How to wash greasy stains

Frying on the stove usually results in grease splattering on the wall above and around the stove. Cooking fats can get stuck to the surface, especially old grease spots. And even after one wash, traces of the grease coating may still be visible.

But with the right product and method, it’s easy to clean the grease wall.

The experts have good advice — and we tested our homemade “wash-up porridge”!

Stay away from these cleansers

If you wash the surface and there’s still a coating of grease, you simply didn’t use the right cleaning agent or didn’t wash enough, believes Vibeke Scavenius, cleaning expert and CityMaid’s head of marketing and communications:

– For example, cleaning agents containing bleaching agents, ammonia, or bleaching agents should be avoided. It doesn’t work very well, Scavenius says, and it’s also something that will erode on the surface.

She also recommends steering clear of salt, vinegar, and conventional kitchen spray:

– This can harm health, says the expert.

Malin Skaar, cleaning expert and consumer director at Orkla, says the longer you wait to wash away grease stains, the harder they are to get rid of:

– It is useful to wash the wall immediately after cooking, then only water will do, Scar advises.

wash himself

Homemade cleansing porridge

Recipes for environmentally friendly, healthy, homemade cleaning agents that are supposed to be effective on grease can be found in abundance on the Internet. The ingredients that are often left out are either baking soda or baking powder—the latter because it contains, among other things, baking soda.

We tested one of these recipes, and you only need two ingredients:

• 2 dl of baking soda or baking powder
• 1 dl of warm water

This is what you do:

• Mix baking soda/baking powder with hot water in a bowl of hot water. Stir well until you get a suitably thick gruel
• Soak a clean microfiber cloth in the mixture, turn it over, and spread it over the entire surface of the cloth
• Let the porridge work on the wall for 30 minutes
• Then wash with a damp, well-wrung cloth
• Finally, wipe with a dry microfiber cloth or kitchen paper

You can see our result in the video above!

So it will be like this

Basic product recommend

Before cleaning a wall of cooking grease, Scavenius and Skar recommend checking what type of wall you have. Painted wallpaper and panels need a gentler treatment than, for example, stone, concrete and tiles.

“Some materials and coatings only hold up with a dry cloth, others can withstand washing with water, and still others can withstand washing with soap and water,” says Scar.

Experts say the best is to use an alkaline product, also called a base product.

Alkaline cleaners are particularly suitable for removing organic dirt and loosened oils and greases. Alkaline cleaning agents are often the more environmentally friendly option.

Scratches can occur

In order to effectively remove grease stains, Scavenius recommends the following method:

1. Dampen a microfiber cloth with lukewarm water and scrub the surface.

2. If that doesn’t do the job, you can dampen the cloth with water mixed with an alkaline product and wash it against the wall again. A liquid dish soap like Zalo works well. Repeat as needed.

3. If there is an extra, thick coating of grease, you can start by wiping off the worst of it with paper towels – before washing it off with a microfiber cloth dampened in soapy water.

4. Wipe again with a clean microfiber cloth.

5. Repeat points 3 and 4 until the fat is gone.

If the grease coating is too ingrained, instead of dish soap, you can use a slightly stronger alkaline product in water, such as one suitable for household cleaning, Skavinius adds.

Even if grease stains adhere tightly, Scar warns against messing up:

– Do not start using different and strong chemicals and clean it vigorously. Then it can quickly turn into shields that are difficult to remove, says Scar.

You should actually mix these

prevent with impregnation

If you have tile, stone, or concrete on the wall above the stove, the expert recommends soaking the wall when all the grease is gone. This will reduce the chance of grease stains settling and becoming ingrained, according to Scavenius.

– When impregnating the surface, water and grease are sealed in, while allowing the wall to breathe. Then grease and dirt will be washed off more easily and droplets of water vapor and spills will bounce back virtually, she says.

If you have wallpaper or panels, it’s smart first and foremost to put a protective panel made of glass, glass or metal, Scavenius advises.

– Then you will protect the wall from dirt, grease and water, and it will be easier to keep it clean.