8 Expert Tips To Fix And Clean Kitchen Gear | Gear Heads



Hannah and Lisa show you the most efficient ways to keep your favorite kitchen equipment sparkling clean and in tip-top shape.

Buy Lisa & Hannah’s Picks:
All-Clad 12″ Fry Pan With Lid:
Bar Keeper’s Friend:
Technivorm Moccamaster KBT:
Urnex Descaling Powder:
Quickie Bottle Brush:
Kitchenaid Artisan 5 Qt Stand Mixer:
Nerd Chef Standard 1/4 Baking Steel:
Nordicware 1/2 Sheet Pan:
Teakhaus Edge Grain Cutting Board (XL):

Learn More:
How to Clean Your Dutch Oven (and Why You Maybe Shouldn’t!):
3 Common Stand-Mixer Problems and How to Fix Them:
5 Tips To Take Care of Your Pizza Stone or Steel:
My Baking Sheet Warped. Now What?:
Caring for Wood Cutting Boards and Utensils:

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23 Comments

  1. Careful on the suggestions they are making always consult with the manufacturer first

    The manufacture of my stainless steel skillet frying pan suggested baking soda and vinegar, and it works wonders but you also have to make sure that your pan is cool before you start to clean it

    As far as the thermos again paste of baking soda and vinegar, why spend more money than you have to those two products are dirt cheap and do a wonderful job you just have to get the right consistency

  2. After working Bar Keeper's Friend into a paste, leave it to sit for about 5 minutes allowing the oxalic acid to work on the stains. It increases the effectiveness while reducing the amount of elbow grease required.

  3. OMG. The tip regarding raising or lowering the paddle was a game-changer! I've had my Kitchenaid Stand mixer for over 30 years and figured the problem was just due to age. It's nice to know there was such an easy fix.

  4. When cleaning or descaling your coffee maker, I use 'Denture' tablets. I place two tablets with warm water in the water reservoir and run through the cycle. Run a rinse cycle and voila. This works on a single serve as well, just put in an empty puck/pod (I use a refillable/reusable one, empty) and complete the same process. Thanks for all these amazing tips & ideas.

  5. I used to gm high end coffee shops. For coffee staining on urns, glassware, or pretty much anything else nothing beats Cafiza. Buy the powder for cleaning, not the tablets. After you run about a tablespoon through your coffee maker you end up with a full carafe of hot cafiza, which will clean literally anything else you have that has staining. Just keep pouring scrubbing and reusing until eventually it becomes discolored.

    I've come across very few things that hot cafiza won't clean, up to an including the mesh filter bags that we used to use to make cold brew. Make sure you rinse thoroughly and repeatedly run multiple clean water cycles etc, but the stuff is used in commercial coffee shops all the time for espresso machine cleaning and is totally safe as long as you rinse thoroughly afterwards. It also won't damage your glassware / etc, like a lot of other things can do over time. It will eventually weaken plastic if you soak it in it for a long period of time, but a quick scrub is safe. Best to stick to glassware and ceramics though in my experience.

    Trust me, the results are nothing short of miraculous.

  6. For burnt-on grease or food residue in a stainless steel pan, I fill the pan halfway with water and a little dish washing detergent (e.g. Dawn) and sprinkle the burnt areas with baking soda, then let come up to a simmer over low heat on the stove. When the baking soda starts to foam up, I turn off the heat and let the pan cool down with the solution still in it. I've rarely had to use heavy scrubbing to clean a pan after that, it usually comes clean with just a scrubbie sponge.

  7. I watch a lot of home cooks present their winning recipes, some are really spectacular. However, often times they use great stainless steel pans like Allclad that are really disgusting. Don't they know about Bar Keepers Friend? Furthermore, it's very distracting from an otherwise good presentation, so much so, I only concentrate on the burnt on grease!

  8. For cleaning the Coffee Carafe I use a couple of Cafiza tables, throw them in with a pot of Hot water…. 30 minutes later your done… may want to keep the bottle brush handy but for the most part it's done…. Cafiza is made to remove residue, coffee oils, and lime scale deposits from your espresso machine, but works on drip carafes as well:-).

  9. I bought a beautiful stainless steel skillet before moving into our new home where I had a new induction cook top range. It was the first time I used both the skillet and the cook top, and like a fool, I just skimmed the info re: the induction cooktop. I put the skillet on the burner, plopped a couple of tablespoons of butter into it, and turned on the cooktop. Man! When they say induction is fast, they aren’t kidding! I turned away to open the package of the product I was going to add to the skillet, and in literally less than 30 seconds, I turned back to the skillet and realized the butter I had just put in was already foaming! In the seemingly nano second it took for me to pull that skillet off the burner, the butter was already burning! I ended up using one of my stick-free skillets, and then, after dinner, went online to find a way to restore my new, and now burnt, skillet. I found some instructions on several YouTube channels saying to use baking soda. Well, I cleaned up most of the damage, but not all, even though I cleaned it as instructed 3 different times. I finally gave up and thought that, though it didn’t look like the new skillet it was, it would hopefully still work okay the next time I used it. It is still in my cabinet and I haven’t used it once since, cuz I’ve been so concerned about further burning the stuff I didn’t get off of the skillet. I’m going to pull it out tomorrow and see if I can fully restore it with the Barkeeper’s Helper I have. Let’s hope it works. I’ll come back and let you know afterwards. Thanks!

  10. Worth noting that on kitchen aid stand mixers (and I would assume many other brands) repairs to the gear assembly aren’t terribly difficult. I’m not a handy person AT ALL, but when our stand mixer broke, I was not going to let my hubby toss it for a new one. Parts schematics are online, parts are cheap and easily accessible, and there are plenty of YouTube tutorials that will guide you through the whole process. All told, the whole thing cost me ~$85 and was extremely rewarding.

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