How to cover burner eye pans for easy clean up

Forget scouring and scrubbing those burner eye pans on your stove. Cover them in tin foil and now the clean up’s a breeze.

Photo Credit: Dan Fletcher
By Emma Salkill

Keeping a new stove in good shape is so much work. All that wiping and scrubbing when a spill occurs can be a hassle. One way to cut back on all that cleaning is to line various parts of the stove with tin foil. Many people put tin foil in the bottoms of their ovens to make spills easier to clean. You can also put foil over the burner eyes and when spills happen simply replace the foil.

Clean the eyes well by running them through the dishwasher or scrubbing them in a sink of hot water. If they are tough to clean try soaking them in ammonia or lemon juice. Rinse well. Oven cleaner does a great job as well. When the pans are spotless it’s time to wrap them in foil. Buy the thick type of foil meant for grilling and heavy duty jobs. Thin foil will give you problems as it tends to rip while you fold it over the edges of the eye pan.

Gas and electric stoves are different. Gas stoves have a long pan with circular openings where the flames come out. An electric stove has a metal pan under each eye. For a gas stove line the entire pan including the sides. To do this lay a long piece of foil across the long pan. Smooth it down into the shape of the shallow pan before smoothing upwards to do the sides. Fold the foil over the edges of the entire pan. Poke a small hole in the center of each eye area. Tear the foil in three or four places to make it easier to fold under the burner hole. Fold each of these tabs into and under the burner hole.

For an electric stove remove each eye pan. They are shaped like a circle with a partial square cut out for plugging in the eye. Tear off a piece of foil and tear it into a square a little larger than the eye pan. Smooth it into the center of the pan first then smooth the inward sides. When you get to the cut-out of the pan tear out a notch to make a tab that will fold down behind the cut-out. Now wrap the foil around to the backside of the pan all the way around.

To make it a little easier on yourself tear off a large piece of foil. Lay all four eye pans upside-down on the foil and use a pencil or spoon handle to draw around the eye. Stay about two or three inches away from the edge of the eye pan while encircling it. Cut the circles out and lay the appropriate piece of foil on each eye pan. Now form the foil to the concave shape of the pan before wrapping around to the backside.

You can use colored foil if you want but make sure it is the heavy duty type of foil. When spills occur and you get to them quickly you can usually just wipe them off of the foil with a damp cloth after the eye cools. If they become burnt on simply tear away the old foil and replace it with the new.