Maintenance of stainless steel

Stainless steel is rust-free, so maintenance is not necessary… Right? If only this were true! Even the best materials need maintenance to keep them looking new all the time. Just like all other materials in and around your house, stainless steel also gets dirty and will have to be cleaned regularly.

Contamination can also occur on stainless steel. Think of pollution from grease in the kitchen, handprints on stair railings and door handles, dust on stair gates, and pollution from weather influences on your balustrade.

Many people think that stainless steel is completely maintenance-free. The biggest and most persistent myth is that stainless steel cannot rust. Almost every day we explain to our customers that stainless steel must be cleaned and maintained, otherwise, rust can indeed occur on stainless steel. The most common form of rust on stainless steel is flash rust. Start cleaning immediately after using or installing your new stainless steel products. This increases the lifespan of your product and prevents problems due to pollution and corrosion. Furthermore, your stainless steel will continue to look nice and clean. In this blog, we explain how you can best do this.

How can you clean stainless steel?
There are countless cleaning products from many brands for sale for cleaning stainless steel. Chances are that you will no longer see the wood for the trees due to the large supply, because which cleaner do you use in which situation? Over the years, we have established experimentally that there is not just one cleaner that can be used in every situation to clean and maintain all your stainless steel handles.

There is a suitable cleaning agent for every situation. We can divide these into the following categories:

1. Maintenance immediately after installation
For stainless steel that is mounted outdoors, such as exterior door fittings and fences, the following applies: proper maintenance starts immediately after installation. A suitable agent for this is Innoshine B570.
Clean stainless steel that is installed indoors immediately after installation only with a soft, damp cloth.

2. Regular maintenance
Periodic maintenance of stainless steel indoors and outdoors is very easy and takes little time. The best cleaning agent for maintaining stainless steel is simply soapy water with lukewarm water. Regularly wipe stainless steel door fittings, balustrades, and house numbers with a damp cloth. This also applies to, for example, stainless steel banisters and extractor hoods.

In addition, you can use our stainless steel Cleaner Spray to give a nice shine to the stainless steel surface. This spray can be used both indoors and outdoors.

3. Tackling flash rust on stainless steel
Rust on stainless steel is the most misunderstood form of corrosion. You can read all about this in our blog about flash rust. To remove flash rust, we have included a special stainless steel rust treatment kit in our range. This kit is available in 100 ml and 250 ml and consists of a stainless steel rust remover and a stainless steel caretaker. The caretaker provides a protective layer on the stainless steel, which prevents new rust as much as possible.

4. Cleaning heavily soiled stainless steel
Stainless steel that has not had any maintenance for a long time can use a freshening up. Unmaintained stainless steel is often heavily soiled and can be recognized by green, brown-yellow, and dark spots. To clean this you can use Pelox stainless steel cleaner. This cleaning agent is based on acid and therefore has a great cleaning effect on highly contaminated surfaces with flash rust, grease, and oil contamination. Products based on an acid should be allowed to act for some time and then rinse with cold water.

Get more aluminum door locks and handles

Please note: because this product contains acids, this cleaner can affect other materials. For this reason, you should not use this product on, for example, natural stone surfaces.

5. Brushing away scratches on stainless steel
Over time, light superficial scratches will appear here or there due to use, stupid bad luck, or accidents on, for example, your stainless steel table legs, stainless steel banisters, and stainless steel skirting boards. Unfortunately, you cannot escape this. If they are minor superficial scratches, consider treating them with a sanding fleece. This restores the K320 sharpening of stainless steel. However, we recommend only doing this if the scratch (es) really bothers you.

Note: sand in the direction of the grinding and not at right angles to it. If you do this, dull spots will appear that is very difficult or even impossible to remove. Never use steel wool to remove scratches on stainless steel.

Deep scratches must be removed mechanically. This is specialist work and should be left to the professional.

Do not use oil!
Last, but not least: do not use oil for cleaning stainless steel. From time to time we hear tips 'from grandmother's time', such as the tip that you could clean stainless steel with all kinds of oil, such as olive oil, lettuce oil, or baby oil. We absolutely do not recommend this when cleaning stainless steel. It is of course the case that a surface will shine nicely if you make it greasy with oil, but this is not cleaning. The grease that deposits on the stainless steel on, for example, an extractor hood in the kitchen is greasy in itself and must be hygienically cleaned.

Imagine that you lubricate a stainless steel surface, such as a banister, with baby oil. Anyone who grasps this railing gets greasy hands. This is then left in other places that they touch with their hands, such as door handles, cabinets, and even your own clothes, leaving greasy finger stains all over the place.