# Who in the name of pluperfect hell named it "stainless" steel?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 24, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715 "2006-10-24T15:15:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/1 "2006-10-24T15:15:26Z")
Granted, it’s difficult to permanently stain it. But don’t let anyone sell you on the idea that it’s easy to keep clean.
My fridge and microwave have brushed stainless steel fronts. They show fingerprints instantly, as well as stray water drops or other insignificant kitchen schmudge. If only you could just quickly take some windex or other spray kitchen cleaner to them, it might not be a big problem. But no! You must use some sort of imported yak butter to clean them. Apply the fancy stainless steel cream, buff it with a luxury chamois for twenty minutes or so and voila! You have clean stainless steel. For about two minutes, or until someone does the unthinkable and actually touches it. Then it’s dirty again. Easy, huh?
I know those old “orange peel” finish fridges were sort of homely, but man, were they easy to keep clean. You could scrub them clean with a kitchen scrubby sponge in one minute, and you didn’t have to be careful to leave no streaks, as nothing minor was visible on that finish.
As I get older, I begin to detest high maintenance surfaces. I’d like to finish my entire home in cheap linoleum so I can clean the whole place in ten minutes. Well, I’m off to wax the microwave. See you in a week or so.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/2 "2006-10-24T15:23:09Z")
If it were non-stainless steel then, unless it had some coating like tin, chromium or paint, it would quickly get coated with rust in the normal kitchen – and that rust wold be much harder to get rid of than your fingerprints.
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### Author:  [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/3 "2006-10-24T15:24:47Z")
Rustless steel would have been a better name. One of the worse decisions I ever made was to choose the stainless steel version of my gas grill instead of the black one. What a pain!
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### Author:  [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/4 "2006-10-24T15:28:48Z")
My stainless steel microwave suffers the same problem. It looks really purdy, but I feel like I need to buy some kind of microwave cozy so that it stays clean, but then I’ll have to keep explaining to people, “Yes, but underneath it’s beautiful stainless steel!”
My iPod is even worse. It’s _shiny_ stainless steel, not even brushed. It’ll pick up your fingerprints from inches away, and you can’t clean it without handling it and replacing the fingerprints you just wiped off. I swear, if I ever bludgeon someone to death with my iPod I’m completely screwed.
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### Author:  [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/5 "2006-10-24T20:48:12Z")
[QUOTE=Mindfield]
My iPod is even worse. It’s _shiny_ stainless steel, not even brushed. It’ll pick up your fingerprints from inches away, and you can’t clean it without handling it and replacing the fingerprints you just wiped off. I swear, if I ever bludgeon someone to death with my iPod I’m completely screwed.
[/QUOTE]
Amen! Who thought putting a mirror finish on an object that gets handled a lot was a good idea? :dubious:
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/6 "2006-10-24T22:19:52Z")
They don’t call it stainfree steel. But it will stain less. It will even rust under some conditions. I’ve seen German knives with the blade stamped “rostfrei” (rust free.) That’s a bit less accurate.
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### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/7 "2006-10-24T22:28:35Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown]
As I get older, I begin to detest high maintenance surfaces. I’d like to finish my entire home in cheap linoleum so I can clean the whole place in ten minutes. Well, I’m off to wax the microwave. See you in a week or so.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe we can form a Bay Area High Maintenance Surface Haters Club? Fortunately for me, apartments tend to go with cheap low-maintenance surfaces. Of course, I’ve also gotten pretty good at ignoring stains between the times when the cleaning woman comes…
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### Author:  [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/8 "2006-10-24T22:29:36Z")
I hate stainless steel because at my last job (pizza joint) all our prep tables and our undertable fridge/freezer had stainless steel doors and they never looked clean for more than 5 minutes. I love the way it looks but it really is a bitch.
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### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/9 "2006-10-24T23:00:40Z")
Iwork in a store where almost everything we sell is shiny and touchable. I spend a good portion of my day polishing fingerprints off the chrome and the sterling and the silverplate…and the gunmetal finish, and the rhodium… Why people think it is okay to wander through our store munching on buttery popcorn and fondling the sparkly things is beyond me. I love the look of a stainless steel appliance, but I get enough of polishing it up at our church kitchen to last a lifetime. Give me that white pebble finish any day!
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### Author:  [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)
#### Post date: [October 24, 2006, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/10 "2006-10-24T23:49:27Z")
I don’t really know what it is, but the GE fridge that came with our house looks like stainless but is mercifully coated with something so it shrugs off all but the grossest of dirty hands.
The dishwasher? OY! Pure unadulterated stainless, and a magnet for dribbles and doggie nose prints.
But, the gas range is worst of them all. The front is catch every passing smudge stainless, and the top is show every blessed thing gloss black. I have never hated a major appliance so badly in all my life. It looks gorgeous for about five minutes after a complete scrubbing and buffing with the yak butter and “streak-free” windex, but then a fly lands on it and marks it all up with its footprints and it looks like hell again.
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### Author:  [@Tikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tikki)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/11 "2006-10-25T04:11:52Z")
It’s been a while but I used to work in a pizza place where we would wipe down the stainless steel surfaces with mineral oil after cleaning. I don’t know if that repelled stuff like fingerprints or helped them to blend in but it did seem to make those surfaces look nicer longer. Except for the high-use area like the pizza prep station and the oven handles, of course.
Mineral oil can be found in drug stores and is very cheap. Perhaps it would be worth trying it in your home.
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/12 "2006-10-25T04:31:24Z")
[QUOTE=teela brown]
My fridge and microwave have brushed stainless steel fronts. They show fingerprints instantly, as well as stray water drops or other insignificant kitchen schmudge
[/QUOTE]
Those aren’t stains, they’re just marks. It’s not called Impossibletomark Steel or Easytoclean Steel. The name stands as valid.
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### Author:  [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/13 "2006-10-25T05:38:48Z")
You guys are making me feel much better about my low-end, butt-ugly appliances. Thank you!
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/14 "2006-10-25T12:17:01Z")
In their defense, PigIron refrigerators just didn’t market very well.
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### Author:  [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/15 "2006-10-25T18:56:59Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords]
But, the gas range is worst of them all. The front is catch every passing smudge stainless, and the top is show every blessed thing gloss black. I have never hated a major appliance so badly in all my life. It looks gorgeous for about five minutes after a complete scrubbing and buffing with the yak butter and “streak-free” windex, but then a fly lands on it and marks it all up with its footprints and it looks like hell again.
[/QUOTE]
Yep, that’s our range as well. After I scrubbed the top a couple of times, I started fashioning an aluminum foil “cap” for the top, cut to size with holes for the burners. This cut down the cleaning labor considerably. Mr. brown is not at all pleased, because he says it looks tacky, but Mr. brown is not the one cleaning it. We had a bit of a row over it, as a matter of fact. I pointed out to him that a range top is not the hood of a Ferrari, and that in a house with plenty of cooking going on, it was bloody well going to wear a foil cap because I wasn’t going to try to keep it looking black and glossy all the time. So there.
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### Author:  [@Baron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/16 "2006-10-25T19:10:15Z")
I had a SS fridge at one time, and I found that after cleaning it, polishing the entire thing with, believe it or not, olive oil–gave it a shine that lasted way longer and resisted marks much better than an unpolished SS surface. You have to polish it enough so that the surface no longer feels greasy from the oil.
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### Author:  [@Jurph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jurph)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/17 "2006-10-25T23:06:28Z")
[QUOTE=Anne Neville]
Maybe we can form a Bay Area High Maintenance Surface Haters Club?
[/QUOTE]
This, in the city that is constantly repainting its bridge? Maybe the 38 painters employed to keep that bridge orange can be founding members. They should at least get honorary membership cards.
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### Author:  [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/18 "2006-10-25T23:27:25Z")
A little baby oil on a soft cloth cleans my ss appliances fine and dandy. It smells good, too.
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/19 "2006-10-25T23:39:43Z")
[Magic Wipes](http://www.organize-everything.com/ststmawi.html)
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### Author:  [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)
#### Post date: [October 25, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-in-the-name-of-pluperfect-hell-named-it-stainless-steel/377715/20 "2006-10-25T23:52:08Z")
Most stainless steel cleaners I’ve used leave a protective oily film… which isn’t a really surprising thing to do with a bare metal surface. Wipe them down with a little food grade mineral oil after you’re done cleaning them.
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