How to Clean a Glass Cooktop

Heating elements hidden under a sleek ceramic-glass surface look much nicer than old-fashioned exposed coils, which are now found only on cheaper electric stoves. But there’s a catch: Cleaning the smooth surface of an electric or induction range or cooktop can be tricky.

Spills from sugars and starches in particular—when a pot of rice boils over, say, or when pancake batter splatters—are problematic, leaving brown residue and cloudy stains that don’t come off with soap and water. And some metal pots can leave scuff marks that resemble permanent scratches. After a while, your cooktop can become an embarrassing mess.

“But all is not lost,” said Jennifer Zink, a marketing manager for Schott, the company that makes the ceramic glass used on many of the cooktops available today. Zink is also an amateur candy maker who cleans her cooktop at home constantly, armed with a single-edge razor blade and ceramic-glass cooktop cleaning paste. Together, these two tools can restore a cruddy cooktop to nearly newish or just help you tackle dinner’s baked-on mess.