Cleaning your ceramic hob is not the easiest task in the world, but it doesn’t have to be hard! Every time you cook on your stovetop, grease and food particles get left behind. Left unchecked for a long period of time, these can cause a lot of different problems with your expensive appliance. In this blog post, we will discuss some easy ways to clean a ceramic hob that won’t take up too much of your valuable time!
Things to consider before cleaning your hob
– make sure you’re using the right cleaning products for ceramic hobs. A good quality specialist cleaner will always be the best option.
Weiman Ceramic Glass Top Cooker Spray is fab.
Important note: This is for the glass top cooker spray, not the cream cleaner by Weiman. I dont recommend any cream or paste cleaners on ceramic hobs.
And the green cleaners weapon of choice for me is:
Skoosh Green Cleaning
Skoosh is a green multi-purpose cleaner that I use around my house.
It’s multipurpose because it comes in a concentrated bottle with 3 reusable spray bottles that make up the 3 levels of cleaning.
At the most diluted level, we have the window and glass cleaner.
The middle dilution level is your average multi surface cleaner.
The highest concentrate is for burnt on, sticky, hard to remove grime.
This is what I use to clean everything in my house these days.
If you’re making the switch to something environmentally friendly, then this is the guy for you.
See Skoosh In Action
The right tools.
There are glass scraping tools on the market. Look on Amazon for a glass razor!
A wide and extendable one like this will make the job easier for you.
I’ve read many blog posts and watched many YouTube videos where they state to use bicarbonate of soda or a scourer to scratch away the residue. This is poorly researched advice and I suspect they’re all just copying off each other. Please don’t use these techniques if you like your hob shiny.
Never use anything abrasive like scourers or abrasive paste cleaners (including homemade), because these will leave micro-abrasions on the surface and dull the shine over time. They can leave bigger scratches on the surface too.
The Importance of Keeping Your Ceramic Hob Clean
It’s so important to keep ceramic hobs clean and to clean after every use. The reason behind this is because it is essentially a glass surface, the rings stay hot for longer, which causes any spills to be burned on and very difficult to remove. It’s not nice to look at and just looks plain ugly.
Another cause for concern with the build-up is that it could potentially cause a fire, as with any other cooker hob. So you wanna make sure you’re getting it as clean as humanly possible.
Ceramic hobs are meant to be shiny for a good reason. Not only does it look better on your kitchen counter, but the food you cook will also taste better because of its slick surface. A dirty ceramic hob is not just unattractive; it can actually ruin your culinary experience by preventing pans from sitting flat enough and touching the heating element properly and evenly.
How To Clean A Ceramic Hob
Daily Wipe Ups – Make sure all burners are turned off and unplugged. Wipe down with soapy water using a microfiber cloth. Rinse thoroughly after each burner has been cleaned. This will help prevent build-up from occurring in the future!
Crud Removing – To remove the built-up crud around the elements. You will need:
- A good quality ceramic hob cleaner
- A microfiber cloth
- A glass safety razor
The Process For Cleaning Ceramic Hobs Properly and Safely
- Remove any loose particles by simply wiping them away with a microfiber cloth.
- Spray liberally with the aforementioned ceramic hob cleaner.
- Let the cleaner sit on the surface for a few minutes to work its magic.
- Wipe away with a microfiber cloth.
- If you’re left with rings around the elements, spray again.
- Use your razor blade as flat to the surface as possible to slide the remaining residue off.
- Repeat on all four elements.
- Spray a little more cleaner.
- Polish in with a dry microfiber cloth.
How To Prevent Ceramic Hob Build-Up.
The best course of action is always going to be prevention. And I know, I keep saying this over and over in all my posts. BUT, if you can prevent a spill from happening then you won’t need to clean it up.
- Do you need to use an entire pot of water for your veggies? Not really, just fill the pan about one-quarter full and that’s enough. This way there won’t be any spills or overflows on the cooktop!
- If your water is getting too hot and boiling over onto your stovetop. The best way to avoid these types of spills as well make sure cooking goes smoothly – use a large enough pan for the contents so there are no overflow worries!
- Clean as you go. If you spilt something or it overflowed onto the stovetop, then clean it up when it happens. This will prevent a lot of burnt on crud later on.
- Leading on from the last point. Clean your hob every time you use it. Your ceramic hob and his fantastic shine will thank you for it.
- Use the right pots and pans for your hob. If you’re using an induction hob, then you need to buy induction hob pots and pans.
Other Uses For This Method.
In our cleaning company for years now, we’ve been using this same method to clean ovens. The only difference being, that we use an oven cleaner instead of a hob cleaner.
You can use the glass razor to clean up your glass oven door window to look new.
You can also use the glass razor on other glass surfaces, just be sure to make the surface very wet and slippery and keep it as flat as possible, running parallel with the surface.
Can I use the pink stuff on my ceramic hob?
In short, no. The pink stuff is a natural mild cleaning abrasive. The keyword here is abrasive. When you use an abrasive cleaner, no matter how gentle it is, on a shiny surface, like a ceramic hob. It etches into the surface and leaves tiny abrasions in the top layer of the surface.
When you use an abrasive cleaner like the pink stuff over a long period of time. It makes the once shiny surface dull.
These companies who make the abrasive cleaners do advertise that you CAN use their products on shiny surfaces, however, my expert, and first-hand experience with abrasive cleaners tells me that it is not a good idea.
I’ve seen many glass top stoves, ceramic hobs, induction hobs and oven doors that are damaged enough to make them look cloudy and dull. This isn’t an attractive look so please don’t do it.
I’ve scratched my hob, can it be fixed?
I’m sorry, no. Once your ceramic hob has been scratched you cant repair it. You can make it look less obvious with either the Weiman Cleaner or Skoosh Cleaner mentioned above but you’ll never be able to restore it fully. Time for a new hob I’m afraid.
Warning.
Do not use the blade upright, the blade must be parallel with the surface to prevent scratching.
The surface must be wet with the ceramic hob cleaner to prevent scratching. Using a glass razor on a dry surface will definitely scratch it.
Never use ammonia or bleach-based products to clean a ceramic hob, these will damage and discolour beyond repair.
Don’t use citrus-based products.
Don’t be tempted to chisel off burnt-on crud with a knife or any other kind of utensil.
Conclusion
If you take only one piece advice away from this blog post. Make it this one – Don’t use abrasive products on glass/ceramic or induction hobs. You don’t need them. You also don’t need them for any other household task providing you haven’t in the past.
Abrasive cleaners just grind down a surface and make it harder and harder to clean as time goes on.
