How to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances

There’s something to that shiny silver color of stainless steel that looks classy and professional and industrial, but also sleek and nice.

Stainless steel is a great material as it’s pretty hardy and holds up well to everyday bumps and scrapes (kind of like copper sinks, which if you have or are considering, read my post on how to clean a copper sinks).

But, cleaning stainless steel appliances isn’t as easy as you’d think!

If you wipe down a stainless steel appliance with just your wet washcloth, it will leave watermarks and water streaks all over it, killing that nice stainless steel glean we all love about the material!

Also, a wet cloth doesn’t always cut through the oil or grease build-up on our stainless steel appliances, and we need to figure out how to clean stainless steel appliances so they will be smudge-free and polished to perfection, without a ton of work, cause none of us have time for that.

In our last apartment, we had several major stainless steel kitchen appliances – stainless steel microwave, stainless steel fridge, stainless steel stovetop and oven, and a stainless steel toaster.

Appliance Stainless Steel Cleaner

I am generally a big fan of natural cleaning products like vinegar and baking soda and have used them all around my home for all sorts of cleaning projects.

A popular way to clean stainless steel appliances, especially those smudge-ridden stainless steel fridges, is using vinegar!

However, vinegar takes away some of the shine of the metal, so you have to then go over the fridge with some sort of oil (like olive oil) to really get it shiny and polished looking.

I wanted a better one-step process, if it was out there.

When I was trying to figure out what to use to clean stainless steel appliances, I remembered that I had previously cleaned a stainless steel pizza pan using my favorite cleaning product – Bar Keepers Friend.

But, the powder Bar Keepers Friend I used isn’t as easy to use on vertical surfaces like stainless steel appliances with their doors and faces and upright sides.

Thankfully, Bar Keepers Friend recently released a special Bar Keepers Friend Stainless Steel cleaner and polish, so I was thrilled to give it a go and see how well (or not) it worked!

How to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances

Here’s what I did to clean my stainless steel fridge, microwave, oven, stove, and toaster using the new Bar Keepers Friend Cleaner.

Materials Need to Clean Stainless Steel Appliances:

• Bar Keepers Friend Stainless Steel Cleaner and Polish
• Microfiber Cloth

Cleaning the stainless steel kitchen appliances with their product is very easy.

You can watch me and my daughter showing off how to clean stainless steel appliances in the video below:

Step 1: Turn the spray nozzle to “Spray”

Step 2: Spray your appliance. A little goes pretty far.

Step 3: Take your microfiber cloth and wipe down your stainless steel appliance, making sure to wipe in the direction of the grain.

Step 4: Flip your microfiber cloth over to the dry side, and buff it to a nice shine. Again, wipe in the direction of the metal’s grain.

Stainless Steel Appliances Cleaning Tips

General Stainless Steel Cleaning Tips: Do your best to wipe in the direction of the grain of the metal.

Be careful of any letters or symbols printed onto the stainless steel that you don’t wipe it off (ask me how I know to be careful?).

Stainless Steel Ovens: Remove stove dials by pulling them straight out and off.

You can soak them in a bowl of soapy dishwater and give them a quick wipe with a rag and then put them back on after you clean the stainless steel stove.

Stainless Steel Toaster: Make sure to unplug the toaster before cleaning it.

Dump out all the crumbs and stuff before cleaning! There is typically a small tray underneath the heating coils you can pull out and easily dump the crumbs into the trash.

You can also take the time to clean that stainless steel toaster tray while you’re at it!

Check out this post if you want to see more ways to use Bar Keepers Friend.