How to clean stainless steel ?

Ebe_Scrooge

We've got a stainless steel splashback behind our oven hob, and it inevitably gets a fair dollop of muck, spills, grease etc on it. What's the best way to clean it ? I've tried Mr Muscle kitchen cleaner, plain washing up liquid, some metal polish, even WD40, but nothing seems to make it come up nice and shiny. I did toy with the idea of very fine steel wool, but I'm pretty sure that would scratch it and make it look terrible. Any ideas ?

Valley's_girl

Hi I use baby oil on my ss microwave it comes up lovely.
ally xx

artha

Valley's_girl wrote: »

Hi I use baby oil on my ss microwave it comes up lovely.
ally xx

I've never used that but have been told in the past that it's good for making stainless steel easy clean. I think it just leaves behind a thin film of oil that prevents things sticking to it making slpashes easy to wipe off. For stainless steel sinks I use a proprietry stainless steel cleaner like Sink Bright. For a soiled splashback a good clean with Sink Bright and then a coat of baby oil could be a solution

Heliflyguy

Dont use any wire wool or abrasive it will just be covered in fine swirling lines.

We have a SS splash back and I use window cleaning spray (the blue Tesco one not because its better just because it the cheapest and was there at the time and I was experimenting) after cleaning any spots off with water/washing up liquid.
I know it sounds weird but it does seem to work with very little effort, I have heard of the baby oil option but always thought the oil would attract dust so never tried.

Meepster

I'll second the baby oil, tried and tested for years!

mum2one

mwilletts wrote: »

I'll second the baby oil, tried and tested for years!

Ditto - for years when I 1st worked for my ex-company, we would wash the stainless steel down with soapy water, - get rid of dirt, dry off then baby oil, made it look like new. x

Ebe_Scrooge

Thanks everyone, looks like a bottle of baby oil is going on the shopping list. Most bizarre, I would never have thought of that :-) Will also give the window cleaner tip a try tonight, as that's something I do already have in the house.

Heliflyguy

I must add that having worked with SS many years ago it will dull over time and unless you have a nice high speed polisher and the correct polish it is never going to shine like new if its a few years old.

artha

Ebe_Scrooge wrote: »

Thanks everyone, looks like a bottle of baby oil is going on the shopping list. Most bizarre, I would never have thought of that :-) Will also give the window cleaner tip a try tonight, as that's something I do already have in the house.

As I said in an earlier post the reason it probably works is that it puts a thin film of oil on the surface but I would guess that it needs to be applied and wiped off regularly. On a slightly different tack but I think appropriate in terms of the theory is that any good quality metal tools should be regularly oiled with mineral oil for the same effect. A thin film of mineral oil would do the same job in the kitchen but baby oil is preferable because of food contact!

Ebe_Scrooge

artha wrote: »

As I said in an earlier post the reason it probably works is that it puts a thin film of oil on the surface but I would guess that it needs to be applied and wiped off regularly. On a slightly different tack but I think appropriate in terms of the theory is that any good quality metal tools should be regularly oiled with mineral oil for the same effect. A thin film of mineral oil would do the same job in the kitchen but baby oil is preferable because of food contact!

Thanks for the ideas. Actually, on the subject of food use, would ordinary sunflower or olive oil do the trick, or is there something special about baby oil ?

( thinking about it, if sunflower oil is made from sunflowers, and olive oil is made from olives, what is baby oil made from .... ? )

edsks

Try white vinegar or alcohol.