Stovetop cleaning

What It Means

Stovetop cleaning is removing spills, grease and burned-on food from the cooking surface of a range or cooktop. Appliance makers treat it as two jobs: a light clean after each use, and a deeper clean with a cooktop cleaner every two weeks or so. Glass and ceramic cooktops need the gentlest tools, because steel wool and abrasive cleaners can damage them.

How It Sounds at Home

• "Wipe the stove when you're done cooking, please."
• "The rice boiled over and now it's burned on."
• "Where's the scraper for the glass top?"

The Breakdown

How often, per appliance makers' care guides

A deeper clean for a glass top

1. Let the surface cool completely (Buhata's suggestion, for safety).
2. Shake the cleaning cream and put a few drops on the soiled area.
3. Work it over the soiled area the way the cream's label directs.
4. For stuck-on spots, hold a scraper made for ceramic glass at about 45 degrees and scrape gently.
5. Wipe off the cream and loosened soil as the label directs.

Make it last between cleanings. The makers' after-every-use wipe is what stops spills from baking on the next time the burner heats up. Gas grates and coil elements have their own steps, so follow your range's manual for those.

Good to Know

Your range's manual is the final word on which cleaners and tools are safe for your cooktop. The makers' guides checked here agree on avoiding steel wool and abrasive cleaners on glass, and on using a cleaner and scraper made for ceramic glass cooktops. Keep any cleaner in its own bottle and never mix products; as our chlorine bleachChlorine bleachHousehold bleach made with sodium hypochlorite that whitens, removes stains and disinfects, but can fade colors and damage some fibers. See more page explains, some combinations give off toxic gas.

Related Terms and Categories

• Oven cleaning

  Removing baked-on grease and food from inside an oven, by hand or with the oven's own cleaning cycle, which KitchenAid suggests once or twice a year for most homes.

• Degreasing

  Removing built-up cooking grease from cabinets, stovetops and range hoods, usually with dish soap and warm water or a cleaner labeled as a degreaser.

• Range hood filter

  The screen in a kitchen range hood that traps grease, and in ductless hoods a charcoal filter too. Grease filters get washed; charcoal filters get replaced.

• Melamine sponge

  A cleaning pad of melamine foam, sold as Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and similar, that works like a very fine abrasive when wet.

Chores, cleaning and home care