How To Clean Burnt Sugar Off Glass Stove Top

Cleaning a glass stovetop is much harder than it looks, people don’t understand how delicate you have to be a glass top stove to avoid damage. Having the best cookware for glass top stove does help a lot, but you can still drop food products and end up burning them like sugar.

You should always avoid burning anything on your glass stove, especially sugar.

Eventually, it will lead to pitting where you develop holes in your glass top stove. This is something you never want to deal with, because it usually ends in a replacement.

But whatever your reason for having melted sugar on your glass top stove, I have the solution to remove the burnt sugar.

Best ways to clean burnt sugar off glass stove top

I’ve took the time to burn some sugar onto my own glass stove so I can see which method is most effective at removing it.

Once the sugar is burnt, it becomes carbonized, which means it becomes insoluble to water. That’s why you need some science behind your tactics to remove burned sugar, because although it’s been carbonized, there is always a way to break carbonized substances down.

Below I have gone over each method on how to remove burnt sugar from a glass top stove.

Plastic Razor Blade

The plastic razor blade is definitely the most effective method to remove burnt sugar from a glass top stove. Although burnt sugar is carbonized it can be moved rather than broken down quite easily, and the plastic avoids damage to the glass.

Using a plastic razor blade, place it at a 45 degree angle, don’t worry about the angle to much it’s just to make it more effective and nothing to do with avoiding damage.

Now try and chisel away at the bottom layer of the burnt sugar, essentially you are trying to create a small dent so you can apply some force.

Once a small indent into the burnt sugar has been created, you can go ahead and apply some force.

Ensure you keep the plastic razor blade flat so the corners are not at an angle where they will dig into the glass stove.

Ever since I tried this method, it’s my go to. It’s incredibly effective and easy to do. Quite cheap as well. You can purchase the set I use below, or look for some alternatives.

Wet Cloth

This method is not very effective at all, although it can help removing some off the unburnt sugar away to give you a better view of the burnt sugar.

Get a cloth and wet it with water and leave it to rest on the burnt sugar, any sugar that is not carbonized should soak right in.

Leave this for around 15 minutes, and see if its possible to remove the burnt sugar.

Again, this did not work for me at all, I would avoid this method.

White Vinegar and Baking Soda

Don’t worry, there is science behind vinegar and baking soda.

As carbonized substances are an alkaline, acidic products are your friends. Acid cancels out alkaline as they are at the opposite end of the PH scale.

That’s why they make oven cleaner extremely acidic, because it can tackle the hardest of carbonized stains.

Simply warm some vinegar up, and rub it into the burnt sugar. Then apply some baking soda on top which will create a small reaction with the vinegar and eat away at the burnt sugar. Baking soda is also an alkaline, which is why it reacts with the acidic vinegar.

Leave for 30 minutes, and simply scrub away with the abrasive side of a sponge. Be careful when the burnt sugar clump breaks though, as you don’t want to scrub tiny pieces of burnt sugar into your glass stove as this can leave scratches, so take care once you get to the scrubbing part.

Lemon

Again, lemon is very acidic. That’s why we can’t eat a lemon by its self, the sourness will overwhelm. And although its perfect for recipes, it’s also perfect for burnt stains too.

Simply squeeze some lemon juice onto the burnt sugar, rub it in and let it sit for around 30 minutes. Finally, scrub away.

You may have to reapply a few times depending on how much burnt sugar you have on your glass top stove.

Metal Razor Blade

This would be my last option. A single edge razor blade is extremely sharp, and one wrong move can leave your glass trop stove with a permanent scratch. So if you use this method, do it with extreme caution.

You need to use the razor blade at a 45 degree angle. This is extremely important as it’s the perfect angle to take off the burnt sugar whilst going against the flat surface of the glass top stove so you don’t scratch the glass.

Use the razor blade at a 45 degree angle, and slowly push it into the burnt sugar, this should hopefully scrape off any melted sugar that has landed onto your glass top stove.

Again be very careful with this method and make sure you use a razor blade properly at the correct angle.

Conclusion

Although burning things leads to it being carbonized, there are ways to remove it once it’s bonded to the glass and get it looking like new again.

As discussed above, plastic razor blades are always the way to go first, they cut through burnt materials with ease without damaging your glass top stove. Keep in mind you should always use a razor blade that’s plastic, and always avoid using a harsh metal single edge razor blade

Using the other methods above, you can remove the burnt sugar with ease from your glass top stove. And in future, you should always try to avoid anything burnt on the glass top stove to avoid pitting.

If you enjoyed this, you might also be interested in how to protect your glass top stove from cast iron.