This Common Cleaning Product Can Ruin Your Toaster Oven (Skip It!)

Toaster ovens can get grimy pretty quickly, can't they? Whether you're just using it to crisp up your morning English muffin or turn it on to make full meals (really — there are quite a few unexpected meals you can make in a toaster oven), it's smart to clean your toaster oven out regularly. Doing so, however, can be kind of tedious. Grease becomes caked-on, and it can be tough to reach all the nooks and crannies of your machine. It makes sense that you think it's a good idea to use your go-to oven cleaner to tackle the mess in your toaster oven, but it's actually not. Most oven cleaners are caustic, meaning they can easily corrode the delicate surface of the interior of your toaster oven. 

The metal inside toaster ovens is often coated to create a non-stick surface. While oven cleaner's caustic nature means that it's a great fit to stand up to the tough, greasy messes in your oven, it can degrade the non-stick surface of the metal inside your toaster oven, so you'll want to keep it in the cabinet until it's oven cleaning day. Whether you've got a basic version or you've shelled out for one of the absolute best toaster ovens money can buy, keeping your appliance clean can no doubt help it hold up over time. Thankfully, you've got options other than oven cleaner that can help you get your toaster oven looking shiny and new.

You likely already have everything you'll need to clean your toaster oven lying around your kitchen. To get started, you'll want to take all of the removable components of your toaster oven out of the machine so you can let them soak in the sink (be sure to unplug your appliance before you start the cleaning process). You can then get started with scrubbing the interior of your toaster oven. Try beginning by mixing baking soda with a bit of water, then using it to scrub away some of the gunk that's accumulated on the inside of your oven. After you've scrubbed the interior, use a damp cloth to wipe the baking soda paste away. From there, you can spritz the inside of the toaster oven with vinegar, or you can give it another scrub with some water and dishwashing liquid.

If you've got seriously tough gunk that you just can't seem to scrub away, you may want to try closing up your toaster oven and turning it on. Let it cool off to the point where it's a tad warm (but not to the point where you'll get burned), then see if the gunk is a little bit easier to remove. You can also try hitting it with a Magic Eraser or similar cleaning tool (this is also a great cleaning hack for your full-size oven). While using these methods takes a little more time and elbow grease than slapping on some oven cleaner, it's well worth it to get your toaster oven clean the right way.