Control knob
The part of a cooker that gets the greasiest and tolerates the least. Steel wool is offered for the racks and forbidden here.
What not to do
Steel wool is unsafe on Control knob
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Named on the knob's prohibited list in the same document that offers it for the racks.
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that they must not be soaked or cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)
Oven cleaner is unsafe on Control knob
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that they must not be soaked or cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)
Scouring powder is unsafe on Control knob
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that they must not be soaked or cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)
Soaking is unsafe on Control knob
Unsafe
Do not do this. The risk is established, and it is described below.
Prohibited by the maker separately from the abrasives.
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that they must not be soaked or cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Disconnect from the power supply first
Start here
What this is, what tends to go wrong with it, and what to do about it.
Made from
What tends to go wrong
- Dustvia its material
Mostly textile fibres and skin, held by static as much as by gravity — which is why a dry cloth on a plastic surface makes it worse.
Why it is difficult: Static and dust, Mechanical action and abrasion, Why different surfaces get different dirt, Surface roughness
A concentrated water-soluble dye with nothing else in it. Nothing has to be emulsified or dissolved — the only question is whether the surface has taken the colour up.
Why it is difficult: Capillary absorption, Dye migration and colour bleeding
A sticky, yellow-brown tar film deposited everywhere at once. It is the reason a room smells after everything visible has been cleaned.
Why it is difficult: Adsorption of odour molecules, Solubility and polarity
Coloured by turmeric in most prepared mustards, and curcumin is a pH indicator — which is why an alkaline cleaner turns a yellow mark red.
Why it is difficult: pH indicators in stains, Fat-soluble pigments, Photodegradation, Pigment retention
The commonest cleaning problem that is not dirt. The tackiness is the plastic's own additive arriving at the surface, which is why wiping it off works for a week.
Why it is difficult: Plasticizer migration, Damage versus soiling
The science behind this: Solvent crazing, Static and dust, Solvents and polymers, Plasticizer migration
Part of Oven.
In detail
Control knobs collect cooking aerosol continuously and sit at the front of the appliance where hands reach them, so they are among the dirtiest parts of a cooker and among the most frequently attacked with whatever is to hand. The manufacturer's instruction is narrow. Soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge — and then a list of prohibitions that matters more than the method: do not soak the knobs, and do not use steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. Every one of those is something a reader might reasonably reach for on baked-on grease, and one of them, the steel wool pad, is explicitly offered for the oven racks in the same document.
What works
Soap is safe on, in specific conditions, Control knob
Safe only in specific conditions
This is only appropriate within specific limits, and nothing is established outside them.
Only within these limits:
- Soap and water on a soft cloth or sponge
- Wipe, never soak or immerse
- Nothing abrasive, and no oven cleaner
Precautions
- Check the manufacturer's instructions
- Disconnect from the power supply first
Evidence
Supported
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that they must not be soaked or cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)
Related
- Control knob is made from Household plastics
Sources for this page
Sources
Cleaning and Maintenance of Range
Whirlpool Corporation · Manufacturer documentation
Relied on for: That control knobs are cleaned with soap, water and a soft cloth or sponge, and that the knobs must not be soaked and must not be cleaned with steel wool, abrasive cleaners or oven cleaner. (states this directly)