Luckily, there are lots of ways to keep your stove looking shiny and new. While there’s no guarantee that these tips will protect your cooktop, they do help considerably. Keep in mind that cleaning the cooktop regularly will also help to preserve the smooth, clean look you fell in love with when you bought your range or cooktop. The sooner you tackle a mess on your stovetop, the easier it will be to remove, and the less likely it is to cause permanent damage. Read on for some tips, tricks, and hacks for maintaining your ceramic or glass cooktop.
Choose Your Cookware Wisely
When using a ceramic or glass cooktop, you’ll want to be extra careful to choose cookware that is unlikely to damage the smooth surface. Always avoid using ceramic cookware or stoneware with unfinished, rough bases. Keep those pieces in the oven, and when taking dishes out to cool, avoid putting them on the cooktop. Have a cast iron skillet you love? Unfortunately, you’ll need to keep it away from your stovetop. Cast iron cookware is usually very rough, and any movement of a cast iron pot or skillet on the cooktop can leave scratches. Finally, skillets or pans with rounded-edge bottoms are not recommended. A rounded edge can cause heat to be distributed unevenly, putting unnecessary stress on the glass or ceramic. Choose cookware that sits very flat, and when your old cookware begins to warp, replace it.
Take Care When Handling Cookware
Now that you’re certain that you have the right cookware, it’s important to handle it properly to keep your stovetop looking good as new. When handling heavy pots, pans and dishes, avoid dragging them across the cooktop. Dragging cookware, even a short distance, can cause scratching. Instead, life and transfer your pots and pans to another area of the cooktop to reduce the risk of scratching. Before cooking, check to make sure the bottoms of your skillets and pots are very clean. Often, electric stovetops develop rings or marks that are very difficult to scrub out. This is usually due to grease build-up on the bottom of cookware that, when heated up, can basically get cooked into the glass or ceramic. Ensuring that your cookware is clean will prevent this from happening and keep you from spending a lot of time and elbow grease cleaning your stovetop.
Use Careful, Specialized Cleaning Methods
Speaking of cleaning, be sure to clean your stovetop, too. Regular cleaning and maintenance will help you keep your stovetop nice and shiny. If you do end up with food or grease crusted on your stovetop, don’t panic. Head to the store and grab a stovetop cleaner, or a sponge and some dish soap should do the trick.
Be Careful Not to Spill While You’re Cooking
While electric stovetops can be easier to clean in a lot of ways, you do not want to spill while you’re cooking. Spills can easily get heated up and stuck on the glass or ceramic, requiring a challenging clean-up. Be especially careful when boiling or cooking sugary substances. Sugar is particularly bad for electric cooktops—it can discolor the cooktop, leaving yellowish areas that are impossible to remove, especially on white or light gray cooktops. Clean up any sugary spills immediately.
Don’t Forget How Heat Can Affect the Cooktop
Keep in mind that the high heat on the glass can cause some not-so-fun chemical reactions. As such, keep some rules of thumb in mind when it comes to handling your stovetop. Never stand on top of or place anything overly heavy on a glass cooktop, even temporarily. While the glass may appear to sustain the weight at first, once the cooktop is heated up, the surface will slightly expand and could break or shatter. Additionally, do not ever place hot glass bakeware to cool on a smooth cooktop. Glass bakeware should be placed on a dry towel or trivet. The immediate contact between a hot surface and a cool surface could cause either piece of glass to break.
