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

If you have never used Bar Keepers Friend you will be amazed at how easily it cleans stainless steel pans.

Hint on Pizza Stones: Stone Countertop companies have lots of sink cutouts. Contact a few and ask them to cut a sink cut our down to about three inches smaller than the dimensions on your oven. I have two soapstone “pizza stones” I got that way for about $20/each. I put one on the upper rack, and one on a rack set two slots below it. Preheat the oven as hot as yours gets, and you have in essence a small version of a commercial pizza oven.

When you descale the coffeemaker, don't immediately discard the descaling solution. Pour it into glassware that has gone cloudy with mineral buildup (put a metal spoon into the glass first to avoid thermal shock) and let it sit for a minute. Empty the glasses and rinse well.

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.

I sent my 25-year-old KitchenAid back to the factory for new grease / restoration. The service was expensive, but well worth it for a mixer with sentimental value. We've baked so much over the years; I just couldn't replace it with a new one.

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 RU-vid tutorials that will guide you through the whole process. All told, the whole thing cost me ~$85 and was extremely rewarding.

No-scrub method. Cleaning the grease out of mesh screens on your range hood. You know, that gummy brownish grease film that won't break down in the dishwasher cycle and won't scub off with regular Dawn. Get a bottle of the cheapest, generic, house brand DISHWASHER gel that you use in an automatic dishwasher (NOT the dishwashing liquid ie Dawn, for hand washing ) and a preferably, rimmed baking sheet that the screen can completely fit in (or an empty kitchen sink if you dont have one and can set aside the time for the soak) place screens in baking sheet or sink. Pour straight, undiluted gel all over both sides of screens coating completely in every nook and cranny. A disposable paint brush you can find in the hardware and cleaning aisle in the grocery store works great for thoroughly painting on the gel & working it into the mesh. Let stand with gel, over night. No scrubbing required. The enzymatic cleaners in the dishwasher gel that breaksdown stuck-on food and grease, proteins and starches on your dishes, in its concentrated form will dissolve the thick built up grease film without harsh chemicals and the thick gel will cling to and get into the intricate mesh where scrubbers can't get to. In the morning under hot water, rinse thoroughly with your sink sprayer or under full stream until water runs clear. The mesh screens and fan are designed to capture grease vapors and trap them in the screens before they waft off into your kitchen and coat your cabinets and walls. So the soaking method will release a lot of grease trapped inside the screens that arent initially visible and which conventional soap and water scrubbing cannot reach or break down. Safe, no gloves required, no fumes no harsh chemicals.

I loved the adjusting the beater blade height on the Kitchen Aid mixer!!! I have had a Kitchen Aid mixer for over 25 years and have never heard of being able to adjust the blade. Thank you!!

Tip from a woodworker; pay special attention to the ends (known as "end grain") of any wooden product. You'll notice that any wooden product, (say a cutting board) 99% of the time splits along the ends first. Picture a piece of wood as if it's a bundle of drinking straws; drop water onto the sides, not a lot happens. Put water on the ends, the water is now in the straws. End grain absorbs water and water vapour much faster than face grain. There is now a lack of moisture equilibrium in the wood, areas are now expanding and contracting at different rates, from within the wood as well as the surrounding atmosphere. Something's got to give, and it's going to be the wood. There are many food safe, durable finishes that are great for sealing the end grain of your beloved kitchen tools!

I just threw away a deeply stained sheet pan. I thought it was not going to heat as well as it used to. Not to worry. I had already purchased a new NordicWare half sheet pan to replace it. Now I know not to toss out a well-seasoned, not ruined sheet pan. And the KitchenAid advice was very helpful. I need to use mine right away. It's been sitting for a while. Always learn something valuable from these videos.

Hi, just found your channel, love your presentation style. An alternative to the dishwasher tab for cleaning coffee/tea stains is to use denture cleaning tabs. I have a ton of Contigo mugs that I use daily, and after a few weeks of use they can look grimy, despite daily rinsing. In the UK a dishwasher is still not an everyday kitchen appliance, so dish tabs are quite pricey, whereas any of the Pound Stores will sell denture tabs cheaply, a tube lasts a good six months or so, depending on how many mugs you have... Keep up the good work.

Barkeepers Friend keeps my pots and pans sparkling! I’ve used it for years. A great video with helpful how tos!

To clean pans with burnt food, I found an easy way as well. Good quality washing soap (clothes soap) and water and soak overnight. Been using it for years.

I went through a bread-baking phase and my KitchenAid got a lot of use. It was starting to wobble and the head lock wouldn’t work. I learned that trick about the screw and adjusted it, and it’s working even better than the day I unboxed it! The dime trick is a good one, I’ll have to check mine against one.

Lisa's Stand mixer tips were excellent!

Best sheet pans, pizza pans and cake pans are USA pans, they are slightly more expensive but they don’t warp under 450F I use them on a regular basis and they clean well too.

I never see videos on how to clean a grater or sieve properly. That's what I need.

I love you guys! I’m so glad I can watch on RU-vid. You all are great 👍 😊

For my enamel cast iron I also use baking soda and water after I soak in hot water. I also use barkeepers friend for stubborn stains. I love the stuff.

Oh my the trick with the screw in the kitchen aid mixer is genius. I was annoyed that my mixer wouldn’t mix things in the bottom. It is now perfect! Thank you

Love it! Especially the stand mixer tips. P.S. THANK you for not doing the cast iron cleaning tips that we've all seen a millions times over at this point. I'm sure you were tempted, but we all know em. Great video!

During our drought our water started tasting like dirt so we started using our Britta Pitcher for coffee and the electric kettle. We could see scale build in the electric kettle right above the heating element and I would have to de-scale every 6 months. Nearly 2 years of using the Britta filter in the electric kettle every night - no scale at all.

I really like the info for the Dutch Oven but I'd like to know how to get the outside back to new, mine has this sticky gunk that just wont really come off.

For the Dutch oven try a paste of baking soda. It cleans well both ceramic and metal and much lower abrasiveness than BKF. Try cleaning burnt-on pans overnight with a solution of dissolved Oxyclean, which I have tried with success.

Great video Hannah and Lisa! Such useful tips!

I look forward to these videos, and they never disappoint!

I have to say that pouring all the crud you burned in your Dutch oven down the drain is NOT a good idea. Use a fine strainer to get a lot of it out or you might need a plumber sooner than you expect.

Totally agree on BKF. I keep a can of it next to the sink for many of these same reasons. Also, to help aid in cleaning stainless steel pans, put about an inch of water in the pan, then place it on the stove on medium/medium high until it begins to sizzle, then "deglaze" with a wooden utensil and most of the stuck on food will release, then if needed, BKF can finish the job, wash/rinse and dry and put away.

This was so helpful! Thank you so much for making this video!

You two are the bomb--or should that be bombettes--with your helpful gear tips and information. Thank you, chefs!

Very useful tips. Thank you.

Hi Ladies. I very much like and appreciate these type of videos. Informative and helpful. Thanks!

LOL I have been experimenting with different methods of cleaning the white enamel coating inside my Dutch over. So I'm so glad you did this episode. I never thought about bleach. I've tried just about everything else.. But the one thing I've found that also really works is denture tablets.. Fill the pot with water and heat it till hot but not boiling.. I have a 7qt so pretty large.. I add about 10... Of the overnight tablets to the hot water turn off the flame put on the lid and allow it to soak over night to about 24 hours. Drain the water scrub the pot well with a soap and water and rinse well. Sometimes you do need to repeat the process but most of the time once is enough. You can also scrub the inside of the pan with a mixture of baking soda and water..

These are amazing tips! Really enjoyed this video, thank you

So awesome, thank you Gear Heads!

Great real, no nonsense advice!

I use Barkeepers Friend with a Magic Eraser. It cleans literally anything.

I love that cutting board, got it two years ago and it's been a delight. Also yes I keep it oiled.

I love your channel so much!

Great tips. Thanks.

Denture cleaner works on your coffee carafe, too. Fill with Cool water, Add a few tablets, leave overnight, scrub with a brush and soap the next day.

I just bought bar keepers friend to clean my old allclad fry pans with the baked on gunk and it worked like a charm. It took more than one try on 1 of them but I'm sold.

Those were very helpful! thanks for making this video!

Thank you. I use Bar Keeper’s Friend ❤

Thank you for a very helpful video. Love it when you two do things Iike this as I was never taught these things before.

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 RU-vid 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!

I have made so many mistakes that I have just learned to fix!!! And I believe that there are a few that I’ll be able to avoid a few that I haven’t made yet. Thank you!!!

Never knew about how to fix the height on my mixer. Awesome tip! Mines better now. Just needed a quarter turn.

Very helpful video!

Very useful info! Thank you.

Great. Thanks😊

Just came by for my Hannah fix. Thanks, ladies!

I use my stand mixer all the time. In fact I am on my second one because I did not know how to do the maintence on it. This video is great ! Thanks!

Very helpful.Thank you.

Great tip for the coffee carafe cleaning. The dishwasher soap pod scrubbed the interior back to brand new.

The kitchen aids tips are great! thank you.

I use a product called One-Step which I use in beer brewing. Add a shake to a stainless-steel pan with water and let sit overnight, cleans up easy the next day. For boards and wooden utensils I use Odie's Oil which lasts longer than mineral oil.

Thank you

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.

Hi everyone. I have bought lovely old pans and glass/Pyrex ware at thrift stores. If there is smultz and gunk, I will use oven Cleaner on them. Just light spray and place in a garbage bag up to 24 hours. Works like a charm! I know oven cleaners are not good for the environment, so I use it sparingly. If it keeps quality cookware out of the landfill, I'm happy.

Oh wow, I bought a Teakhaus board six years ago, glad to hear it was your winner! It's got some minor knife marks but otherwise it's still as good as new thanks to periodic oiling.

I use bar keepers friend. My ex said it’s what his mom used on stainless steel cooper bottoms. Discovered bar keepers friend works for a lot of things. I also use Howard Butcher block conditioner food grade mineral oil for my kitchen wood stuff.

I found Bar Keeper's Friend many years ago and I try to never be without it! Besides cleaning pots, pans, and skillets....It will easily and safely remove cooked-on residue on your glass top cooking surface. My favorite tip from Lisa is adjusting the beater blade on the Kitchenaid....I've had several of them and I never knew you could adjust it! Awesome....I gave one of mine to my daughter and my granddaughter has one...passing this on to them! Hannah, I've never had my good quality sheet pans warp but this is great info to have handy. My pizza stone seems to be a lost cause and I've done what you recommended and just go for it! Thanks for validating my efforts!

Thank you 😊

I use SOS pads on my pans and baking sheets. I don't know what's in the soap in those pads, but it works amazingly well.

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.

I love this duo!

Barkeep and elbow grease makes all clad nice and shiny

I use washing-up liquid, baking powder (or baking soda), and citric acid (either powder or liquid) for most things to clean in the kitchen and it all works out fine. The big advantage of baking powder and citric acid is that it is totally safe to use. I descale with cictric acid which is the same agent used in "professional descaling" products, only for a fraction of the price. Baking powder or soda are great to clean out coffee and tea residue from the caraffe. For food residue in the skillet or pan, time is of the essence. MORE TIME. Leaving the skillet with a mixture of hot water plus washing-up liquid and some soda for some hours will definitely get most of the residue out very gently. Otherwise, orange oil is a potent fat solvent and scouring milk an effective go-to cleaning agent for anything metal.

This is great, love being able to maintain my cookware going as long as possible 👍✌️

Season 2 of The Bear had an episode where Sydney tells Tina to use Bar Keeper’s Friend on a pan that Tina thought was ruined. Tina was completely impressed when she saw how great it worked.

You two! ❤

Great video. Good info. I've got work to do....lol

For cheap pizza steels, you can get flat bar steel cuts from just about any industrial metal shop. I use two A36 plates (1/2” x 7” x 18”) that cost me less than $80. Yes, it’s two plates, but that doesn’t affect the quality of the pizza. Also, If they were combined to be a single plate, they’d be too heavy to move safely. I just leave them on the bottom rack (closest to element) and they hold the heat really well and prevent scorched bottoms whenever I cook sourdough in the cast iron Dutch oven . After a wash with vinegar and soap, I seasoned them like I would any of my carbon steel or cast iron cookware.

For cleaning your coffee carafe, try denture cleansing tablets! They are much less expensive than dishwasher pods and you use them the same way. I've been using them on my Thermos ever since my grandpa taught me that trick as a kid. :)

For Stainless Steel pans, heating it up and using a spatula to scrape it off sometimes can get a lot off. Basically deglazing. I like to use this really old, almost ruined nylon spatula. This sometimes is enough even to get the oil off. Sometimes a slightly heated pan makes Bar Keeper's Friend work better.

Thanks for all your useful episodes!

Wonderful information! Thank you so much, and please continue this series. I'm off to make Christmas cookies in June!

Many modern ovens have a self clean cycle where you leave the racks inside. If you have one of them, put your pizza stone in for the self clean cycle. Just make sure you have good ventilation. It'll produce a TON of smoke, but the stone will come out like brand new.

I bought food-grade oil for my leaking KitchenAid but was too scared to take it apart! So I found a RU-vid video that said to just turn it on and run until it felt warm on top (10 minutes or so) and it worked. I keep a paper towel in the bowl when stored just in case it leaks again and you are correct about running the machine once 8n a while.

You said SCHUMTZ!😂 I live in Muskogee, OK now. No one here as ever heard of Yiddish words like schumtz. Love you using it!

OK, but my question is about how to get the gunk *around* the rivets on the inside of my stainless off? I use BKF religiously, but I've never been able to get that off--and I've even used an old toothbrush to do it (maybe I should use my sonic toothbrush, but maybe I'm not that OCD).

Yep my mom taught me all about Bar Keepers Friend 50 years ago. Nothing better out there. Then I had that problem with my Kitchen aid just a couple of hours ago where I had to beat just one stick of butter but my whisk wouldn't reach the bottom of the bowl. Unfortunately my Kitchen aid isn't the tilt back model, so I don't know if I have that adjustability that yours has! Thanks for all the tips.

Thanks so much, ladies! So helpful! 🙂

Wow I didn’t realize that about the mixer. Thank you I will be using these tips 😮

I love all atk videos and tips but this one is the ultimate help. Thank you 😊 ❤😊 all at atk!!!

Bar Keepers? How about some good old Baking Soda or wood ashes like my grandma used to use and now I do it too bc they work, they are cheap & safe for both dishes and the environment. If you go camping, use those as well, it won't disappoint. I buy the 4 lb box for $3 at general dollar or any of those discount stores. The baking soda is great for cleaning jewelry, toilets sinks etc etc. For squeaky clean glass wear use run of the mill vinegar. A huge bottle for pennies. Just use about 1/4 c in your dish washing liquid. Your glasses will shine, waterspot free & helps prevent hard water deposits and removes existing deposits. Great for the environment too.

Submerging any hot pan or baking sheet into cooler water will warp it. Let them cool before putting in hot or cold water. Dark sheet pans are seasoned pans, rather than 'stained'. Avoid bamboo cutting boards. They dull knives faster, as they have a high silica (think sand) content.

I've been looking for a good way of cleaning up our 18qt NESCO cook well. I will have to try the Bar Keepers Friend method to see if that can take out the burnt sides we always get. BTW - I use a combo method to clean my stainless fry pans. I start with a dry pan add a small amount of Dawn liquid and a small amount of standard hand cleaner. I like to use Fast Orange with pumice. Most times i don't even have to scrub I can just use my hand and the darkened spots come right up. Then rinse clean and wash with dawn only once more just to be sure no hand cleaner is left behind.

For SS pots after stews or roasts I use a dishwasher pod, fill with hot water let sit for a few hours. Then rinse with dish soap to get the pod residue.

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.

I’d love one for cleaning a mandolin

Great video as always! I'm not sure if you've done many, but I would love to see some Pennsylvania Dutch recipes in the future. Great food that people don't normally talk about.

Thank u. Very helpful

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.

Thanks for the video 👍

Thanks so much, there were several times that I had an aha moment. 😁

i ❤ Lisa

I can't get Bar Keepers Friend where I am, but for my stainless steel cookware I use regular baking soda the same way and it works amazingly. A tip though - don't use a scouring pad with it; just a washcloth or kitchen paper, slightly dampened with water or detergent, will magically wash the burnt-on buildup away. (Using an abrasive scouring pad with the baking soda wears away the metal too drastically - if you did that, try wiping it with kitchen paper after to see just how much gray metallic residue comes off (as much as when you cook/wash with vinegar).

Could you please do a comparison of coffee descalers? I'm using one from Bar Keeper's Friend, but I wonder if there is any better ones for my calcium filled water.