the surface, from previous tenants/apartments. Like I said, not shiny new fantastic, just a serviceable, working stove provided by the apartment complex. With a lot of baked on crap that makes it look dingy and brown and icky.

[Solumina]

You could try just plain old white vinegar (don't worry the smell goes away when it dries), just pour it on, let it sit for a few minutes and then scrub away. If they are really super stuborn then try mixing together baking soda and salt (three parts baking soda to one part salt) with just enough water to form a paste, you can let it sit for a while to loosen up the crud and then scrub away, it is really harsh on dirt and grime but not on sensitive skin so this one has really helped me out over the years.

[Luna Baby]

Anything that you can actually feel, as recommended by the manufacturer of my range, is to use a razor blade to gently scrap the stuff off. I keep a few in my silverware drawer and use them all the time. My range is the solid surface type, only it's black instead of white. Somehow, I think the black shows more crap on it than the white ones do. After I "scrape" the surface (be careful of the silicon seal around the edge) I usually wipe it down really good with a wet/soapy dishclothe. If it still has "stuff" on it, I use the Easy Off brand product made specifically for cleaning these type of range tops. After it's all said and done, I use a little windex and clean paper towels to give it a nice shiny gleen.

[Seshat]

Depending on the nature of the cooktop, you might be able to boil water on the stain. If you can (without risking water getting into gas outlets or short circuiting electric coils), do so.

If you can get steam into the stain, do so. Maybe you have a clothes steamer?

Nothing loosens a cooking stain like boiling water or steam. I boil water in pots which have had stuff burned in them, and then I can just scrape the burned stuff out - it's all soft and responds well to a spatula.
Steam is the next-best.


Failing those; make a sloppy paste with water and bicarbonate of soda. Put it on the stained areas, and wait until the water from the paste has had a chance to loosen the stain. Wipe it up, then use Solumina's thick-paste of carb soda and salt to scrub off what's been loosened and hasn't immediately come off.

Depending on how thick the layer of crud is, you may need to repeat the process. But if you're getting some off every time, you're making progress.

Another substance that can help is meat tenderiser - it breaks down the proteins in the crud. A paste of meat tenderiser and water; or sprinkle meat tenderiser on the stain before you steam it.

Vinegar is acid, and will convert aspects of the crud that are alkaline in nature to water & salt. (Well, *A* salt - not sodium chloride. But to a substance which is soluble in water.)
Bicarbonate of soda is alkali, and will convert aspects of the crud which are acid to water & a salt.
You may find it worthwhile to use one, then when you're finding the remaining crud resistant to that one, to use the other.


You'll notice that most of my advice so far involves dissolving crud in water. There will be a remnant which will not dissolve in water without assistance. At this point, get a soap or a detergent. Both are what's called 'surfactants'; and will get sticky oily fatty stuff to 'dissolve' in water. Well, kind of 'dissolve'.
Smear soap or detergent all over whatever's left. Damp soap or liquidish detergent is best, so it can soften the surface and get through to the depths of the stain.
Give it time for the chemical reactions to work - for the soap or detergent molecules to attach to the oily and fatty molecules.
Now use a damp cloth to pick up the now-'soluble' oil-plus-surfactant crud.
Again, if it's thick, you may need to do this more than once.

If you have 'hard water scale', boil vinegar and water, then apply the very hot vinegar-and-water mix to the scale. Or again, cover the surface in vinegar and use a clothes steamer to heat the vinegar. I don't know the particular chemical reaction, but vinegar molecules like metals; once the vinegar is hot enough.


Once you've removed the water soluble stuff, the fats and oils, and used vinegar or carb soda on reluctant alkali and acids, run your fingertips and fingernails across the surface. If it feels smooth (or smooth with some surface cracking), then as others have said, whatever marks are left are in the pores of the ceramic.

The ideal solution would be to somehow lift the staining substance out of the pores, but I'm out of ideas for that. I'll just point to flybye and say 'bleach may well whiten it'.
Actually, if you want a whitener that's highly unlikely to poison anyone: lemon juice. Let it soak in, and if possible, provide a lot of sunlight.

[Food Lady]

Luckily I haven't had to deal with a severe case of this, but I have absolutely ruined pans (burnt black) and brought them back. I dissolved some dishwasher powder in hot water and soaked pans in it. The crud just wipes out. Cascade is the absolute best. Also, I think laundry detergent should get off any crud, but for a stain, maybe a paste of oxygen cleaner?

[blas]

Distilled white vinegar with steaming hot water cleans and disinfects just about anything.

When I feel I need an even heavier clean, I use Pine Sol. On like, everything. And Clorox Wipes.

For some reason, taking three or four Clorox Wipes and wiping them across the floor cleans it better than sweeping and mopping.

[SongsOfDragons]

It's really an unhelpful suggestion, but we had our oven (single, leccy only, fan, stainless steel) cleaned recently by a local family business. It's never been cleaned since the building was built - so about 7 years - so we 'inherited' it filthy, and nothing we could do, not that we can use nasty oven chemicals because housemate is asthmatic and neither of us know what to do.

8D Holy moly it was FANTASTIC. We're thinking the estate agent is going to look at the oven and wonder where we hid the old one!! Half a centimetre of crap and soot gone from all six sides; you can see through the window for the first time!! ^^ What did he do? Well all I could figure was that he used some white rubbing compound (it came in a blue pot, I'm thinking it might be baking soda-based too) and a scraper. Lots and lots of scraping. Lots of elbow grease methinks. The things he could remove (grill pan, the fan, the shelves) he took to the back of his van and sunk them into caustic soda, so I don't recommend trying THAT XD.

[taxguykarl]

For stove top spills, I often use oven cleaner. Just give it an hour or so to break down the crap.

[Kogarashi]

I'm personally a big fan of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. Hubby managed to spill melted solder (or whatever it was that held the copper bottom on our copper bottom pot) on our cooktop, counter, and floor in our last apartment. The stovetop was scorched black where the stuff hit, and wouldn't wipe off. MIL took a Magic Eraser to it and there was maybe a tiny speck of black left when she was done. It was quite impressive.

Beyond that, I'm no help.

[Seshat]

The things he could remove (grill pan, the fan, the shelves) he took to the back of his van and sunk them into caustic soda, so I don't recommend trying THAT XD.

If you're absolutely confident you can handle caustic soda safely, I'd say go ahead. But it's one of the strongest chemicals I would /ever/ recommend for the layman (ie, someone not a specialist in whatever field) to use. You can get it as a drain cleaner. WEAR SAFETY GOGGLES AND GLOVES. Invest in a pair of eye baths (you can get them from a pharmacy). Read the safety instructions ten times over, and work with a partner who also knows them.

Y'know. ABSOLUTELY confident. Caustic soda is a strong alkali, and can burn the skin - and muscle - right off your arm.

If you can figure out a way to steam whatever-it-is you want to clean instead, or to boil it, do that. Not that steam - or boiling water - isn't itself dangerous. But almost all adults have figured out how to safely handle those.

[Seraph]

Y'know. ABSOLUTELY confident. Caustic soda is a strong alkali, and can burn the skin - and muscle - right off your arm.

yeaaah, the second I saw "caustic soda", my skin started crawling. Its some scary stuff!