How to Clean the Cast Iron Grate of a Gas Stove Without Harsh Chemicals

It’s very easy but highly effective to clean the cast iron grate of your gas stove using only natural, non-toxic cleaners.

I don’t like harsh chemicals in my home.

They are bad news for your health and for the environment.

But I do like to keep my home clean.

Our grandparents didn’t have today’s cleaners and still cleaned their whole house with very basic ingredients.

Therefore, I am always looking for ways to clean my home with natural, non-toxic cleaners.

Among my favorites are white vinegar, lemons, sal suds, and a mild abrasive such as Bon Ami.

Since they are as natural as they come, you can easily combine them. I would highly advise against combining commercial cleaners, though!

The cast iron grate of a gas stove

You may know that I love to cook. We got our gas stove over a decade ago and it’s been great. We have cooked, boiled, fried, sautéed, and steamed many dishes on this gas stove. It is a hard-working appliance in our home.

Shamefully, I have not really cleaned it. That is the cast iron grate. The stainless steel top? Yes, of course, and that is fairly easy to do. It also shows dirt and spills more easily.

Recently, I was looking at the grates and they looked bad. Not only that, they felt bad. All those caked-on food splatters and spills made it very sticky.

There was no way around it – I knew I had to clean it!!

What cleaners to use for your cast iron grate?

Since I was dealing with mostly grease but also other caked-on food, I knew I needed a combination of cleaners.

I love sal suds, as it is a bio-degradable cleaner. It’s really multi-purpose.

Next, I knew that I needed to cut through the grease. Therefore, I chose white vinegar.

With all this baked-on food, I also needed a mild abrasive. Bon Ami is exactly that.

How to clean the cast iron grate?

I took the first cast iron grate and placed it in our bathtub. You want to be careful so as not to scratch up your tub. You might even consider placing some cloth underneath as protection.

Even when using natural cleaners, I like to protect my hands with household gloves. An old toothbrush is perfect to get into all the little spaces and corners (we always save and reuse old toothbrushes for jobs like this one).

Having my sal suds, vinegar, and Bon Ami by the side, I started scrubbing away. Basically, I was rotating around my three cleaners. In between, I rinsed the grates off with hot water to see which parts were clean and which needed more scrubbing.

I’ll be honest, there is a bit of elbow grease involved. But knowing that I won’t inhale toxic chemicals or drain them into the water system makes it more than worth it for me.

The whole process for both grates – that hadn’t been cleaned in over a decade – took maybe 30 – 40 minutes.

I assume that cleaning them on a regular basis will take much less time!

How to finish?

We also like to save old T-shirts and towels. Using one of those, I thoroughly dried off the grates. Since they are cast iron, you don’t want to keep them wet … (ahem … not what I had been doing over the years …).

Once they were dry, I poured some avocado oil on a dry lint-free cloth and applied a thin coat of oil to the grates. This protects both the cast iron from rust and from food sticking to it too much.

The verdict

I have to say that I wasn’t sure if I could clean both cast-iron grates using only natural cleaners. However, I am impressed with how well they turned out. The whole process didn’t take very long. It also wasn’t very hard.

Where to get the cleaners:

Bon Ami in your local grocery store or here

Sal Suds in your local grocery store or online

White vinegar in your local grocery store or here

Latex or household gloves in your local grocery store or here

Read more about natural cleaning:

My 11 favorite natural Cleaning Essentials

How to make basic household cleaners

All you need to clean your wood floors

Get your FREE Printable Spring Cleaning Guide HERE.

I would love to hear your comments and questions in the comments below!

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