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No (sigh) you should not use water to clean the inside of your toaster | Fact check

Gabrielle Settles   Paste BN
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The claim: You can clean a toaster by letting water run through it in the sink

A Dec. 15, 2023, Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows a woman scrubbing her toaster in a sink with soap and water. She uses the faucet to run water through the inside of the appliance and picks up the toaster to shake the water around inside it.

“This is how you clean your toaster,” she says. “Look at that! It’s already so sparkly, it’s amazing.” 

The woman puts the toaster back together and waits for it to air dry before testing it out with a piece of bread. The toaster briefly billows with smoke as it cooks.

The video was shared more than 4,000 times in a month. 

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Our rating: False

Water should never be used to clean the inside of a toaster, experts say. It will damage the internal parts of the appliance and could cause a fire when it’s turned on. Only dry products such as a toothbrush should be used to remove the crumbs inside.

Use dry, not wet, products to get rid of the internal crumbs

Appliance company KitchenAid warns in a fact sheet that submerging a toaster in water “may cause damage to the internal components.” 

Interesting Engineering, an online magazine, explained how the damage occurs: when an electronic device gets wet, the ions in the water cause electricity to go where it shouldn't – causing the circuits to short and the metal components to corrode.

Ideal Home, a British home decorating magazine, decried a similar video of a woman washing her toaster in the sink, stating in an article that doing so could cause a fire hazard.

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Paste BN’s Problem Solved shows the best way to clean a toaster is to first – shocker – unplug it, and make sure it’s cooled. It says to remove the crumb tray and brush off any excess crumbs. Home advice website The Spruce writes that the crumb tray can be removed, washed with soapy water and dried completely before sliding it back into the toaster. 

Problem Solved shows that a dry toothbrush can be used to brush off the crumbs from the inside of a toaster – but it says to avoid the heating elements. New York Times’ publication Wirecutter wrote that the outside of a toaster can be cleaned with a damp paper towel, cloth or sponge with a drop of dish soap to get rid of stubborn stains. 

Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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