How to Clean Nasty Drip Pans

4th July 2007

How to Clean Nasty Drip Pans

posted in How-To, Cleaning |

My fiance tried to scrub my drip pans (those metal thingies under the stove burners on an electric stove) clean a while ago, but he gave up. The stuff was just too baked-on.

Girls like to “think smarter, not harder.” Have you ever seen the shirt that says, “Of course I don’t look busy. I did it right the first time.” Yeah.

So… I got to thinking there MUST be a way to get rid of the gunk easily. My fiance proved that soaking it in soapy water didn’t work, nor did scrubbing with a plastic brillo-pad type thing. I had an idea. Follow along to see if it worked.

Step 1: Remove the drip pans. First you will need to remove the burners by lifting…

and pulling straight out (sideways) to unplug them.

Gross, huh?

Step two: Marvel at the grossness. This is also a good time to clean the surface of your stove.

Step three: Put the drip pans in the sink and spray each one with a lot of WD-40. Then leave the room, so you won’t get that lightheaded feeling. Unless that’s what you’re going for.

Step four: Do some laundry, browse around on Joyful Abode, and generally forget about the drip pans in your sink.

Step five: Try to cook dinner, but realize your stove is disassembled and there are WD-40-soaked drip pans in your sink. Scrub vigorously. Make sure you get all of the WD-40 off, so you don’t explode when you replace the drip pans and turn on your stove. Stand in awe of the joy of WD-40, which by the way is not a lubricant, but a solvent.

Step six: Really, make sure you get all the WD-40 off.

Step seven. Ooh, ahh.

Step eight: Put the drip pans back on the stove, and plug the burners back in.

I bet you can’t wait to clean your drip pans now. Right?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 at 5:57 am and is filed under How-To, Cleaning. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 On July 4th, 2007, Lisa Clarke said:

How clever! I’m not sure I trust myself to *really* get rid of all of the WD40, though

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 6:35 am

2 On July 4th, 2007, mub said:

If I recall correctly, oven cleaner works wonderfully too!

I have a flat top ceramic stove, which sounds lovely at first when you think “yay no more cleaning drip pans” until you realize that even BREATHING near it makes it look dirty *L*

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 6:38 am

3 On July 4th, 2007, Wendy said:

Wow, I can’t wait to see if that works for me. I can’t ever get the really baked on stuff off and I hate lining them with foil!!

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 6:39 am

4 On July 4th, 2007, admin said:

Lisa, I washed them and dried them a bunch of times because I was paranoid about it. I didn’t explode though, so it must’ve worked!

mub, I agree about those flat ones looking dirty easily… but they’re sooo easy to clean I wouldn’t mind wiping them down every day!

Wendy, please do let me know if you try it out. I think the foil lining thing always looks odd…

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 7:09 am

5 On July 4th, 2007, MrsDragon said:

Oh, I wish I had known about that in our last apartment. Those things were so filthy from years of use that we were NEVER able to get them totally clean. I bet this would have worked wonders!

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 7:45 am

6 On July 4th, 2007, Jessica said:

Ryan and I were just using WD-40 around a car battery the other day. We were also a little paranoid… at least with a stove there is nothing to explode BUT the WD-40, so it would probably burn off quickly…

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 7:57 am

7 On July 4th, 2007, Katie said:

You can get a brand spanking new set for less than 20 bucks….I do not advocate throwing things away all the time, but if you rent and they are nasty — ask for new ones or buy your own.

My new house has the ceramic cooktop and I am worried about keeping it clean too. Guess I will figure it out when I get there.

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 8:06 am

8 On July 4th, 2007, admin said:

What was the WD-40 for on the battery, Jessica? That would make me pretty paranoid too!

Mrs.Dragon… I wonder if the WD40 would’ve worked there. Guess we’ll never know!

Katie, I guess if nothing else works (including this) you could buy new ones. But I agree that throwing stuff away all the time isn’t the best thing… and if a can of WD40 can help, you may as well try it before you buy new ones.

posted on July 4th, 2007 at 10:27 am

9 On July 5th, 2007, Dawn said:

Since the WD-40 is so greasy, the best thing to wash THAT off, might be Dawn Direct Foam dish soap (the kind where you only wet the sponge and use the foam on the greasy item).. works GREAT for the greasiest of messes.

posted on July 5th, 2007 at 6:07 am

10 On July 5th, 2007, BreadBox said:

Something else worth trying, not as greasily noxious as wd40 is a combination of white vinegar and cream of tartar; mixed in a ratio so as to form a thick paste: spread it on, leave it, and most crud will just wash off.
Oh, but be sure to buy your c of t at a bulk spice place, for $5 a pound or so instead of $2 an ounce in those tiny bottles in the store!

N.

posted on July 5th, 2007 at 7:53 pm

11 On July 7th, 2007, YaYaNaNa said:

You didn’t learn this from your mother. I’ll bet she wishes she had known about this tip when she had drip pans.

posted on July 7th, 2007 at 8:16 am

12 On July 9th, 2007, admin said:

Good tip Dawn. I just used my regular dishsoap… I haven’t tried that Dawn stuff yet. Might soon though. i’m most out of my regular stuff.

Breadbox, isn’t vinegar just awesome for so many things? I haven’t heard of mixing it with cream of tartar though. Good stuff!

Yayanana, now she knows, just in case she ever has drip pans again.

posted on July 9th, 2007 at 3:58 am

13 On July 9th, 2007, BreadBox said:

Yup, vinegar is pretty magical stuff — though cleaning is about the only thing that I use white vinegar for:-) This suggestion, using cream of tartar, is from a book that PBS was giving away as a pledge incentive a few years ago, something like “How to clean everything” or “Household tips” or some such title. Works really well. Don’t know the reason why….

N.

posted on July 9th, 2007 at 10:15 am