How To Clean a Toaster Oven Inside

No one likes cleaning, especially when it comes to cleaning the inside of intricate kitchen appliances. This often leads to people having dirty kitchenware which can cause problems for the survivability, efficiency, and general safety of the devices in question.

Looking at a toaster oven, you might notice that it has a lot of removable parts. The parts that you can’t remove can be particularly fiddly and even dangerous to clean if you don’t know what you’re doing, so taking your time to learn how to clean a toaster oven is essential.

When I started using a toaster oven, I had no idea what I was doing. Really, it’s not that different from cleaning a regular oven in places, but I still think that it was important to teach people my little tricks to get it looks spotless. If you want to get a clean toaster oven all the time, read this guide and you might never have to worry about smudge marks and stains again.

Table of contents

• How To Clean A Toaster Oven Tray / Grill
• How To Clean Toaster Oven Glass
• How To Clean A Toaster Oven On The Outside
• How To Clean Toaster Oven Heating Elements
• Conclusion

In the middle of your toaster oven’s cooking cavity, you will find a tray or a grill. It doesn’t matter which type of insert you have in your toaster oven because those ones can be taken out.

If you have ever cleaned an oven before, you will probably have all the correct skills. You simply need to take the tray or grill out of the appliance and wash it properly with dish soap. Then let it dry and you will be able to put it back into your toaster oven.

Some toaster ovens are designed to toast a lot of bread and, as such, have crumb trays. Just like a conventional toaster, these can be attached or detachable. Depending on what kind of crumb tray you have, you will have to take the crumbs out and clean it in a slightly different way.

If it is a removable tray, you can simply slide it out and pour away the crumbs. Then you can wash it with dish soap and allow it to dry. It is key that the crumb tray is dry before you put it back – if it isn’t, it will cause extra crumbs to stick and create a gooey mess.

If it is not removable, then you will need to do some clever positioning. Moving the toaster oven to the edge of your worktop and over a bin. Then use a small brush to sweep the crumbs into the bin. Then clean the tray with soapy water (being sure not to let water get close to the power plug) and allow it to dry before slotting it back in.

If you don’t clean the glass properly, you can end up with streaky finishes. This can even make the glass look dirtier than when you started. No one wants that, so you need to use a few tricks to get the best, clean finishes on your toaster oven glass.

Take a cloth or piece of kitchen paper.

Apply your glass cleaner to the cloth or kitchen paper and give it a wipe over. You will notice that the glass may look a little unclean now due to the streak marks or other dirty smears.

My toaster oven cleaning hack for this stage is to take a piece of newspaper. Newspapers are made out of a different kind of paper, so you don’t get a streaky finish. Simply wipe the newspaper sheets over the glass and you will be left with a clean finish.

Now you can do this in the exact same way as the outside, but I find that most of the stubborn stains end up on the inside. This means that you need to take extra care to care rid of the mess on the inside.

A second toaster oven cleaning hack – use a piece of lemon before you use the cleaning spray. The acids in the lemon will break down the grease or burnt food better. This makes wiping off the mess a little easier.

As an added bonus, your toaster oven should also smell a little nicer!

Depending on the kind of toaster oven you have, you might need to treat this section differently. I’m going to break it down into two parts: plastic and metal.

Plastic toaster ovens are a bit rarer than metal toaster ovens, but they do exist. They have the bonus of being completely wipe-down-able – you can take a cloth with some clean spray to take most of the grease and grime off the shell.

If you find that you have a particularly difficult mark on your toaster oven, do not use harsh chemicals. You could actually cause yourself plenty of damage – they only need to be treated with sensitive ones.

If you must use more than a standard cleaning spray and a bit of elbow grease, use a lemon wedge. This will break down the grime on the outside and you will be able to wipe the mess off easier.

Because you’re working with metal, you can be a bit rougher.

Following the tips above, you can also get rid of mean stains by using vinegar. This is especially true of white vinegar.

Apply the white vinegar to the outside stains on your toaster oven. You will notice that the grime will start to ease away from the body of the toaster oven. Now you can simply wipe it away and you are done.

If you have a particularly tough stain, you can also use a small amount of baking soda. This will start to fizz and eat away any dirt underneath. Don’t use too much though, otherwise, you will make a mess and (potentially) have to deal with fizzing baking soda on some of the more delicate parts of your toaster oven.

Heating elements are delicate parts of any toaster oven and they need to be treated with care. If you need to clean your heating elements (for example, because you’ve spilled food on them and it is making a burning smell any time you turn it on), you can use white vinegar and careful cloth strokes to clean it.

Make sure that the toaster oven is off and the elements are cool – even though the elements in a toaster oven are not as hot as the ones that are in a toaster, you will need to be careful with them. Touching a hot element is a very easy way to get a nasty burn.

Now apply the vinegar to the dirty spot. Taking your cloth, gently wipe on the element. Do not apply pressure or you will probably break them (you’ll know if you break them because they will literally snap).

If the stain does not come off with gentle strokes, put a cloth underneath the element and repeat the vinegar process with some baking soda. This will make a mess, but you will clean off the stain.

Cleaning a toaster oven isn’t difficult, especially when you know the tricks of the trade. Take your time to clean your appliance properly and you will be able to keep it in good working order for longer.