You cannot avoid having spills on your stovetop when you cook. The best you can do is use a wide ware to limit the food spills when cooking. No one likes the sight of a dirty setting.
Your kitchen is the last place you want to look untidy. That is where your food comes from, so you prefer everything to be tidy.
Having a clean stove top usually means frequent cleaning. But cleaning too hard or too much makes the surface wear out. Heavy-duty cleaning agents can also damage the surface of the stovetop.
The oven cleaner works wonders in cleaning most kitchenware. But does it work on enamel too?
You can use oven cleaner on your enamel stove top. It is a multipurpose item you can use to get even the stubborn stains off your stovetop. Oven cleaner gets stains off the stove top like baking soda mixture. Using oven cleaner can help you achieve a clean stove top.
Is Oven Cleaner Good for Enamel?
Many people indeed use oven cleaners beyond their ovens. They are good cleaning agents, so they work well for grease and stubborn stains.
When using the oven cleaner, apply it over the food stain and let it sit for a while. After that, you do not have to do much except wipe the food stain off like it was never there.
That makes oven cleaners the first line of action for cleaning most kitchenware. Why bother with other cleaners when you know a proven agent?
Well, that holds for a lot of reasons. That oven cleaner will most definitely wipe the stain off your kitchenware. But how does the surface react to it?
You need to consider the material you are cleaning first. Enamel is not as tough as most surfaces.
So, choose your cleaning agents with extra care. A cleaner that works for a ceramic stove top may not go for it. Or even what works for a glass stove top.ong>
Since an oven cleaner is harsh on stains, it will also be harsh on your stovetop. If the stovetop is fragile, the oven cleaner will deal it with some damage.
The grease in the oven mainly does not come off without a fight. So, it would not help if an oven cleaner is somewhat mild. But not all oven cleaners on the market are as harsh as the rest.
The oven cleaner will most likely get any stain off the enamel but use it carefully. Go for a slightly mild oven cleaner for your stovetop.
Avoid the heavy-duty options you find on the market. Easy-Off Fume Free Oven cleaner is a product that can clean black stovetops. It is mild on enamel. So it won’t deal any damage.
Oven Cleaner Versus Other Cleaning Options for Enamel
Mostly, people will prefer to go for popular options to get a clean stove top. They prefer baking soda mixture, warm soapy water, Magic Eraser, or other home remedies.
Those options are mild on enamel. So you do not need to worry about damage or the stress of what oven cleaner to use. In terms of damage to the surface, an oven cleaner is not the first-choice option for enamel.
Oven cleaner beats most other options based on how well it cleans. It is well-suited to any stubborn stain on your stovetop.
That is even more true for build-ups that give you a black stove top. Build-ups have layers and layers of dirt piled up over time.
Other subtle cleaners may only break the surface but leave a coat on the stovetop. The oven cleaner, however, breaks build-ups down to the base. It disintegrates build-ups, so to say.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, the oven cleaner does not rank at the top. It costs a little more compared to home remedies. You can get those from the comfort of your home.
Well, that is if you have all the ingredients you need at hand. When you consider how much vinegar and baking soda you need for a mixture, it costs less.
Oven cleaners can be non-toxic like the Easy-Off product. It is actually fume free.
That tallies with remedies like baking soda plus vinegar. They are safe for your stovetop and the environment as well.
So, in essence, the oven cleaner beats other options only for the kind of stains it cleans. It rids your stovetop of food stains that most preferred cleaners leave behind.
Does Oven Cleaner Work for a Baked Enamel Stove Top?
Cooks usually face a million-dollar question. That is, how to clean baked-on stains off an enamel stove top without damaging it. Scraping is not an option.
You would leave scratch marks on the surface even if you are careful. Even the credit card hack does not go well on enamel. That shows just how fragile it is.
Regular cleaning of the stove top is usually a headache. But cleaning baked-on stains is something else.
You have no control over the food that spills onto the stove top when you cook. As if the spill is not enough, the heat hardens it to the stove.
That makes it even harder to get rid of the food spill. The good news is that oven cleaner also works well for stuck-on food. Many people use it to clean pans, pots, and Pyrex with layers of dirt.
The same goes for burned-on food residue on stovetop surfaces.
For stuck-on food, spray the cleaner and allow it to sit for 15 to 20 minutes. If the stains are hard to come off after, you should let the cleaner sit longer.
In such a case, it is best to leave the oven cleaner on the stovetop overnight. That gives it more time to soften the hardened food and makes it easy to wipe off.
How to Use Oven Cleaner on Enamel Stove Top?
Using oven cleaner for your stove top does not differ much from other cleaning agents. Apart from a few steps, the main difference is your choice of the cleaning agent.
Follow the steps below to use oven cleaner to clean black stovetops.
#1. Step One
Ensure the stovetop is cool, then remove all the burners and rings. This step is more or less a rule of thumb. It also takes obstructions out of the way, so you have enough room to work.
BONUS: You can also use oven cleaner to clean stove burners.
#2. Step Two
Use a clean cloth to wipe off loose particles on the stovetop. You do not want anything standing between the oven cleaner and the surface of the stovetop.
#3. Step Three
Spray oven cleaner on the stovetop and allow it to sit for some minutes. That gives it time to weaken the stains. You may have to leave the oven cleaner longer if you are dealing with grease build-up.
#4. Step Four
Rub the stove top clean with a soft sponge. Then wash everything off with some warm soapy water. After that, you can dry up the stovetop, and that’s a wrap!
Conclusion
You can use oven cleaner on your enamel stove top. It even works better than other options. But you have to be careful about the oven cleaner you use. It can damage the stovetop surface.
So, it is not the first-choice cleaning agent. But a mild oven cleaner is a good bet for the toughest stains on enamel any day!
