We live in a house with a stove that is more than 15 years old. (It has dials) It has years of caked on crud that won’t scrub off.
I clean almost everything with baking soda and white vinegar, so I thought it was worth a try here too.
First I sprinkled some baking soda and sprayed white vinegar over it and allowed to bubble, and hopefully start loosening some of the grime. I repeated a couple of times, then really doused on the baking soda and started scrubbing.
I used both a scrubby sponge and paper towel. As I scrubbed, I occasionally sprayed more vinegar. Not only was I scrubbing the window, but the door too. The nice thing about using baking soda and vinegar was that there were no fumes and no headaches!
Once I wiped this clean, I realized that a fair amount of the splatter and grime was IN BETWEEN the layers of glass. I don’t really get how this happens. I pulled out the drawer underneath and found some vent holes at the bottom of the door. The challenge was to find a way to get up in there. Now here is where my “green” cleaning method became a lot less “green”.
I opened up a wire hanger and tied on some Clorox wipes. Then I inserted it up the vent holes below the door and started attempting to clean the grime.
This was not easy. Its hard to maneuver a wire through a small hole. There is not a large firm surface to scrub with. The wipe only hits small spots with limited friction and it takes a long time to do this. There was also the challenge of the wipe coming free when trying to remove it. It took time to get it back out and start over again. I was not nearly as successful as I hoped. I finally had a sore shoulder and stiff neck, so it was time to call it quits. I am not thrilled with the end result, but its better than it was. I’m hoping that after a few more tries, it will clean up some more.
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