Electric stove coils can be challenging to clean, especially as the heating coils have hard-to-reach areas where dirt and grime can accumulate. Plus, when sauces or other food residue spills onto the electric heating coils, they heat up, burn, and create layers of hardened grime on your stove. Cleaning your stove before this happens is essential to the upkeep of your stove.
Here's how you can clean your electric stove coils the easy way! Using a baking soda paste will help lift the grime from your electric stove heater coils, making it easier for you to remove the dirt without having to keep scrubbing, or use commercial and chemical cleaners.
What You'll Need
- Baking soda
- White vinegar - optional, but recommended
- Dish soap
- Toothbrush or any soft-bristled brush
- Clean cloth or Sponge
How to Clean Electric Stove Burners: A Step-by-Step Guide
Step 1: Create Your Baking Soda Paste
Create your cleaning paste by mixing together baking soda and water or white vinegar. We recommend white vinegar as the acidity of the solution will react with the basic baking soda, creating a cleaning paste that will soften, lift, and detach grime from your electric stove.
Make sure you unplug your electric stove before you clean, and that the stove is cool to the touch as baking soda paste easily dries up when exposed to heat. This cleaning paste can be used on the electric stove drip pans as well as the solid electric stove burners.
Step 2: Let the Paste Sit
Apply the paste onto the heating coils, drip pans, and burners of your electric stoves. Let the paste sit for at least 15 minutes, making sure the paste does not dry in the meantime. If the paste seems to dry before the 15 minutes are up, simply spritz the paste with some water or vinegar in a spray bottle to moisten it up.
You can leave the paste in longer for heavier stains, but we do not recommend leaving the paste overnight as the moisture may get trapped and damage the stove as it may soak electric stove burners. The longer you leave the paste, the easier it will be to remove stuck on food and residue, stains, and soot from your stove top.
Step 3: Use a Brush to Scrub
Use a brush with soft bristles, like a toothbrush or light scrub brush, to scrub the paste away. You'll notice the grime will easily scrub out with the paste, so you don't need to use a lot of pressure when scrubbing. You simply need to loosen the grime, dislodge any stuck food spills and particles, and clean the surface of your electric stove burner coils.
Do the same to the drip pan as well as the rest of the stove. A small brush can get into the nooks and crannies of the stove to clean where a piece of cloth or scrubby sponge cannot. Go over the entire area of your stove to keep it clean.
Step 4: Wipe Clean with a Damp Cloth
Wipe away any residue with a clean, damp cloth or sponge. You may need to rinse the sponge between uses as the grime piles up on it. Adding a few drops of liquid dish soap would help to get rid of the excess grease and oils from your electric stove coils.
If you notice that there is still burnt food and pieces of debris stuck on your electric stove, then repeat the entire process until the stains are completely gone. Avoid soaking the electric stove, however, as moisture and electricity do not mix, and can cause you serious physical injury if the heating elements get wet.
Tips to Maintain Your Electric Stove Burners
- Clean using food-safe cleaners like baking soda and vinegar. Since these ingredients are edible and can be used without leaching toxic chemicals into the food, they can be used to clean your electric stoves.
- Avoid soaking the heating coils. The heating coils are connected to the power source, which is electric and therefore wet coils can pose dangers of electrocution. To be safe, allow the burners to dry completely before using the stove after cleaning.
- Avoid warping the heating coils. While the nooks of your electric stove may be easier to reach by adjusting the heating coils, an improper move can damage your unit, and cause it to break.
- Wipe completely cooled burners after each use to prevent food spills and oils from caking on the stove top.
- Avoid cleaning electric stoves when hot. Not only will you burn yourself, you might warp any heated elements in the stove by applying a sudden change in temperature.
Electrifying Cleaning
Contact us at Luce Home for all your cleaning needs! Whether it's the bedroom, the living room, the bathroom, or the kitchen, our cleaning experts will be able to tackle the dirt and grime you keep your home in tip-top shape. Trust in us to get the job done efficiently and quickly, and you'll never have to deal with a dirty stove again!
Check out our other articles for more tips and tricks in cleaning kitchen appliances!
