What works best to clean a stove top?

A no hold back look at my stove top. Yikes!

What works best to clean off a dirty stove top??? Lets put 5 methods to the test and see which one comes out on top.

When a stove lives in a homesteading house it takes a beating. 3 meals a day. Canning. Preserving. Cooking day in and day out. There is not always time to wipe it down immediately after use - Spills happen during the cooking process and then they get cooked onto the surface.

No matter how hard I try to keep up on everything it is simply impossible. If I am a rock star homeschool teacher that day I may have forgotten the laundry and left it in the washer …over night. opps. Or perhaps I trimmed goat hooves, cleaned out stalls and did all the extras for the animals, but I forgot that my own kids nails needed trimmed - oh and when was the last time they had a bath???

Was it yesterday?? OR…. Um???

Perhaps the house is sparkling but we didn’t even crack open a book today.

Another day we may spend the entire day in the garden… mom I’m hungry - oh ya - the kids need to eat… um grab some raspberries out of the patch for breakfast? Ya that’ll work - you’ll be fine.

Yep.

Life of the homesteading mama.

So here we are. Me my busy life. And my dirty stove top. I don't want to spend all day cleaning this thing… so I did what every busy mom does. Headed to Pinterest for some fast cleaning tips. It did not disappoint… there were tons! But which one to use???

I decided to try 5 different methods. I have 4 burners so why not. I want to streamline this process for next time. I know my usual method will work - baking soda and vinegar, but is there something better???

So armed with the methods and a whole bunch of things to try I got to work.

Method 1 Coconut oil, baking soda and citrus essential oil

So method 1 is one part coconut oil and two parts baking soda and a couple drops of essential oil. I didn’t have orange - but I figured tangerine would work in its place. The hope of this method was to cut grease with grease.

Method 2 WD-40

WD-40 is a supposed to be a degreaser - I didn’t have a long to use but I figured I’d use what I had anyway.

Method 3 Baking soda and lemon juice

Method three and four I decided were very similar. I’ve used baking soda and vinegar for years to clean my stove top. It works well enough - but will lemon juice work better??? Basically you are using an acid to react with the baking soda which is abrasive in order to achieve the cleaning action.

Method 5 Magic Eraser

The final method is a simply a trust ol’ Magic Eraser. I decided to use this on the worst burner - the one I use all the time. You all have a favorite burner. You know you do. Its ok. It just means we are good at our job. wink. wink.

SO how did they do. THAT is the big question….

To test out WD-40 I didn’t want to use a brand new sponge so I used one that I was about to toss. The WD-40 did a great job at getting the grease off but it revealed something about my stove that I suppose I was relieved to learn. My stove was not all that greasy… most of the mess was baked on.

As for method 1 - coconut oil, baking soda and essential oil it smelled amazing! I used a paper towel to wipe the paste off… As you can see not much happened…. but again I think my main problem was not grease…. I did try scrubbing the area with a sponge as well, but that didn’t work either. I think if you had a grease problem it would work though.

I bet your wondering - how did the magic eraser do??? Not to bad. It definitely took off the surface gunk - but It didn’t hack it for the deeper layer.

Method 3 and 4- This is where its at!! Sponge, lemon juice and baking soda worked like a charm. There were are few tough spots but this method was by far the best.

Baking soda and vinegar

In the end the baking soda and vinegar still won out. I sprinkled the last tough areas with a generous coating of baking soda and carefully sprayed it with vinegar… I let it sit for about 10 mins and then used a sponge to scrub off the rest of the mess.

There were a few tough spots that absolutely would not budge and for that I had to resort to using a knife. UGH. IF you are going to do that be VERY VERY careful not to scratch the surface of the paint. That will lead to a whole host of issues you do not want to deal with. But I took my time and in the end the results were spectacular!!! Look at this beauty - already back to work.

A job well done

So in conclusion - If your problem is grease WD-40 and coconut oil will do the trick. If your main issue is baked on gunk you will definitely want to hit it with a good sponge, vinegar or lemon juice and baking soda.

Moral of the story - don’t let your stove get this bad. Take the time to wipe it down after each use so you don’t have to be like me and spend a whole Sunday cleaning the stove top.

Lesson learned.

But if you do find yourself cleaning your stove now you know how to decide what will work best.

Happy cleaning!