How to Clean Melted Plastic

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With the number of plastic items used in a kitchen, you'll inevitably find yourself cleaning melted plastic out of your oven.
Image Credit: Henrique Westin/iStock/GettyImages

With the number of plastic items used in a kitchen, you'll inevitably find yourself cleaning melted plastic out of your oven. Plastic on kitchen cooking appliances is not only detrimental to our health, but it can also damage the appliance. It may seem like the end of the world, but if you find yourself trying to get rid of plastic in oven appliances or off a stove burner, there are a couple of methods you can try.

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Cleaning Melted Plastic

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According to Fantastic Services, when trying to clean out plastic in oven appliances, you have two options: the cold method or the warm method. When you need to remove plastic out of an electric or gas oven, you should use the cold method. The cold method will freeze the plastic and make it easy enough to break off with a knife or scraping tool.

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First, you're going to put an ice bag on top of the plastic and let it sit there until the ice melts. When the residue becomes hard enough, you're going to scrape away as much of the plastic as possible. You should be able to get rid of big chunks of plastic using this method. When the residue of the plastic is gone, you're going to clean the oven with detergent.

Self-Cleaning Oven

If you have a self-cleaning oven, the warm method works a lot better for cleaning melted plastic. You're going to use the heat from the oven to melt the plastic. Before you start this method, you need to open all of your windows and turn on the fan.

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Next, you're going to turn on the oven to its lowest setting and let the plastic melt a bit. Then, using a wooden spoon, scrape off the melted plastic. When all of the plastic is out of the oven, you can run the self-cleaning cycle to get rid of any leftover traces of plastic.

Melted Plastic on Stove

The most irritating part about cleaning melted plastic on stove coil burners or oven elements is the smell. Turn on your range vent hood, then turn the stove on so it can soften up the plastic. According to GE Appliances, you don't want to let the stove get too hot because it might burn the utensil that you're using to scrape the melted plastic.

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When the plastic gets soft enough, you're going to scrape the melted plastic on stove coils with a wooden spoon or spatula. Try to remove as much melted plastic as you can. If there is any plastic leftover, turn the unit on high and let the rest of the plastic burn off. Make sure your windows and vent hood are always on during this process, so the fumes don't overpower your space.

Plastic on Wood-Burning Stove

You're going to need a putty knife, oven cleaning solvent, detergent and a microfiber cloth if you need to remove melted plastic from cast iron wood burner surfaces. First, you're going to turn on your fan and open up your windows. This will allow any fumes to exit your space. Next, you're going to start the oven and wait for the plastic to melt a bit.

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Using the putty knife, you're going to scrape up the melted plastic from the warm stove. Then, you're going to stop the stove and let it cool off. When the stove is cooled, you're going to apply the oven-cleaning solvent to get rid of any of the extra plastic. After you do this, you can clean the stove with soapy detergent and wipe the surface with a microfiber cloth.

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