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We are avid cooks and our cooktop witnesses almost daily use. To that effect, does this picture of suggest permanent wear, or can it be cleaned? Either case, any way of cleaning or mitigating the wear? Finally, is it economical to replace just the surface of the range? This is a slide-in range-oven, and new ones run a steep $1400.

cooktop wear

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3 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

Have you tried ceramic cooktop cleaner? It's exactly designed for this type of mess, and you can get pastes and scrubbing pads for big messes, and wet wipes for smaller spills and every day use.

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See this answer by @shirlock homes for using Bar Keepers Friend. That answer is for cleaning shower glass but the Barkeepers Friend website says it can be used to clean and remove discoloration on glass and ceramic cooktops too. I haven't tried Barkeepers Friend on a glass cooktop but I have used it on my stainless steel appliances and it works great there.

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We use Barkeepers Friend all the time on our ceramic cooktop. It works great and does not cause any damage. –  SchwartzE Aug 1 '11 at 18:13
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I've used 3 techniques:

  1. a plastic razor blade. You can find these at Home Depot.

  2. A 3m scrub pad and use a large wooden spoon to apply leverage to it

  3. finding a really sharp knife and meticulously scraping it off.

All of them are a huge pain and labor-intensive, but seem to be the only way to get the burnt-on crusty stuff off.

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Thanks. I am a bit nervous about using blades on the cooktop, lest it causes scratching and irreversible damage. –  rs79 Aug 1 '11 at 18:42
@rs79 the razor blade technique is specifically recommended by the manufacturer, though –  Jeff Atwood Aug 1 '11 at 23:37
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