In most cases, all the members of the family resort to the services of this kitchen assistant. As a result, over time, stains of fat appear on the surface of the household appliance and inside. Therefore, in today's article I will tell you how to clean the microwave at home, and consider safe and effective methods of cleaning.
Household appliances greatly facilitate the life of a modern housewife, and the microwave is not the last place on the list of such assistants. It allows you to defrost food in the shortest possible time, prepare an excellent meal or warm up a dish before a meal.
Safety Precautions
As with other household appliances, microwave cleaning requires a proper, careful and maximally safe approach. To protect yourself and loved ones from problems and unpleasant consequences, listen to the following recommendations.
- Before cleaning, make sure that the appliance is not connected to the mains. Don't let the kids dogs, cats and other pets in the kitchen until the process is complete.
- During the procedure, pay special attention to cleaning the door and the rubber bands. Family safety depends largely on the purity of these elements.
- Any product bought in the store or made by yourself, apply with gloves. When cleaning the microwave with chemistry, take care of the proper ventilation of the room.
- In the case of steam cleaning, use a protective stand. Often, under pressure of steam, the door opens and splashes of boiling water fly around the room.
- Do not use abrasive sponges, brushes with metal bristles, gels, or powders that contain strong acids, solid particles, or chlorine. Otherwise, damage the protective layer of the microwave chamber.
- Solvents and alcohols are not suitable for cleaning the device. Their use is fraught with damage to the surface of the equipment, electric shock or fire.
If you never had to clean the microwave yourself, read the material repeatedly and follow the recommendations. If necessary, seek the help of experienced friends.
How to clean a microwave in 5 minutes
Sometimes it becomes necessary to quickly clean a microwave oven, but not always at hand is a bottle of purchased chemistry or a time-tested folk remedy. In this case, ordinary water comes to the rescue. Water-based microwave cleaning technology is called steaming.
Video instruction
The secret of this method is painfully simple. In 10 minutes, the water boils, and under the influence of hot steam, the fat softens. To improve the effect, I recommend adding a little vinegar, citric acid or soda to the water.
We clean the microwave inside
With regular use, the inner chamber of the microwave becomes dirty regardless of how carefully the hostess treats the device.To clean the inner walls of the kitchen helper, they use both folk remedies and purchased chemistry. Let's figure out the better it is to deal with fat, adhering food debris and unpleasant odor that appears after cooking chips, fish or meat.
Effective folk remedies
When the amount of fat in a microwave oven becomes catastrophic, some housewives resort to chemistry to eliminate it, while others use the safest methods based on folk remedies. And if the family has kids or allergies, natural remedies become indispensable. We will consider them.
- Vinegar. Dilute 2 tablespoons of vinegar in 150 ml of water. Pour the resulting composition into a plastic container, put in the microwave and turn on the timer for 5 minutes at medium or maximum power. After fogging the glass, turn off and walk along the walls with a clean sponge. This method has a drawback - the unpleasant smell of acetic acid, so after the procedure, properly ventilate the furnace chamber.
- Lemon acid. When used correctly, this tool provides an excellent result. Dilute two bags of the mixture with a glass of water and put in the oven in a special container. After 5 minutes of operation at medium or maximum power, remove softened fat with a damp sponge.
- Soda. This tool is resorted to by people who have found metal baking sheets and cast iron pans. With the primary task, soda copes with "excellent", but leaves scratches on the inner surface. In the future, it becomes more difficult to eliminate pollution, so I recommend using more gentle means of internal cleaning.
- Lemon. After using lemon, the microwave oven not only becomes clean, but also smells good. Pour 2 cups of water into the container, cut the fruit in half, squeeze the juice, add to the water along with the rest of the lemon. Put the container in the microwave, turn it on for 10 minutes, and then wipe the inside with a tissue or paper towel.
Interestingly, to cope with the odor accumulated inside the microwave oven is more difficult than to stain. Even citric acid with detergents is sometimes powerless. Fortunately, there are substances that absorb third-party odors. These include activated carbon and salt.
Pour a glass into a large bowl, add 10 tablets of powdered activated carbon, mix and put in the microwave overnight. In the morning, be surprised to find that the bad smell has disappeared. I advise you to carry out this simple procedure after each complex cleaning.
Purchased Chemistry
Thanks to the chemical industry, a large number of products are available that quickly and efficiently clean the microwave oven. When developing these tools, all requirements imposed by manufacturers of household appliances are taken into account, therefore, such chemistry is safe for the elements of the device.
The list of effective and popular products is headed by the products of the brands “Mr. Muscle”, “Cillit Bang”, “AmWay”. Powder products are diluted with water before use, and liquids are applied to the surface from a sprayer. Later, wipe the place with a clean cloth.
If you decide to use household chemicals to clean the microwave, be sure to read the instructions. If the first attempt to remove contamination failed, repeat the procedure.
Purchased chemistry has several drawbacks, including high cost. Also, after using such a product, it becomes necessary to thoroughly rinse the chamber. If the oven is poorly washed, when heated, chemicals will enter the cooking dish. It is not safe.
Mistresses are well aware of the shortcomings of the purchased chemistry, so they often use folk remedies, which we spoke about earlier.
How to quickly clean the microwave outside?
During use of the microwave, fat appears not only inside, but also outside. If stains and spots appear on the case, proceed.
- Soda solution is the best tool for external cleaning.Spray the solution on a plastic surface, wait 15 minutes and remove with a damp sponge. Walk with a dry cloth at the end. To remove dirt in the seams and around the keys, use toothpicks and cotton buds.
- Household chemicals such as Fakir or Phenolux are also suitable for surface cleaning. Apply a little to a clean sponge and walk over the surface. Next, wipe the microwave housing with a damp cloth. Remove any remaining moisture with a towel.
Thanks to such simple manipulations, you will return your original assistant to your irreplaceable assistant without much effort, and she will express her gratitude in the form of tasty and fragrant treats, for example, baked apples.
Useful Tips
For certain reasons, whether it is lack of free time or commonplace laziness, cleaning a microwave oven is often delayed until later. This is not the best way to keep equipment clean. Periodic preventative cleaning is much better, because it helps to save time and prolongs the service life. What is needed for this?
- After each cooking, wipe the inside of the microwave with a sponge or damp cloth.
- If the dish has run away or burned during cooking, turn off the appliance, wash the swivel stand and continue cooking.
- Before sending the dish to the oven for heating, cover it with a special lid. It will prevent the ingress of fat on the inner walls of the chamber. Buy such a cover is not difficult.
- Once a week, clean the microwave by steaming. Such cleaning takes a little time and prevents the appearance of old stains of fat on the walls.
Practice shows that fresh pollution at home is removed much easier. Still old spots of fat are an ideal place for the settlement and reproduction of bacteria, which then enter the food, so preventive cleaning is the key to health.
Hopefully these simple microwave cleaning tips will ease your fate and make the care of your appliance quick and comfortable. Good luck
