greasy cooker hood-a perennial problem

[someone]

I'm having new countertops and kitchen cupboard doors installed in my

22-year-old already-fitted kitchen, whose doors and counters are falling apart or looking distinctly seedy, especially following a cooker fire or two. I need to clean up some of the existing carcasses, as well as the ceramic tiles surrounding, plus the glass top of the stove. No problem with the carcasses.

My question is, how does one get the cooking grease off from the existing surfaces, e.g. the sides of cupboards surrounding the stove, the ceramic tiles, etc., which is either in lumps or as an invisible film of grease - and furthermore, how to keep the awful sticky stuff off the cooker hood?

Everywhere I read says to use detergent, or ammonia, or borax, or this or that, but nothing works. I tried scrubbing the cooker hood with anything you can name but it's still sticky. Orange oil is OK, but I'd need about two gallons to do the job, and even then it's still sticky.

Surely there must be some solvent besides petrol which can clean kitchen grease off surfaces. It's not burnt on, it's like little clear plastic dots which are immovable.

Any help would be appreciated.

someone

[Me Here]

Sugar Soap and elbow grease............ Best left to the woman...... ;-)

[D.M.Chapman]

Steam cleaner? Worked quite well for me along with a stiff brush.

Darren

[1501]

I'd be reluctant to pet that near MFC.

[Mark]

I use mainly bio washing powder dissolved in warm water. For really stubborn stains you can use white spirit but only do this if you can leave all the doors and windows open for a long time! Or better still move things outside to clean.

[Tim Watts]

Mark wibbled on Wednesday 31 March 2010 09:40

I find IPA (isopropyl alcohol) works extremely well on surfaces like this and the smell goes away fast. Agree on the washing liquid - that stuff shifts a multitude of evil.

Previously, I have removed any bits that come off easily (like the metal filter cover) and shoved them in the dishwasher.

[chris French]

In message , D.M.Chapman writes

Yup, I've used one to get stubborn old greasy stuff off of a cooker hood before and it worked well.

We have a smallish Karcher one that I got 'free' when I bought a pressure washer.

Dishwasher detergent dissolved in water is good at removing grease as well. Wear gloves as it's fairy horrible stuff to get on your hands

[martop]

I 'accidentally' discovered that a cheap spray bottle of stainless steel cleaner shifts grease from almost anything, ( the clear stuff sold in home and bargain )

As for the sides of white kitchen units, a plastic scraper and some of the above put on neat works a treat, scrape off the bulk and spray the area with cleaner, leave for about 30 seconds and scrub off with a cloth or sponge. be careful if spraying this stuff near food, pets and eyes, for the undersides of cooker hoods and cupboards spray it on a cloth first.

HTH

-- Mart

[John L]

We had a question like this recently (grease on cupboard tops).

My answer was - and always will be: white spirit: It Works! It's easy, and it's cheap!

Stubborn spots can be further encouraged by using a nylon scourer, or even a sharp flexible paint scraper or putty knife, to scrape at the softened grease without damaging the surface.

Have fun, John

[NT]

A steam cleaner works but I found it very slow going. What works well, other than bunging it in a dishwasher, is cream cleaner with boiling water - and it must be truly at boiling point. And decent gloves of course, it is hot.

NT

[JimK]

on a related tangent - any recommendations for cleaning the metal (ali?) filter mesh of a kitchen canopy extractor?

In previous years I have boiled em up in water and dishwasher tablets

- but it's a revolting time consuming job.... any shortcuts anyone?

Cheers JimK

[S Viemeister]

I put them through the dishwasher - _before_ they get totally disgusting.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Put them in the dishwasher. A couple of caveats...

They can hold a very large amount of grease, much more than you would expect in a normal full dishwasher load. May need to adjust detergent dose appropriately, and/or avoid loading lots of other greasy things, and will need one of the hotter washes.

The aluminium mesh does slowly dissolve in dishwasher detergent, so don't put them in the dishwasher every time you run it. If there is any kind of decorative aluminium finish on parts of the filter such as coloured anodising, this may be removed by the dishwasher detergent.