With the proper use of your stove, you should find that you only need to clean your stove glass maybe once or twice a week. You should be wiping away a streaky brown smudge from your glass and certainly not caked-on black grime. For this stove glass cleaner showdown, I did all the things I tell my clients not to do: I shut all the air vents down and ran the stove at a shockingly low temperature, all with the aim of blackening the glass as much as possible.

VIDEO COMING SOON

The five stove glass cleaners chosen for this showdown were selected based on online reviews and those from my own customers. The selection included the viral Starwax ‘2-minute wonder spray,’ but also a standard own-brand stove glass cleaner found at a local supermarket. The fifth contestant in this stove glass cleaner showdown is something we all have at the bottom of our stoves: ash, which until now is what I have always recommended my clients use to clear the muck off their stove screens.

Each product gave slightly different instructions and recommendations for how to use their product, which were followed each time. Once the stove glass was nice and black (and cool), I went to work separating the stove glass into sections for each spray to show us what it can do. First up, the wood ash.

Since I’ve been lighting stoves, I’ve been using a damp piece of kitchen roll dipped into ash to clear my stove glass. So long as you were happy to add your own elbow grease, this did the trick almost every time. However, on the thickly caked-on black of this stove glass, the ash really struggled and left a sad smeary mess on its section of glass.

Next up to the plate was the viral ‘2-minute wonder spray,’ Starwax. I must admit, I was skeptical of how good this spray could be. I sprayed on the solution and waited patiently for 2 minutes. With almost no pressure at all, the thick black mess fell away with one gentle wipe! The only part of the glass left with any residue was the bottom left corner, which on later review of video footage, was missed with the solution applied. Very impressive.

Tackling the middle section of stove glass was the Helvet glass cleaning mousse. The online reviews put this in the number 2 seed (after the Starwax wonderspray, unsurprisingly), and I could see why. The Helvet mousse landed on and slid down the stove glass very gracefully and was just as easy to remove as the Starwax spray. The only thing left amiss from the Helvet finish was the window cleaner-like shine that the Starwax spray gave. A very close second place so far.

From this point onwards, the standard of competition went dramatically downhill. Taking on section 4 of the stove glass was the Fulgarant glass cleaner, complete with the logo of a chimney sweep on fire. Despite a complete coating of solution applied, as per its instructions, it failed to clear all the black on the glass and didn’t give anything remotely resembling a clear glass finish. Thumbs down for this one.

Finally, we came to the supermarket own-brand glass cleaner which, to its credit, behaved much better than predicted. Like the Fulgarant spray before, it failed to clear the entire section of black muck but did give a clear-ish finish on the stove glass, better than that of the Fulgarant and even the Helvet sprays. Thanks to the Fulgarant spray making such a streaky mess and the ash’s failed attempt at both grime removal and giving a clear finish, the supermarket spray claimed itself a respectable 3rd place and the bottom step on the glass cleaner podium.

After reviewing the footage taken it was clear that the Starwax ‘2 minute wonder spray’ was streaks ahead (pun intended) and was worthy of it’s viral status. The removal of grime was effortless and the glass was left as clear as the day the stove was bought – Not to mention, it left a really lovely fragrance in the air. I personally will be switching from ash to Starwax and will now be recommending the wonder spray to my own clients. What do you use to clean your stove glass? Will you be sticking with what you’ve got or trailing a new solution?

Want to try your own bottle of Starwax? You can find it here.