How to steam clean a microwave
Table of Contents
Steam cleaning a microwave is an effortless, cheap and easy way to get your microwave looking spotless, smelling fresh and oh so sparkly.
In this article and going to show you how I steam clean my microwave. I will run you through what you need, each step and a few little tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way.
Although you can buy fun microwave steamers to do this job, you really don’t need these and you can do this with stuff you probably already have in your kitchen right now.
You’ll be surprised just how easy this is. Let’s get to it.
What you need:
- A soup bowl with high sides.
- Some water
- A measuring cup
- White vinegar
- Sponge or cloth
- Optional: lemon juice or an essential oil of your choice
Step one
Measure out 1 cup of water and put it into the bowl. You can speed up the process by using boiling water here, but if you do this please be careful.
If your microwave is on top of your fridge or above your head, lifting boiling water in a bowl above you is a recipe for disaster. If this is you just use cold water from the tap.
Put a toothpick in the bowl to break the surface. This prevents the water from becoming overheated and exploding hot water everywhere!
Step Two
Add 2 tablespoons of vinegar into the bowl. Vinegar helps break down the food scum and oils that have been splattered in your microwave. It also makes it way easier when you come to wiping later on.
Tip: Add a squeeze of lemon juice or a drop or essence of your choice to leave your microwave smelling lovely.
Step Three
Set your microwave to high and microwave for 5 minutes. Keep an eye out to make sure that the water is boiling. We want to generate a fair amount of steam here that coat the surfaces of the walls start breaking down some of the baked on food scum.
The water will be boiling in the bowl just like when you boil water on the stove. If you haven’t got a bowl with high enough sides water will start to spill over onto the glass plate.
This isn’t a big deal but it can be a little annoying cleaning up all the spilt water after this step. If this happens to you try find another bowl that has high sides in relation to the water level so it can’t spillover.
Tip: If you microwave is really grimy, repeat this step. After microwaving for five minutes, leave it to soak for three minutes before repeating another five minutes of steaming. Be sure to top up the bowl of water before you do this though.
Step Four
Remove the bowl of water and set it aside somewhere safe, it will be really hot. Now remove the rotating plate and support and wipe out the insides with a damp cloth or sponge.
Step Five
This is the fun bit! Wipe out the insides with a damp cloth or sponge. You get to enjoy easily wiping out all the accumulated gunk that would otherwise be a real pain to remove.
Don’t let the microwave cool down too much is the added heat will help you shift all the oils and muck far easier when it is still hot.
Be careful here because you can easily burn yourself if you’re not careful. It’s probably best to use gloves to protect your skin.
Step Six
Put the plastic plate support and the glass plate back in and take a step back and admire your sparkly clean renewed microwave!
That’s all folks!
Hope you love this article let me know below if you have any other tips for readers. I’ve written a more in depth article on steam cleaning a microwave here, so if you want to know more please check that out.
