Stainless steel cooktop stain removal

A. For a home user, probably the best thing to remove some light heat discoloration from stainless would be one of those stainless scratch removal kits, like Scratch-B-Gone from that Barry fellow (BarrysRestoreItAll [a finishing.com supporting advertiser]), or similar kits you can find elsewhere online.

A. Hello, I have been a commercial janitor, hospital housekeeper, etc., for over 40 years. No one seems to know this very safe, effective way to clean difficult stains on stainless steel, including hard water marks on chrome fixtures and burnt-on or built-up grease and food.

I use stainless steel wool [affil links]

DO NOT USE REGULAR STEEL WOOL; the carbon in the steel will scratch your surface and probably ruin it. Stainless steel is a softer metal and will clean chrome and stainless steel without scratching (My husband studied metals in school). It is the same hardness as your stainless steel pots and pans, sinks, chrome bumpers, faucets, etc. so it can't scratch it. I have used this successfully for many years.

The only warning, don't apply too much pressure on the stainless steel pad. After all, it is a metal and possibly may dig in to the surface. You will need to experiment how hard to press.

Some grocery stores carry this product.

Another advantage, it is a lot cleaner because it doesn't rust. I have used it cautiously and successfully on glass baking pans and in ovens. I have never used this on SS appliances.

I hope this helps your readers. Hope

A. Hello, as the inventor and maker of Scratch-B-Gone, I feel particularly qualified to comment on your issue as we've seen it before. What you have here is heat and moisture damage to the Clear Coating manufacturers often put on this particular panel piece on the ranges. Often times the control panel will be coated while the stove deck may not.

Remedy: use a fine abrasive pad like that found in Scratch-B-Gone (gray pad) or a 3M burgundy Scotchbrite pad and some water. Keep in mind that any topical lettering, numbers and logos will be removed by this process if you work over these areas. Always work in grain direction, therefore Left-to-Right and back till coating is removed fully. Next, apply a clear lacquer from an aerosol can to protect. You can always reach out to us at Barrysrestoreitall.com for advice.

A. After trying at least 10 commercial cleaners of various types, my girlfriend's mother gave me the simple solution. Mama Dao said to use oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon]. I used oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon] and, after only 10-15 minutes, 99% of the spots came up with just the wipe of a damp sponge. The rest required a second application and some light scrubbing.

The oven cleaner worked like a charm! (Although it took about 2 hours of stand-time...)

This has been bothering me since we got this cooktop about 2 years ago and the brown spots started to accumulate. I had scrubbed and scrubbed and thought that the stainless steel had actually discolored from the heat!

Thanks for the great tip!

I followed the oven cleaner advice to clean our Dacor stainless cook top. It worked beautifully!

We installed a Dacor cooktop about 9 months ago and the brown stains have been driving me crazy too. I am glad to see that some of you found a solution that sounds like it works. I will have to try it. THANKS!

A. I've had a cleaning business for 9 years. The best you can do for the stainless is use the oven cleaner. Also to make it shine use WD-40 [on eBay or Amazon] . I use it on all stainless. It's much cheaper that all the other stuff, and it doesn't take much. It doesn't smell good though. I always get me a towel, go outside and spray it, then come back and start wiping. Works like a charm.

I have a Dacor stainless steel cooktop with brown cooking stains around each burner. I had tried many products before finding advice on the Internet. Then I used Easy-off oven cleaner and it worked! It truly was "easy off". Amazing!

Thank you! Those brown marks on my St George oven cooktop, caused by my husband "trying" to help, have been driving me nuts! Now, they're gone, thanks to the recommendation on this site.

A. I used to work for a maid service. We cleaned stainless appliances all the time. Best thing to use is lemon oil! The mild acid in it removes cloudiness and water spots and leaves it so shiny you can see your reflection in it! Also, it smells really good. So the procedure was if it is heavily soiled we'd use oven cleaner. Then we'd use a white cotton wash rag to apply about a table spoon of lemon oil and lightly scrub in circular motions. Then to polish and remove lint we'd go over it again with a microfiber cloth. This would get rid of any excess oil and polish it up really nice. Best results guaranteed!

A. Hi Akshata. We have more than a dozen threads about removing stains from stainless steel. It's going to depend on what kind of stains. Please tell us what kind of stains on what kind of component and why you want to the know the dominant chemical for that kind of stain (general info for science class, actually trying to formulate a product for personal use, trying to commercialize a cleaning product, etc). Hydrofluoric acid is one of the dominant chemicals for some types of stains, but students are advised to steer far clear of it. Good luck.

Regards,