Oh! To Be Streak Free!
These days, everyone seems to be updating their kitchen appliances to stainless steel. This can be a good or bad thing, depending on whether or not you have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. If you have OCD, I do not recommend stainless steel. Trying to keep the streaking, when cleaning, to a minimum can be frustrating, to say the least.However, if you are dead set on replacing your colored appliances with stainless steel; I have a few tips that will help eliminate most of your streaking. There are various products on the market aimed at giving you the best possible clean and polish for stainless steel. I have tried the majority of these, with little success. There are a few that will work, but, usually with maximum effort. This means more time spent on cleaning.While you can purchase a product made especially for cleaning stainless steel, that is your choice. However, I have discovered that you can clean your stainless steel with dish washing liquid. It is a product that you already have in your home, so there is no extra cost for another product, you do not really need.
This is how you get clean, shiny bright stainless steel with little to no streaking.You will need 2 clean cloths. One for cleaning and one for drying and polishing. Microfiber cloths are great for cleaning and polishing appliances. I also recommend lint free polishing cloths. Liquid Dish Soap. I prefer Dawn. Chances are any liquid dish soap will be fine.You can either run a sink or bucket with water and dish soap, or just do like I do and wet the cloth and dab a little dish soap on it. I make sure to wet the cloth again and try to get the soap throughout the cloth. Wring out excess water, so water is not dripping everywhere. Wash your appliances thoroughly. Cleaning with the grain of the stainless steel is recommended, but, not necessary. It is okay for the appliance to be sudsy.Immediately after you wash the appliance, begin drying and polishing with the dry clean cloth you have left. Do not worry about the suds on the appliance. You do not need to rinse first. Just begin drying and polishing with the grain of the stainless steel. If you are cleaning a large appliance, such as a refrigerator, I recommend doing one side at a time. It is best to wash a small section and dry it immediately and work your way around the appliance. Unless, of course, you can move quickly, before the dish soap dries. Even if you should encounter this, you can easily wash again and dry.
Out of all the products, I have purchased and tried, I still find that this method, for me, leaves little to no streaking. Another product I discovered (completely by accident) that cleans stainless steel well is Greased Lightning. As always, start with a clean cloth, Spray a little Greased Lightning on your cloth and begin wiping in the direction of the grain. Polish with a clean dry lint free cloth. I was very surprised at how little streaking there was and no residue either. These are my two preferred methods of cleaning stainless steel. Like I said before I have tried various other products, they all just seemed to cause me to do more polishing than I really want to have to do. And some of them just did not actually clean the stainless steel. You could still see the stain left from whatever was spilled on the appliance. I have also tried the vinegar and water mixture, that also left me with more polishing to do than I thought should be necessary. Because who wants to spend all their time cleaning? I want the most effective method with the least amount of time. Of course, if you just want it clean and the inevitable streaking is not a problem for you, then you have a wide variety of stainless steel cleaning products to choose from.
