# How do products like Cooktop Magic work?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 29, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025 "2004-12-29T00:22:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![aaelghat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c5a1d2/32.png) [@aaelghat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaelghat)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025/1 "2004-12-29T00:22:45Z")

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There are a number of products meant to clean glass or ceramic smooth cooktop surfaces. Why is it that these products seem to clean the marks that other cleaners (e.g. 409, simple green) can’t? Things like cooktop magic obviously aren’t abrasive, and the soap/detergent products don’t have the same effect, so is there some chemical reaction going on?

Is there a household substitute I can use to get the same effect? Thanks.

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**Author:** ![SavageNarce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@SavageNarce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SavageNarce)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025/2 "2004-12-29T13:15:12Z")

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> [@aaelghat](#):
>
> Things like cooktop magic obviously aren’t abrasive

Maybe, maybe not. A lot of “cleaning” products are abrasives, but the particle size is fine enough that they leave no visible scratches - “microabrasives”.

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**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025/3 "2004-12-29T13:30:42Z")

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> [@SavageNarce](#):
>
> Maybe, maybe not. A lot of “cleaning” products are abrasives, but the particle size is fine enough that they leave no visible scratches - “microabrasives”.

And that’s exactly what Cooktop Magic is - basically a SoftScrub for the stove. And it does indeed work amazingly well.

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**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025/4 "2004-12-29T16:18:05Z")

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When I moved into my condo, they provided me with several little bottles of the stuff, but I’m wondering - does that Soft Scrub work just as well? Because I have a bottle of that anyway for regular cleaning. I’m not sure I want to buy multiple products if one works just as well for both.

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**Author:** ![TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tellmei_mnotcrazy/32/3419_2.png) [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-products-like-cooktop-magic-work/282025/5 "2004-12-29T16:25:54Z")

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> [@scout1222](#):
>
> When I moved into my condo, they provided me with several little bottles of the stuff, but I’m wondering - does that Soft Scrub work just as well? Because I have a bottle of that anyway for regular cleaning. I’m not sure I want to buy multiple products if one works just as well for both.

I never actually tried SoftScrub, but my gut instinct is that it wouldn’t work as well; the consistency of Cooktop Magic was a little thicker, and I think some of the chemicals are different. That’s just WAG though, maybe someone knows for sure one way or the other.