We Tried A Coffee Ground Hack To Clean Oven Racks. Were The Results Bitter Or Sweet?

I love everything about coffee. When I read that I could use coffee grounds to revive my oven grates from burnt-on food and grease stains, I truly wondered if I could love it for a whole new reason. Having been in my London apartment for two years, I am ashamed to say I have only cleaned my oven once. The last time I disliked it so much that I have avoided it ever since — the potent fumes and heavy scrubbing were not my ideal way to spend a Saturday, so since then I've been on the lookout for the easiest ways to clean oven grates. But some sites report that soaking the grates with a few tablespoons of coffee in hot water is all you need.  

I was skeptical. Coffee grounds have lots of unexpected uses and work great as an all-natural abrasive, so they made sense to me as a scrub. But most advice said this hack requires little more than soaking, rinsing, and drying the grates in a coffee-infused soak. Plus, coffee beans are full of oil themselves, and though oil can help to loosen some syrupy messes, it can also be quite sticky itself. To remove food stains, I typically use a basic dish soap, degreaser spray, or powdered abrasive like Bar Keepers Friend. But I decided to try it out as instructed and see just how magical coffee grounds can be. 

I removed the grates from the oven and put them in my stainless steel kitchen sink. It took me about 5 seconds to realize this was ridiculous, as the sink was way too small. I decided to do the coffee soak in the bathtub instead. My bathtub needed a good clean anyway, so I figured this was sort of an extra test — would the coffee ground soak manage to remove the grease, dirt, and soap scum build-up of my bath as it worked on my oven grates? An added bonus is that this allowed me to use my shower head to spray the grates down at the end. 

I decided to fill the tub first with very hot water so I could clearly see whether it alone was enough to get grease and food debris off the grates, before adding in the coffee grounds. A few flakes of dried, burnt food fell off, but nothing significant happened otherwise. Since I was filling a large basin, I decided to use a half-cup of grounds, though smaller areas like sinks or plastic tubs would likely only need a few tablespoons. Then it was time to play the waiting game — I opted to let my grates soak for two hours to give the grounds plenty of time to work their magic. 

As I set my timer, I noted how nice the whole thing smelled. Since it's a good practice to keep a few cups of coffee grounds in the bathroom as a natural air freshener, I liked this effect immediately. I closed the door and let the coffee grounds do their thing. When the timer went off, I checked the grates. The water was very dark brown, almost as if I brewed a bathtub-sized pot of coffee (go figure!), so it made it hard to see much of anything. I drained the bath, then hosed the grates down with plain old water to see how the coffee grounds did all on their own.

At first glance, I thought things looked pretty good, until I realized I wasn't staring at residual coffee grounds, but just totally unmoved burnt grease spots. Straight away I realized that this hack had been overhyped at the very least, because I was not staring at a scrub-free task. I got my Scrub Mommy (available from Amazon) out and started to gently scrub at these greasy bits, but they did not easily lift as I had hoped. Further, I saw that this hack left me with a thick band of greasy coffee stains all around the tub. So I was treated to still quite dirty oven grates and a comically grubby-looking bathtub that needed a good scrub down as well. 

You heard it here first, folks. Coffee grounds are not good at cleaning oven grates, at least not when left to passively soak. I even used a mixture of coffee grounds and dish soap to make a paste that I scrubbed the still-dirty grates with, hoping that the abrasiveness of the grounds would help to at least physically break down the sticky grease. But this was a fruitless endeavor, and my arms were sore from all of the scrubbing. Even after that, there were still some stains, rust spots, and a few sticky globs of what I think must be the remnants of some saucy spillover. For what it's worth, the coffee grounds didn't hurt the oven grates, and it was nice not to worry about coming in contact with heavily toxic fumes or liquids while I rinsed them and put them back in the oven. 

In terms of the bathtub residue, these stains were easy to wipe away with the help of a sprayable bathtub cleaner and my handy dandy Scrub Mommy. If you're someone who enjoys satisfying cleaning videos, you will enjoy being able to easily see where you've already swiped your rag through the oily stains. But cleaning your oven shouldn't require you to immediately deep clean your tub, too, so this hack was an all-around letdown.