I have an electric kettle that spent a few years being unused while standing around a kitchen with airborne or aerosolized grease etc.
Now the outside is coated with a dusty layer of grime that I would like to remove, but don’t know how. I tried wiping it with straight (undiluted) white vinegar, which seemed to do … absolutely nothing.
I can’t soak it or run it through the dishwasher, obviously. What do I do?
(British Dopers, these are common in your country. Suggestions please?)
The inside is pretty clean, so this is mostly a cosmetic concern. But dang. I’m not much for perfect cleanliness but this is ooogy even by my standards. Besides, I don’t have a whole lot of use for it and may want to sell or give it away eventually, so I’d like it to be presentable.
I’ve recommended it before, but the British product Grease-Off made by Astonish cleans things really, really, really well. Plus it’s Cruelty-Free. Spray on then rub off with a brillo pad gently. * Or even a cloth.
It is very, very easy to break an electric kettle by letting water get where it’s non-optimal ( or by not having water in and turning it on ). USA Site — Grease-Off This site says out of stock, but maybe there are local stockists.
Interestingly Brillo type pads were invented around 1900 to an immigrant to America, who sent back to Germany for steel wool since it wasn’t available. Then he injected them with soap. Ingenious.
This and use a brush. Think you are making it more complicated than you need to OP. It may take a little scrubbing but it should come off with dishsoap and elbow grease.
Simple Green usually makes short work of that stuff, has degreasing properties. After that, use Dawn dish soap and baking soda as the above poster mentioned. Put a paste of it on an old toothbrush to get in between knobs, handle, buttons etc… If that doesn’t work somehow, id be surprised and then get a different kettle lol.
Vinegar is useless on grease. You need something that cuts grease. Detergent cuts grease.
Some people here will be aghast, but I’d just fill the sink with hot water, a bunch of dish soap, then chuck the whole kettle in there to soak for a day. Remove the power cord if it’s detachable. Adding more soap & water every few hours as the sink slowly drains down.
After a day, scrub it vigorously with a sponge or other non-scratchy but still toothy tool. When you’re done it’ll be real clean. Any grunge left is permanent scarring of the surface.
Now just set it out in the sun for a week to ensure all the innards dry out before you plug it in. You haven’t used it in years. What’s another week?
ETA: If you’re cleaning it up to give or throw it away I don’t know what to say. The value you “save” doing that work won’t pay for the water, the soap, or the time. The world is bursting with kettles in landfills and kettles in second hand shops and kettles in basements. Which gigantic pile of kettles yours ends up on next is utterly, utterly immaterial. No matter what, we know which of those piles it’ll spend the rest of eternity sitting on after at most another 10 years in some other pile.
