What is the effect of oven cleaner on kitchen countertops?

Oven cleaners have a tough job, and they’re great at what they do. Not many chemicals are powerful enough to clean messes that were baked in at triple-digit temperatures. Unfortunately, their herculean strength means that they aren’t suitable for general use throughout the kitchen.

Oven cleaners are made from incredibly strong, toxic chemicals. It can easily damage common kitchen materials and should be used only for their intended purpose.

If used on countertops, an oven cleaner can cause permanent damage. It can break down and corrode the counters, leaving you with an expensive, destructive bio-hazard. So what kind of effect does oven cleaner have on certain materials?

Effects of Oven Cleaner On Different Counter-tops

Wooden Counter-tops

Oven cleaner is strong enough to break down metals and stone. With that knowledge, it’s not hard to imagine how destructive it is to something ask weak as wood. If you plan on using it to use your butcher block, think again. The oven cleaner will start to melt down the wood into a bubbly goo, which is not healthy and will permanently destroy your counters.

Stainless Steel Counter-tops

We often imagine stainless steel to be a powerful material irresistible to corrosion and rust. While the material has definitely earned its reputation, there is still no comparison when it comes to oven cleaners. Your counter-tops might not be physically destroyed, but they will most likely be stained by the oven cleaner. You heard that right! Even stainless steel isn’t stainless when it touches oven cleaner!

Tile Counter-tops

It’s pretty common for oven cleaners to be tried on tile countertops. People think that it might be due to the trick to clean the messes out of the grooves in between the tiles. Unfortunately, using oven cleaner on tile countertops will eat away at their topcoat, and mess up the caulking after a period of time. It’s just not what should be used on tile.

Marble Counter-tops

If you’ve got marble countertops in your kitchen, they must surely be strong enough to be cleaned by oven cleaner, right? While they may not be destroyed by oven cleaner as much as other materials, marble countertops can be stained by oven cleaner, and their patterns can fade entirely in extreme cases.

Conclusion

Oven cleaner is a bad idea for every single kind of counter-top. Unless you’ve refurbished your kitchen with spare parts from old ovens, you will likely cause permanent damage trying to clean it with oven cleaner. In fact, an oven cleaner is supposed to work while the oven is turned on, and there’s no way to get a kitchen as hot as an oven.

If you’re frustrated with a stain or mess that won’t come out, do your research on what you’re trying to clean. What is it made out of? What do the experts recommend for tough stains? It’s never a good idea to try random chemicals on something to clean it. Oven cleaner is a prime example of this. It’s great for cleaning ovens, and that’s about it.