Young people like college students can live off takeout foods. They, in fact, love the taste of restaurant burgers, pizzas, and all those delicious items. For this, they seldom feel the need of a stove and can do with just a microwave for days. However, we adults do need a stove to cook up fresh hygienic food for our loved ones, as well as to keep our culinary skills in practice. But in the process of doing so, we often end up having super-greasy filters on our stove and slowly our kitchen turns into a very dirty place. Read on to learn about their adverse effects and to find some handy solutions to get rid of the grease.
How does a dirty stove hood filter affect the house?
If you see the grease and dirt forming on the stove hood filters but don’t clean them up real quick, it can harm the breathable environment of your house. Because cooking with these filters will release harmful chemicals like formaldehyde, nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide inside your home in huge amounts. For their presence, you and your family might find it harder to breathe normally. An electric stove, on the other hand, can convert dust into vapor and produce ultrafine particles in the process.
How the grease forms on the filters?
When you use the stove for food which requires frying, the functioning exhaust fan will pull in all the greasy steam. This steam will then pass through the filters where some of them might get stuck. In case the fans are vented outward, the rest of the steamy air roams around your house. Even if they are not vented to the outdoors, a lot of the grease can get trapped in the filters.
Three ways to get rid of them
- Scrub recipe
The first step to take off the filters from the stove hood. Usually, these are easy to take out by sliding it through the underside or pulling a metal loop. Heat up some water up to the boiling point and then pour them into a sink or a bucket. You can also turn on the hot water of your tap and do the same, but boiled water would have a higher temperature which is more beneficial for the process. Make sure it fills up space enough to submerge the filters inside the liquid.
After that, mix in some drops of dish soap and quarter a cup of baking soda. Stir it up to make the mixture soapy enough. Of course don’t use your hand to do so, use a brush or something similar instead. When it reaches the right level of consistency, slowly place the greasy filters in the mixture. Make sure, no part of them is sticking out of the liquid. Keep them soaked in this way for ten minutes.
When the grease has become softer due to the soaking, take a non-abrasive brush and start scrubbing the filters. Now it will be easier for you to take the dirt off in a much shorter time. You can also add more soap if you need at this point.
Lastly, rinse the filters with hot water and make sure no part is left soapy. Wipe them with a clean and dry cloth or towel.
- No scrub deep cleaning
If you are really tired for the day but you can see how bad the filters have got, we have the perfect strategy for you! To get a deeper cleaning with no scrubbing effort, take them out and put them in a huge ziplock bag. Then pour in half a bottle ammonia in it and tie it up tight, since we all know how horrible the chemical smells. Let them stay this way for a day. After that, wash the ammonia-soaked filters with just hot water and put them out to get air dried.
- Weekly maintenance
After you have taken care of the greasy filters for the day, don’t forget to keep up the maintenance by taking care of them on a weekly basis. This will prevent any dirt to stick onto them ever again. There are two ways to do this as explained below:
- dishwasher
For the dishwasher method, you just need to remove the filters and keep them on the highest rack of the dishwasher. It is okay if the washer has other utensils on it, but an empty one would be preferred. We also recommend using a home-made cleaning solution for this matter since they are more effective on grease. The hot steam will make the dirt and grease softer just like our soapy mixture, while the sprayed water will clean up all parts including the inner corners. Let them air dry once the process is over.
- non-dishwasher
If you don’t have a dishwasher or have got a damaged one for the moment, we got you covered for that too! But this one will take some more time in preparation than all other options.
Boil up some water on the stove and pour in half a cup of baking soda. Stir it very slowly since a lot of foam will keep forming. This is where all your patience will be tested.
Once you are happy with the mixture, pour them in a heat-resistant container like pots or flat rimmed baking sheets. Then simmer in the filters for just five to ten minutes for the grease to loosen up. Using a toothbrush, you can scrub out the dirt to fasten the process. You can flip them over with tongs to get to the other side. After they are done, rinse them thoroughly with hot water and keep them out to air dry.
Following these methods regularly will stop your stove filters from catching any unpleasant odor or grime. As a result, the ambiance of your kitchen will become more elegant and also, it will be safer from air pollution.
