The best stainless steel cleaners to buy in 2026: Consumer Reports

Not every stainless steel cleaner removes grease without leaving a streaky film. Consumer Reports evaluated nine on grime removal to find the best

Pille R. Priske / Unsplash

Stainless steel appliances look striking when clean but show every fingerprint, grease smear, and watermark within hours of wiping. Dedicated cleaners are formulated to lift oily residue and leave a thin protective film that slows future smudging, which general-purpose sprays typically can't do. Not all of them deliver on that promise. Some leave streaks and require far more effort than others.

Consumer Reports soiled refrigerators and dishwashers with a flour-and-water mixture and vegetable oil fingerprints, left the mess for three hours, then applied each of the following nine cleaners to see which ones performed best.

Method Stainless Steel Cleaner Polish

Credit: Method Products

At $5.98, this liquid spray costs $1.74 per ounce, making it the most expensive cleaner Consumer Reports tested. It was the only product that removed tough stains in a single application, outpacing all eight other cleaners in speed. CR found the spray required about six minutes of scrubbing to fully clear the soiled surface, with vigorous buffing needed afterward to eliminate soapy streaks. CR noted the cleaner is completely scent-free, which it flagged as unusual among products marketed as fragrance-free.

Sprayway Stainless Steel Cleaner &........

© Quartz