Wednesday 17 September 2014

Living & Science: Magical Home Science of Range Hood Cleaning

What can Baking soda, dishwashing detergent and hot water do?
Image from Locky's English Playground
Feeling upset by the greasy range hood in the kitchen but too scared by the foreseeable elbow grease you have to put into the cleaning job? I have a magic to share with you today! I have been wanting to try this out for awhile, and I finally mustered enough courage (hm... actually, I was  just lazy) to try it. 

This is nothing new and have been widely shared on the internet, but the first time to be reported to you from my personal experience. 

Sink terms 1
Image from techques.com
Sink terms 2
Image from Visual Dictionary.com
Range hood terms
Image from rona.ca

You will need
  1. Baking soda / Bicarbonate of soda / sodium bicarbonate. I bought this from ParkNShop for about $18. I am sure this is a rip-off but it is the only way I can get hold of it.
  2. A good dishwashing detergent (DWD). I use AXE.
  3. Boiling water, freshly boiled!
  4. Gloves, make sure it can protect you from the hot boiling water
  5. A sponge 
  6. A piece of kitchen cloth
  7. The terms involving a sink and range hood (see images above).
Effervescence once baking soda meets hot water and detergent
Image from Locky's English Playground
(I should have taken a photo of the greasy, dusty, black and crazy hood filters, but I was over-excited that I have completely forgotten about it. I will probably take the missing photos again in the future to perfect this article, but as for now, these are all I have.)

Step 1:
Make sure you have the stopper firmly pressed down.

Step 2:
Add a generous amount of DWD and 1/4 cup of baking soda into the sink.

Step 3:
Add boiling water. You will see an exciting display of effervescence once the hot water comes into contact with the baking soda.

Step 4:
Stir the mixture gently to mix the solution well, then let it sit there for 10 minutes, although from my observation, the filters were actually immediately cleaned within 10 seconds, but you don't have to rush, right?

Step 5:
While your filters are being auto-cleaned, put on your gloves and wet the kitchen cloth with the hot hot hot solution and clean everything else in the kitchen, such as...

Don't waste the solvent, clean everything else! Good as new!
Image from Locky's English Playground
 ... the faucet, the handle, the escutcheon, the water filter,...

Look at this range hood!
Image from Locky's English Playground
 ... the motors...

Range hood never looked better!
Image from Locky's English Playground
... the fans, the hood body, the kitchen walls, etc.

Cleaned! Very clean!
Image from Locky's English Playground
By the time you have completed the other stuff, your filters should be grease and dirt-free!!! Exactly how effective is this method?

Shiny without dirt or dust!
Image from Locky's English Playground
 You can easily see it from my photos, can't you?

Wanna bet this is more effective than scrubbing hard with elbow grease?
Image from Locky's English Playground
 Simply put it, they are as good as new!

There's more! A very clean sink!
Image from Locky's English Playground
And you have a beautifully polished-like metallic sink once more!

Huge success!!!! Have a go yourself!


Difference between baking soda and baking powder
According to About Education, baking soda is the pure sodium bicarbonate / sodium hydrogen carbonate form  NaHCO3, while baking powder contains an acidifying agent and so you are not getting 100% of the sodium bicarbonate you pay for. For cooking it is fine, but for cleaning, it is the pure form you want.

Baking soda is an amphoteric compound -- reacts with both acid and base, and this allows it to remove different kind of stains, dirt, proteins and grease. Since there are too many to be listed here, maybe you can check out this A-Z Stain Removal Guide, HowStuffWorks and Wikipedia for more details.


Vocabulary:
greasy -- (adj) covered with or full of fat or oil
foreseeable -- (adj) A foreseeable event or situation is one that can be known about or guessed before it happens.
elbow grease -- (n) informal a lot of physical effort


Resources:
How To Clean a Greasy Range Hood Filter — Cleaning Lessons from The Kitchn @The Kitchn

The Chemistry of Cleaning Clothes +HowStuffWorks 

What Is the Difference Between Baking Soda & Baking Powder? +About.com

Sodium bicarbonate @ Wikipedia

A-Z Stain Removal Guide: Instructions For Over 100 Types Of Stains 






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