The Correct Way To Polish Stainless Steel

Polishing stainless steel can be a tedious but necessary task to make sure your appliances stay in tip-top shape. Our team at Appliance Educator wants to make sure that you are polishing your stainless steel the best way, and avoid using cleaners that can cause permanent damage. We will also dive into which brand polisher works best compared to others. Check out our latest blog for more!

When testing out which stainless steel cleaner worked best, we decided to test it out on a classic stainless steel range and a black stainless steel range. A huge thank you to ZLINE Kitchen and Bath for giving us two ranges to use for this project. Be sure to check them and their professional ranges out here.

We went through some trial and error to dirty up these ranges to make sure you could tell exactly how clean they are or aren’t getting. We also labeled them with tape, as seen in the video, to easily compare brands.

Brasso and Maas were our two least favorite stainless steel cleaners. They are designed for many finishes such as brass, stainless steel, and aluminum, but they were found to be very abrasive. For high-end appliances, there is a chance of scratching the finish off with these cleaners. In our test, the Maas actually did take off the finish while the Brasso scratched the stainless steel.

Black stainless can be tricky, as cleaning can depend on the manufacturer. With ZLINE, they use a PVD finish which is a process used to coat stainless steel a certain color. Maas removed the finish with each swipe.

Weiman wipes, Magic, and Noxon performed the best. Both got most of the grime off, and the original finish stayed intact. We also tested CLR, but that cleaner is not designed for stainless or black stainless appliances, it is mainly used to remove rust.

It did the job as it should but ended up leaving many streaks on the stainless steel. We would not recommend it for these ranges, but for faucets and sinks, it would do the trick quite nicely.

Our favorite stainless steel cleaner is the magic foam spray. To begin cleaning, find a soft microfiber rag. If you don’t have one, you can use a paper towel, but be sure it is high quality and very soft so it will not damage your stainless steel. Lower quality can risk scratching your stainless steel.

Next, spray your stainless steel with the magic foam spray. It can go a long way, so be sure not to use too much. Remember, you can always add more if you need to.

When wiping, be sure to go with the grain of the stainless steel and not against it. If you get close to your appliances, you should be able to see this. If streaks from the spray start to appear, fold your rag to find a dry place and continue wiping.