Stainless steel takes a light touch

Stainless steel appliances. They're eye-pleasing, sleek and darned near a cliché these days.

That means a lot of people are wrestling with the same problem: how to keep stainless steel clean, ward off scratches and keep a notoriously touchy surface factory-fresh.

"It is a surface that requires a certain amount of attention," said Celia Kuperszmid Lehrman, deputy home editor at Consumer Reports. "A good way to understand that is to go to the appliance section at a store and look at the appliances. And you'll see they often do have fingerprints all over them."

If there's one silver lining to this, it's that manufacturers of appliances and household cleaning products have heard the concerns and fired back with waves of cleansers, coatings and stainless steel alternatives.

Scott Bennett, a kitchen and bath designer at Home Depot, recommends Stainless Steel Magic, which he said minimizes fingerprints and gives a polished look. Simple Green's Stainless Steel One-Step Cleaner & Polish is another winner, he said, and both cost just a few dollars. Stainless steel responds better to dedicated stainless cleaning products, he said.

"You can use other cleaners or just soap and water," Bennett said. "But it will probably leave streaks and water spots. If you just take a damp cloth and wipe it down, you'll have streaks, and you'll do nothing to prevent fingerprints."

Others say it comes down to personal preference.

"It's not going to give you a great shine, it's just going to clean it and remove smudges," he said.

Whatever you use, don't overdo it, he said. Fingerprints, smeared surfaces and grease buildup come largely from using too much stainless steel cleaner.

Consumer Reports has found few differences among cleaners and recommends that consumers pick the least expensive option available, Kuperszmid Lehrman said.

Another cleaning key: Use a lint-free cloth. Paper towels will work fine, but lint-free microfiber probably will produce the best results.

Some cleaners will fill in scratches. If sanding is your only real hope, however, there are solutions available, such as the $30 Scratch-B-Gone kit, which includes several grades of sandpaper.

But there is a skill involved.

"If you go across the grain, you get more scratches and can make it even worse," Muscoplat said.

Make sure that your brush strokes are straight and that you don't curve away at the end of each one, he said. Test your skills first in an inconspicuous spot.

The end result, Muscoplat said, is hard to argue with, especially for a do-it-yourself project.