LESLIE: Jean in Oregon is having a cleaning issue. Tell us what you’re working on.
JEAN: Well, I’m trying to figure out how to keep my Whirlpool, black appliances from streaking.
LESLIE: Yeah, that is like the most common complaint. We, ourselves, have a GE Profile oven which has a black cooktop and that is the hardest thing to keep clean. Dust shows up right away on it. No matter what I use, I always get streaks, so I kind of did a little bit of experimenting. And if you sort of ditch your paper towels and go with microfiber cloths, that kind of helps to reduce any kind of scratching you might get from a paper towel. Either way, paper towels or a nice cloth, you’re going to be alright but the cloth does help.
Then, when you’re cleaning, you really can’t use any sort of cleanser that has a harsh chemical, because that damages the surface. So if you end up with a big, greasy mess, dish soap and water will just do a great job to help you get rid of that grease. If that doesn’t work, you can make a paste of baking soda and water that’ll help break up whatever food buildup has sort of dried on there or residue or oil from cooking. And baking soda is super-safe, so that’s not going to scratch.
Now, once you get whatever food or stain is off of there and you want to really just cleanse it, truly a mixture of white vinegar and water – or if you get Windex with vinegar – that’s really going to be the best thing to get rid of any of that streaking. It’s going to dry nicely; you’re going to end up with a nice, clean surface.
Now, if you find you end up with the streaks after you clean with just water, it could be that the water you have may be full of chemicals or like a – maybe full of actually minerals or something that can leave that white, streaky mark. So, again, anything with vinegar in it is really going to be helpful. If you do want to use some type of water, just to aid in the cleansing and you find it is your tap water, you can get distilled water by the bottle at the supermarket. I mean those are good tricks that we’ve used, because it’s certainly – it’s annoying, more than anything.
JEAN: Well, when the sun shines in, it can be embarrassing.
LESLIE: Yeah. You really feel like you’re not doing a good job, even though you’ve just cleaned it. So, the vinegar really does make a huge difference.
JEAN: Alright. And thank you very much.
TOM: You’re very welcome. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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