Should You Be Cleaning Your Sheet Pans With Dryer Sheets?

Dirty sheet pans can be such a pain to clean, especially after cooking messy meals like baked salmon with cream cheese or oven-baked baby back ribs. More often than not, you just end up getting water all over as you try to scrub away a burnt-on mess with as much elbow grease as you can muster. Suffice it to say, any trick to make this process easier is something we'll jump at. This leads us to the viral dryer sheet hack, which can supposedly clean your sheet pans with almost no effort. But is it too good to be true? Well, it depends on who you ask.

In 2018, Today published an article espousing the wonders of using dryer sheets to remove grime from pans and bakeware. According to them, the mess-removing power of dryer sheets can likely be chalked up to the conditioners in them, which help loosen stuck-on messes. After a test, Today claimed that the dryer sheet method worked and that it completely removed the need for scrubbing. However, Allrecipes conducted the same test in 2021 and experienced different results. After soaking a dryer sheet on a dirty sheet pan, they noticed that, while some bits of gunk came loose, scrubbing was still ultimately required.

So, do dryer sheets work for cleaning pans? Possibly, but that doesn't mean you should attempt it at home. Dryer sheets contain a ton of chemicals, including quaternary ammonium compounds, which can cause skin irritation or respiratory issues. Moreover, dryer sheets are usually packed with fragrances, some of which can cause contact dermatitis, migraines, or other allergic reactions in sensitive individuals. Plus, as one Reddit user found out, these fragrances can linger even after washing a pan, potentially ending up in your food. Unless you want a hint of Gain or Snuggle in your next baked meal, it's best to steer clear of this cleaning hack.

While dryer sheets should be kept away from your sheet pans, that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other great methods for getting even the grimiest pans sparkling like new. One of the most efficient options involves combining vinegar and cream of tartar. Although you might think of baking soda as a go-to cleaning agent — and we'll get to that — cream of tartar, a tartaric acid that's a byproduct of winemaking, works just as well for removing grime. With this method, all you have to do is cover your pan with cream of tartar and then moisten it with white vinegar. The acidic mixture should sit for about eight hours, after which you can wipe your pans clean with minimal scrubbing.

Another method to try combines baking soda and hydrogen peroxide. Once you cover the pan in baking soda, spray it with peroxide and let it sit for a few hours or overnight if you can. It will take a bit of scrubbing, but nowhere near what you'd face with dish soap and hot water. This combination works because it produces carbon dioxide that helps loosen stuck-on gunk. However, you should never mix peroxide with vinegar as this creates a corrosive peracetic acid that can be harmful. 

Also of note, you should avoid combining vinegar with baking soda, as the acidic vinegar and basic baking soda essentially neutralize each other to form a mixture of salt and water, making for a poor cleaning agent. If you want to use vinegar to clean your sheet pans, it's best mixed with cream of tartar while baking soda goes best with hydrogen peroxide.