Anytime you cook with oil or prepare a hearty meat dish, grease can travel through the air as a vapor. This means no surface in your kitchen is safe from grease, especially your kitchen appliances that often sit at the frontline of duty.

Wiping down greasy surfaces with just a damp cloth never really does the trick. What you’ll need, in addition to a little elbow grease, is a degreasing agent. You can degrease your kitchen appliances using household staples like baking soda, vinegar, dish soap, and multi-surface cleaner.

For tougher messes, a commercial product like an oven cleaner might be best.

Here’s how three cleaning experts use these degreasing agents to tackle grime on appliances.

How to Degrease Kitchen Appliances With Dish Soap

Dish soap is extremely effective at removing grease from not just dishes, but also kitchen appliances. Kaylie Hill, founder of Neat & Clean, often uses spray degreasers to clean her oven, but she also reaches for dish soap and a sponge to clean the inside of her microwave and dishwasher.

“They are the quickest and most simple tools for helping break down greasy build-up,” Hill says.

Her favorite sponge for cleaning kitchen appliances is the Scotch-Brite Zero Scratch Sponge since it’s gentle enough for glass surfaces and stainless steel alike.

You can let most removable accessories, like burner grates or microwave turntables, soak in warm, soapy water. You’ll need to wipe down any fixed surfaces with a combination of water and soap.

1. Remove large food debris from the surface.
2. Add a few drops of dish soap to a bowl and fill it with warm water, allowing suds to form. Alternatively, you can make a spray out of dish soap.
3. Take a soft sponge and dip it in the soapy water. Wipe down all of the greasy surfaces. Re-wet and wring out the sponge as needed. Use a soft-bristle toothbrush to get into hard-to-reach corners.
4. Soak up the excess water using paper towels and discard.
5. Dump out the soapy water. Rinse the sponge.
6. Fill the bowl with clean water. Repeat steps one and two until the surface feels clean to the touch.

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How to Degrease Kitchen Appliances With Baking Soda and Vinegar

When he’s dealing with a greasy kitchen appliance, Cleanzen’s Stephen Ip prefers to try a natural cleaner first. His tried-and-true pantry staples of baking soda and vinegar make a surprisingly effective abrasive paste.

1. Remove large food debris from the surface.
2. Combine 1/2 cup of baking soda with 2 tablespoons of vinegar. Mix them in a small bowl.
3. Apply the paste with a brush. Let it sit on the greasy surface so the chemical reaction can do its job. Thirty minutes will suffice for most grease messes, but overnight is best for caked-on grime.
4. Use a clean, damp cloth to scrub away the grease. Rinse the cloth and repeat the process until the surface is free of grease and the baking soda paste. Use a soft-bristle toothbrush to get into hard-to-reach corners.

Ip uses this paste for oven interiors and stainless steel surfaces, but he doesn’t recommend it for electric ranges with glass tops or glass oven doors since it can scratch the surface. For tougher grease, he recommends a store-bought degreaser, like oven cleaner.

How to Degrease Kitchen Appliances Using Oven Cleaner

When used as directed, oven cleaner can work like magic on layers of grease and save your arm from hours of scrubbing. But it’s important to use these harsh products only on recommended surfaces.

To avoid the need for having to use multiple products on hand, Brian Holland, director of research and development at PurposeBuilt Brands, recommends using a two-in-one product that’s safe for both stovetops and the interior of your oven.

But you have a glass-top range, he notes that you’ll need to stick with a product formulated specifically for this surface.

1. Remove large food debris from the surface.
2. Put on protective gloves and test the product on the greasy surface. Apply the oven cleaner to a small section of the kitchen appliance to ensure it won’t harm the surface. Look for any evidence of peeling or scratching before applying the cleaner to a larger surface.
3. Apply the oven cleaner as directed to the interior and exterior of the oven.
4. Let sit for 20 to 60 minutes, depending on the product’s instructions.
5. Wipe away the product using paper towels. Use an abrasive sponge to remove any remaining grease or food debris.
6. Rinse the surface using wet paper towels.

How to Degrease Kitchen Appliances Using a Multi-Purpose Cleaner

Greasy kitchen appliances do need a good deep clean with a degreasing agent from time-to-time. However, using a multi-purpose kitchen cleaner is great for daily maintenance.

Holland also notes that some products even provide a protective barrier on stainless steel, which will help keep these shiny surfaces free from greasy fingerprints.

Holland offers two pieces of advice when it comes to using multi-surface cleaners.

“For the best results, spray the cleaner onto a microfiber cloth and wipe in the direction of the grain,” Holland says.

While a circular motion works well on most surfaces, following the grain will help you avoid leaving any streaks.

Spraying the product on your cloth rather than the surface prevents the product from landing on other nearby surfaces and allows you to better distribute it throughout. One caveat here is to follow the manufacturer’s instructions since some products, like foaming cleaners, are designed for application directly on the surface.

1. Spray the multi-surface cleaner onto a damp cloth.
2. Wipe down the surface with the cloth.
3. Check the product’s instructions to see if you need to rinse off the product.
4. Use a dry cloth to absorb any excess product. Allow it to air dry.