How easily and simply I forgot about washing and polishing the stove

I am a fan of electric stoves, but under the pressure of electricity bills last year I gave in and became the owner of a gas hob. And from that moment my life changed dramatically: I literally settled in the kitchen. No, not because I like to cook. It's just that keeping a gas stove clean is much more difficult than an electric one.

What's wrong with a gas stove

When choosing a hob, I deliberately abandoned enamel and glass-ceramic coating. I just saw enough of the sad looks of my friends who were unable to protect the fragile coating from chips and cloudy stains - traces of untimely removal of dirt. That is why spectacular stainless steel became my favorite, because in order to damage it, you need to work hard.

The understanding of how stupid this decision was came after the first use of the new thing: the sparkling surface was covered with clearly visible cloudy spots due to the fact that several drops of boiling water escaped from the pan. But this was not yet a disaster. Serious disappointment came a little later when I didn’t keep track of the milk.

When using an electric stove, in such a situation I usually just quickly removed the pan, wiped off most of the foam with a towel, and then continued cooking. The solution, of course, is not ideal, but it is effective: it was not difficult to wash the surface after cooking.But on the gas stove, escaped milk became a problem - for some reason there was no desire to put out the burner and remove the hot grate.

The result is natural - the first real acquaintance with scraping off foam stuck to the surface. And you know, I had no desire to repeat this feat. So I started looking for “lazy” ways to solve the problem.

Getting to know the miracle rug

First, folk remedies were tried, starting with rubbing the panel with Vaseline and ending with covering it with aluminum foil. Both options, by the way, do not add beauty to the stove, and the first one is also not particularly effective. Then heavy artillery - household chemicals - was used. At this stage, I became firmly convinced that there was no particular difference between expensive and cheap products. Well, two months ago I accidentally came across protective mats in AliExpress.

Honestly, I was captivated by their appearance: an ordinary rug in gray or black, which doesn’t seem to be very noticeable. There were strong doubts about the effectiveness of this device, since among the reviews there was also the sad “melts”. But after estimating the cost, I still took the plunge and ordered silver rugs.

The parcel arrived quite quickly - in just 4 weeks. Having unpacked it, I didn’t experience much joy: well, I couldn’t believe that this flexible fabric could withstand high temperatures. But it was too late to retreat, and therefore, using ordinary scissors, I adjusted the size of the rugs to the dimensions of the grate with the burner and began an experiment that has been going on for a month.

I think the first positive result is that now there is no longer a need to constantly wipe the marks left with plain water - they are invisible on the rug. Well, among other things I can note that:

• they really can withstand high temperatures - even at the burner itself the canvas did not melt;
• dirt does not stick to the mat, and escaped milk and jam can be easily washed off with plain clean water;
• the overlay looks quite attractive, as if it was intended to be so;
• The surface of the stove heats up noticeably less - I accidentally noticed during another emergency cleaning.

Well, the most interesting thing: remembering the amount of foil that went into ensuring the cleanliness of the stove, I sat down at the calculator and was pleasantly surprised - after only a month of use, the mat already turned out to be more profitable than regularly laying aluminum foil. And this despite the fact that I only covered half of the hob (two burners) and I have a couple more covers in stock (there are 4 of them in a package). So my experiment continues.