How to Get Melted Plastic Off Stove

With the many things that go on in a kitchen, it's easy to get distracted and forget what's really going on around you. This is particularly dangerous when involving heat or fire, like from a hot burner, because of the high temperatures from the heating elements of stoves.

This heat can permanently damage or disfigure your equipment and containers, especially those made of plastic.

In this article, we'll be going through different ways that you can remove melted plastic with simple tools and ingredients already available in your home.

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How to Get Melted Plastic Off Stove

Method 1: Baking Soda and Vinegar

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This familiar combo of baking soda and vinegar is incredibly popular in household cleaning, but you never expect it to also help in removing melted plastic. However, baking soda and white vinegar can in fact clean up melted plastic in less than five minutes.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Put your white vinegar in a handy spray bottle.
2. Sprinkle a generous amount of baking soda onto the hardened plastic.
3. Spray vinegar over the baking soda until it bubbles before using a scrubbing brush, nylon scrubber, or the abrasive side of your sponge to gently scrape and remove the melted plastic. Be careful to not do this too aggressively to prevent permanent damage to your stove.
4. Keep spraying vinegar over the baking soda as needed, and feel free to add more baking soda if necessary to tackle any remaining plastic. At this point, the burnt plastic should begin to gently peel off on its own.

Not only are these ingredients incredibly simple and accessible, but they also don't release any toxic fumes that could be dangerous for your health. This option can also remove plastic from a glass stovetop as it is gentle enough to not leave a scratch.

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Method 2: Boiling Water

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It would be easy to think that simply reheating your stove top to soften the melted plastic before scraping it with a plastic scraper or a butter knife would be the way to go. However, uncontrollably reheating the melted plastic might be ineffective, or even make the mess worse.

Instead, try out these steps that carefully use the heat of boiling water to remove the melted plastic:

1. Prepare your boiling water and use a soup ladle to carefully put it on the hardened plastic.
2. Afterwards, use a rubber scraper to gently scrape and remove melted plastic.
3. When finished, get some paper towels or a soft cloth to dry the stove. Repeat these steps as much as needed until all the remaining residue has been removed.

This method is effective as the heat of the boiling water softens the plastic residue and makes removing melted plastic that much easier, while still controlling the heat being introduced as much as possible.

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Method 3: Ice

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This method is the exact opposite of the previous one as it uses ice to remove melted plastic. Although messy, it is one of the safest ways to clean up burnt plastic.

All you need for this is some ice bags or ice cubes, a scrubber or scraper, some cloth or paper towels, and some dish soap. Here's how you can do it:

1. Gather your ice bags or ice cubes and place them on the melted plastic. Make sure to prepare a soft cloth or a paper towel to catch any runoff as the ice melts.
2. Leave the ice for about 20 minutes to freeze the burnt plastic as much as possible. Afterwards, remove the ice and use the soft cloth or paper towels to wipe away any remaining water.
3. Get a safety razor blade scraper or a plastic scraper to carefully scrape away the hardened plastic.
4. Should there be any remaining plastic, get some dish soap and a scrubber to remove any remaining plastic residue.
5. Give your stove one last wipe down with a soft cloth to clean up any water that may have been left behind.

Even if this method may get messy with all the ice involved, it's a great way to remove melted plastic, especially in large amounts.

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Method 4: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser

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If you want a quick fix that you can buy from your local grocery store, the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is just what you're looking for. Here's how you can use it to clean melted plastic off your stove:

1. Lightly wet the magical eraser.
2. Using the abrasive scrubbing side of the product, gently wipe away the plastic residue. Make sure that you don't put too much force behind the scrubbing as the abrasive side of the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser can risk scratches on delicate surfaces like glass stovetops.
3. After all the melted plastic has been removed, get a damp cloth and gently wipe up any residue left from the product.

With the amount of things that we do in our household kitchens everyday, it's hard to make sure that everything is as clean as they can be, especially with incredibly busy days that leave us tired at the end of each night.