Want to know how to clean stove drip pans the best way possible? Me too. So I tested out four popular methods and came to a clear conclusion.
When it comes to getting rid of food particles and finding a good cleaning solution, there are ways to get your stovetop drip pans clean fast. I’ll show you the effective way to get rid of the loose gunk, fast! Your electric stove drip pans will be clean in no time at all. This includes food spills and anything else that may be on your stovetop burner as well. (and did I mention that it will take you minimal effort?!)
Everything You Wanted to Know About How to Clean Stove Drip Pans
Oven stovetops: notoriously known for getting disgusting, especially those stove drip pans that catch all the overflowing boiling water, accidentally spilled sauces and miscellaneous food debris. They get nasty and black far too quickly.
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So, what is the best way to clean stove drip pans? Can you ever really get them sparkling like new, or should you just buy new ones and remember to cover them with aluminum foil this time?
Well, I was determined to find out! Today, I’m sharing a Pinterest Experiment. I searched Pinterest to find various methods on how to clean burner pans. I think you’ll be surprised with the results.
Experiment #1 – How to Clean Stove Drip Pans with Ammonia
This is definitely the cleaning experiment I was most interested in trying out. It seemed simple and cheap and the results online were always amazing (even for things like getting grills sparkling again). I had to buy ammonia at the store (it only cost a few dollars) since we didn’t have any on hand, but it is a relatively cheap way to clean stove drip pans, if it works!
What you’ll need to clean drip pans with ammonia:
1. Dirty stove drip pan
2. Gallon-Sized Ziploc Bag
3. Ammonia
4. Measuring Cup
5. Scour Pad
6. Baking soda (optional)
7. Peroxide (optional)
Instructions for cleaning stove drip pans with ammonia
1. Place dirty drip pan into a Ziploc bag.
2. Pour 1/4 cup ammonia into the bag.
3. Seal it shut.
4. Place it outside in the sun (one post said the sun helped vaporize the ammonia, which is what does the cleaning – the vapors).
5. Leave it outside overnight. I left mine outside for almost 24 hours. You don’t necessarily have to leave it outside, but ammonia stinks, and my bag did end up leaking, so I am thankful it was outside.
6. Bring it inside, hold your nose, and dump the ammonia out.
7. Wipe off the dirt and grime with a scouring pad.
8. And voila! Clean!
9. Oops. If it didn’t get cleaned right away, one pin said she used a little baking soda and hydrogen peroxide on the tough parts. So, I tried that too for good measure. (It didn’t do anything.)
Did it work?
Cleaning stove drip pans with ammonia did NOT work for me. I don’t know if it’s because my burner pans are the cheapest of cheap apartment chrome drip pans and not ceramic ones like I found on the pin in question.
I also don’t know if maybe I used too much ammonia or did something wrong there. All I know is that my burner pan still looked gross, extra step and all. They were better, but not sparkling.
It’s not a horrible idea, as ammonia is inexpensive, but it’s also a harsh chemical and very stinky and takes overnight to get it (ideally) sparkly. Also, don’t mix ammonia with
Also, don’t mix ammonia with an other chemicals, especially bleach!
Experiment #2 – How to Clean Stove Drip Pans with Bar Keepers Friend
One of my friends told me about Bar Keepers Friend and that she loves using it to clean her pots and pans.
In fact, I tested it out on one of my nasty pizza pans that my husband brought into our marriage five years ago that I have never seen shiny silver and Bar Keepers Friend had it shining again in about five minutes. Amazing, right? So, maybe it would clean my burner pans as awesomely too!
What you’ll need for cleaning a drip pan with Bar Keepers Friend:
1. Dirty burner pan
2. Bar Keepers Friend (or Comet? Are they the same thing?)
3. Scour Pad
4. Water
5. Spray bottle (optional)
Instructions for cleaning stove drip pans with Bar Keepers Friend:
1. Get your dirty stove drip pan a little wet. A spray bottle might be helpful.
2. Sprinkle some Bar Keepers Friend onto your pan, getting it all over it.
3. Let it sit for 5+ minutes, especially if your burner pan is nasty, like mine.
4. Take your scour pad and scrub the burner pan aggressively!
5. Rinse with water.
6. Voila! You’re done!
Did it work?
Bar Keepers Friend did clean up some of the black nasty gunk that had built up on my stove drip pan. Unfortunately, it didn’t do the job all the way. It’s a simple way, and also not too expensive, but it just didn’t complete the job. But, it’s a great product!
Experiment #3 – How to Clean Drip Pans with WD-40
I happened to have some WD-40 already, so I was willing to give this pinterest find a try.
What you’ll need to clean dirty drip pan with WD-40:
1. Dirty burner pan
2. WD-40
3. Scour pad
4. Water
5. Dish soap
Instructions for cleaning gross drip pans with WD-40:
1. Spray the burner pan liberally with WD-40.
2. Leave the room so you don’t get light headed. Wait about 20+ minutes.
3. Scrub vigorously with the scour pad.
4. Make sure to get all the WD-40 off (because apparently, you could explode if you don’t?!). Use some dish soap and water to help you do this.
5. Viola! Clean pans!
Did it work?
Nope. Pretty much not at all. Using WD-40 was by far the worst way to clean my stove drip pans, and apparently dangerous if you don’t get it all off!
The blogger that shared this tip had one of the cleanest burner pans I had ever seen before cleaning it. Mine was much nastier to start. So, I suppose if you just have a light crud problem on your stove drip pans you might be good to go. But, I would use one of these other methods first. They work much better.
Experiment #4 – How to Clean Drip Pans with Baking Soda and Vinegar (and Essential Oils)
Having just first-hand about the power of essential oils (and receiving some free samples), and knowing that baking soda works well for cleaning ovens, and vinegar for cleaning pots (and many other things, I knew this Pinterest find had some merit.
What you’ll need to clean dirty drip pans with baking soda and vinegar:
1. Dirty stove drip pan.
2. Baking Soda
3. White Vinegar
4. Orange essential oils (or other citrus oil)
5. Scour pad
6. Water
7. Spray Bottle
Instructions for cleaning stove drip pans with baking soda and vinegar
1. Sprinkle your dirty drip pan with baking soda. Coat it well.
2. Spray a 1:1 vinegar/water (although straight vinegar will work, but in either case, a spray bottle is helpful since the burner pans are curved) on the baking soda. Make it fizzle. You know it is working now!
3. Drop some orange essential oils on top (or add some to your spray bottle used in the previous step. I ending up doing both). It smells delicious!
4. Let it sit for 2+ hours.
5. It should have formed a good paste by now. If now, spritz again/pour vinegar on it, add more baking soda, etc.
6. Scrub with your scour pad and watch the crud come off.
7. Rinse with water.
8. Viola! A clean burner pan!
Did it work?
Yes. Actually, it worked the BEST of all the methods I tried, although never managed to get my pans perfectly sparkling. But, it was the method I used on the other stove burner drip pans after their failed attempts to do a good job.
Plus, baking soda, vinegar, and essential oils are all natural green ways to clean stove burner’s drip pans! Baking soda and vinegar are inexpensive and you probably already have some in your home.
However, essential oils can be pricey to buy. I just happened to have a sample bottle I received a week ago to use. It made the whole process smell great, and I do think gave it a little extra cleaning power.
So, what was the best way to clean burner pans?
Despite finding baking soda and vinegar to do the best job cleaning my burner pans, none of the four methods I found on Pinterest and tried for myself proved to get any of the drip pans completely silver and brand-new looking.
So, we’ll likely just buy new pans (coughing up about $10+) before we leave our apartment so we won’t be dinged on our deposit.
My husband always did this in college. In fact, he even kept an extra clean, new set around specifically for cleaning checks! He would then remove them before anyone used them. I was just hoping to find the best way to clean burner pans inexpensively, so I wouldn’t have to replace them when I move, and so I could have clean pans whenever I actually felt like cleaning them.
Perhaps the real problem is I just let them go for too long!
When it comes to stove burner pans, there are different cleaning methods that can work. You have to decide what you want to use the next time that you clean those stove-top drip pans. I think that finding a way to do a little effort or to put in a bit of elbow grease is great! With a little patience, you’ll get rid of the stubborn gunk and cut down on the cleaning time as well. Take the next step and clean those drip pans instead of buying new drip pans!
How do you get clean burner pans?
Follow my Cleaning Board on Pinterest for more great cleaning tips!
For more tips on how to clean just about everything, check out these other popular kitchen cleaning tutorials!
- How to clean dishwasher with a steam cleaner
- How to clean oven with baking soda
- How to clean microwave
- How to clean and deodorize garbage disposal
- How to remove fridge odor and smells
- How to clean stove drip pans
- How to clean globe faucet handles
- How to clean copper bottom pot with vinegar and salt
- How to clean copper pot with ketchup
- How to remove scratches from dinnerware
- How to clean a Le Creuset dutch oven
- How to clean stainless steel pans
Elisha says
Bar keepers friend and COMET are defiantly NOT, NOT, NOT the same thing!!
Katelyn Fagan says
Thank you!!
Barbara Karr says
Elisha is right! They are not the same. Comet is too abrasive. Bartenders is formulated for using on aluminum sinks, ceramic.faucets,grills, and on and on.
Kim H. says
I just tried using Baking Soda to clean a drip pan and the pan turned black. Any idea why?
Kim H. says
Nevermind! I asked a Home Depot rep and baking soda removes chrome plating. She said that if I use steel wool on the blackened pan it will be silver again. 🙂
Itaya says
I’ve had great results by cleaning my drip pans with SOS pads. Might give that a try and see if it works for you. 🙂
CoyAxx says
You mentioned helping ppl save (precious & incredibly valuable) time, which for me is almost always the deciding factor. I have wasted enough time trying to get drip pans looking brand new again. Now i just buy new ones at the Dollar Tree ($1.00). Another option is the ready made foil inserts. I also no longer try to clean shower liners ($1 at the Dollar Tree), mini blinds ($4), and i pay the shop to do my oil changes. -first time here. enjoyed your post, thx!
Katelyn Fagan says
Oh, I didn’t know you could buy drip pans from the Dollar Tree! Nice! However, I have to let you know that it is SO easy to fix mini blinds! Don’t waste your $4! You can buy one replacement blind, and spend 15 minutes (shorter time than going to the store) every time a blind gets slate broken and fix them, with the extra slats from the one your replaced. I wrote a post about how to do that – http://homecleaningfamily.com/2016/04/fix-mini-blinds-kids-destroyed/
Matthew says
Hey,
I love the thought put into this kind of experiment and I love that you tried some (at least to me) non-obvious solutions like WD-40.
I would love to see this experiment continued though and I feel it could be made definitive if you ran another one. You figured out Vinegar+Baking Soda+Essential Oil does the best job right? This is a mixture of a bunch of stuff including (as you’ve mentioned) rather expensive essential oils. This begs the question, who’s the real hero here?
The next time your drip pans get dirty, try: baking soda alone, vinegar alone, baking soda + vinegar, and then maybe water with the essential oils for the last one? I’m only curious about this because in chemistry class back in high school I remember baking soda and vinegar together make water and carbon dioxide, neither of which seem like great cleaners on their own.
Great post, hope you see this even though it’s years later haha.
Katelyn Fagan says
Well, I am glad you liked my experiment! Ha. I actually intend to try spray Oven Cleaner here very soon on mine, as they are terrible at the moment… Other people have suggested just putting them in your oven when you do an oven cleaning.
Linda says
Thanks for doing this article! I hate that I can’t get my drip pans looking like shiny new. Here’s another use for the baking soda + vinegar elixir: Cleaning the oven window glass.
Make that same paste mixture and let it sit a while. Rub a little and all that baked on gunk comes right off. I was visiting my bachelor brother and did this trick on his toaster oven glass and it looked like new. When he saw it his mouth literally dropped open?
Imchrisann says
I’d think that dampening the stove top drip pan THEN sprinle baking soda in order for it to stick to the sides of the pans then proceed.
Alicia Hursley says
The baking soda and vinegar worked awesome for us! We just had our granite countertop polished and even though that looked awesome, it brought out just how badly we needed to deep clean our stove. I’m so grateful you shared your experiments so we didn’t have to go through all of them and could just skip to one that worked. Thank you so much for sharing.
StaC says
I always use LA’s Awesome All-Purpose Cleaner from Dollar Tree on my drip pans! It gets them clean without any scrubbing. Just spray it on and let it sit for 10 minutes and they look brand new.
I also use this cleaner for just about everything, I’ve even done the cloth seats in my father-in-law’s car.