To clean a greasy or sticky stovetop or the wall behind it, a little ammonia straight out of the bottle will quickly solve the problem – and without scrubbing. Nothing dissolves grease as well or as quickly as ammonia. A lot of people don’t buy ammonia because of its unpleasant odor, but keep this in mind. The odd thing about ammonia is that when it evaporates, it leaves no odor behind – none at all. Zero. You can smell most cleaners long after the water in them evaporates, but not ammonia. I recommend using paper towels rather a sponge when using ammonia to remove grease. It can be very hard to get grease out of a sponge. Never mix ammonia with other cleaning agents, especially bleach. Ammonia and bleach react chemically with each other to produce chlorine gas, which is very dangerous. Ammonia is cheap. A large bottle of Parsons sudsy ammonia costs under $2.