Working the pan.

iLikeWaffles

Right have been trying clean the pan off the grill for the past week or so.



There are so many layers of grease on it that is completely dried in from years of use. First I tried Baking soda and vinegar which worked on the rest of the oven. I used an old credit card to scrub all of the grease off the glass door and cif on mediocre stains. I tried the baking soda and vinegar on the grill pan left it over night then scrubbed the next morning. That kind of worked on the less heavy stuff but not on the rest. I was literally scrapping off from the credit card and it was coming off in small bits.

I tried a few of chemicals.

HG BBQ spray the foam stuff - again that appeared to be taking the lighter stuff off and liquidizing it but it seemed that once the solution got too diluted with grease it stopped working.

Mister muscle foam cleaner - same as above.

Kilrock Oven cleaner - this is a brush on gel and it says to put it on when the oven is slightly warm and leave for up to 2 hours. All's that did was dry in after about 30 mins and stopped working. Again it lifted a tiny amount off but at that rate it would have been 300 applications before the pan was clean.

Was looking for oven pride but couldn't find it in any of the shops. I did find Oven Brite which is the same thing, sodium hydroxide. I've used the whole bottle now with two applications of steeping the pan in the bag overnight and hoping for the best. It is working but seems to stop breaking down the grease when the solution becomes too diluted.

Is there any other cleaning product that will break this grease down and give me a clean pan. I was thinking of using a two litre bottle of coke and baking soda. Anyone have any better solutions?


I probably could have bought a pan at this stage spent about €18 trying to clean this thing. I'm going to give it one more go before getting a new one.
http://www.buy-spares.ie/belling/cooker-oven/universal-grill-pan/product.pl?pid=27386&shop=belling&path=112737

I'd say the pan is about 60% clean at this stage. It's been well worked.

Loveinapril

I would say buy a new one and always line it with foil before use!

colm_mcm

Oven pride, or the Dealz version "mighty oven"

Once it's been left a few hours, Scrape off the worst of it with a wooden spoon or some other wooden kitchen utensil that won't scratch the paint, then leave it work again for a few hours or overnight.

Graces7

Hope you wore a mask while using all those chemicals...

iLikeWaffles

Graces7 wrote: »

Hope you wore a mask while using all those chemicals...

I was totally naked

Graces7

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

I was totally naked

picks jaw off ground.. :P

iLikeWaffles

Just to update. I reused the first bag

(with cloths on)

, other half of solution and left the pan in the Oven Brite stuff for 48 hours after the post. Then used a heavy duty scrubber and got about 80% of the baked in grease off also used a credit card to scrap what I could off. Bought another pack of oven brite and left it in for over 48 hours. Its brand newski. 99% of the burnt in grease is off it with the help from the old credit card. No need to use the new credit card!

dudara

I tend to put water in mine, add washing up liquid and boil for a bit on the stove top. It's my preferred technique for softening and removing grease/mess.

I'm not a fan of chemical use and prefer to keep for extreme measures (which is thankfully rarely!)

iLikeWaffles

dudara wrote: »

I tend to put water in mine, add washing up liquid and boil for a bit on the stove top. It's my preferred technique for softening and removing grease/mess.

I'm not a fan of chemical use and prefer to keep for extreme measures (which is thankfully rarely!)

Water would not have softened any bit of the grease on this thing. It was like it was completely painted on. It called for extreme measures!

Graces7

Out of interest, how much did all the cleaners etc cost?

ON the rare occasions I have burnt jam ( market stock) soaking the pan overnight in salt and vinegar worked well..

iLikeWaffles

Graces7 wrote: »

Out of interest, how much did all the cleaners etc cost?

ON the rare occasions I have burnt jam ( market stock) soaking the pan overnight in salt and vinegar worked well..

€18.

branners69

I would have soaked it in coke (coca-cola type that is!)

If you have a pot with burnt stuff at the bottom, boil coke in it and it will lift right off! Get the cheapest coke you can find!

arian

I have an inherited Le Creuset casserole pot which must be >50 years old. It's got a lot of crud baked onto the inside enamel. I keep seeing suggestions online for cleaning it using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I'm hesitating before using that mixture in case it does more harm than good. Anybody got reassurance/avoid at all costs?

iLikeWaffles

branners69 wrote: »

I would have soaked it in coke (coca-cola type that is!)

If you have a pot with burnt stuff at the bottom, boil coke in it and it will lift right off! Get the cheapest coke you can find!

Was thinking along the same lines but no way to boil the pan as you suggest. Keep it in mind though. Cif and washing up liquid mixture does wonders steeping for a few hours, little bit of water, in burnt pots.

iLikeWaffles

arian wrote: »

I have an inherited Le Creuset casserole pot which must be >50 years old. It's got a lot of crud baked onto the inside enamel. I keep seeing suggestions online for cleaning it using hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I'm hesitating before using that mixture in case it does more harm than good. Anybody got reassurance/avoid at all costs?

The Baking soda won't do any harm most cleaning stuff has sodium bicarbonate (Baking soda) in them cif being one and some toothpastes. You might want to try making a paste with Baking soda and spreading it all over the dish spraying white vinegar onto the paste will chemically react.

The two together make Carbon Dioxide so advisable to do it beside the open window or better yet outside as the vinegar will stink used it down the toilet once for lime scale removal worked like a charm. Just the abrasiveness of the baking soda with a old credit or gift card might yield some results though. The smooth sharp edge of the card won't damage the enamel. Also great for bird **** on the window!

Graces7

branners69 wrote: »

I would have soaked it in coke (coca-cola type that is!)

If you have a pot with burnt stuff at the bottom, boil coke in it and it will lift right off! Get the cheapest coke you can find!

Air hostesses use coke to clean toilets. I tried it on a black filthy loo in my previous rental and it worked great. tesco's own full sugar coco cola

arian

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

The Baking soda won't do any harm most cleaning stuff has sodium bicarbonate (Baking soda) in them cif being one and some toothpastes. You might want to try making a paste with Baking soda and spreading it all over the dish spraying white vinegar onto the paste will chemically react.

The two together make Carbon Dioxide so advisable to do it beside the open window or better yet outside as the vinegar will stink used it down the toilet once for lime scale removal worked like a charm. Just the abrasiveness of the baking soda with a old credit or gift card might yield some results though. The smooth sharp edge of the card won't damage the enamel. Also great for bird **** on the window!

Thanks. I've even kept an old credit card for scraping purposes

Wonder what difference using hydrogen peroxide or vinegar makes?

branners69

Graces7 wrote: »

Air hostesses use coke to clean toilets. I tried it on a black filthy loo in my previous rental and it worked great. tesco's own full sugar coco cola

Denture cleaning tablets work great in toilets too! Like coke leave them to dissolve in the toilet over night.

kylith

I use bio washing liquid and warm water to steep anything with burned or baked on food.

iLikeWaffles

arian wrote: »

Thanks. I've even kept an old credit card for scraping purposes

Wonder what difference using hydrogen peroxide or vinegar makes?

Vinegar is acidic as is lemon juice. Peroxide is an oxidiser may just whiten the stain but the vinegar will break them down.

Used a chemical on my sisters tiles at the back of the cooker when she moved into her new house if I'm not mistaken it said safe for enamel on back. HG tile cleaner I think it was called got it in homebase. Stuff was deadly made the tiles look brand new.

arian

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

Vinegar is acidic as is lemon juice. Peroxide is an oxidiser may just whiten the stain but the vinegar will break them down.

Used a chemical on my sisters tiles at the back of the cooker when she moved into her new house if I'm not mistaken it said safe for enamel on back. HG tile cleaner I think it was called got it in homebase. Stuff was deadly made the tiles look brand new.

Thanks again. There's two HG Cleaners in Homebase.

I think I should experiment on a sacrificial oven tray before hitting the Le Creuset pot.

iLikeWaffles

arian wrote: »

Thanks again. There's two HG Cleaners in Homebase.

I think I should experiment on a sacrificial oven tray before hitting the Le Creuset pot.

Grease away was the one. The black label one for BBQ's I used for the pan in the post and it didn't yield the best results but could see it working somewhat. If the lid off it has same grease could try it there maybe.

I would highly recommend the grease away for tiles anyway! I may be wrong about it working for enamel though just have a look at the instructions.

colm_mcm

For next time, The dealz one is €1.50

iLikeWaffles

colm_mcm wrote: »

For next time, The dealz one is €1.50

is there a bag and all that with that one what size bottle is it?

colm_mcm

iLikeWaffles wrote: »

is there a bag and all that with that one what size bottle is it?

Yeah, bag and gloves, think it's a 330ml bottle, but you often get them with 50% extra free.

StripedBoxers

Aerial Washing powder and boiling water is what we use for our grill pans, works wonders.

Never tried it on my Le Cruset dishes though, so Dunno if it works for those but it does work on my pyrex dishes and ceramic dishes from Dealz and the €2 shops so I imagine it would work on the Le Cruset ones too.

rubadub

Graces7 wrote: »

tesco's own full sugar coco cola

its the phosphoric acid in cola that is doing the job, so should be fine if diet or not. Good use for left over flat bottles of coke.

Not sure about this mixing of coke/vinegar and baking soda. It will fizz up so look quite "active" but they are neutralizing each other. Baking soda is alkaline like caustic soda being used as drain cleaner, but far safer to handle than caustic soda. Mixing acid with baking soda will create water and table salt and carbon dioxide. If they are not perfectly mixed there will still be an excess of acid or alkaline liquid which will have some cleaning ability, but I would imagine it would have been stronger on its own.

By using old towels/rags or thick kitchen towels you can drap them up the sides of trays like this, so they are kept moist with the active fluid. Some will dilute with water to fill them up but this is obviously diluting the cleaning solution so making it far weaker. If using rags etc you can swish it around after a few hours to rewet it all, like basting a chicken.

In hardware shops you can get stronger phosphoric acid, used for cleaning radiators and other things. I remember in woodies there were 3 or 4 bottles of phosphoric acid in different sections, with hugely different pricing, so shop around, even in the same shop.

Never heard of hydrogen peroxide being used before, its a powerful oxidiser like bleach, so can cause severe rusting of metal, if its exposed.

Some break up and dissolve dishwasher tablets and leave them steep in it. Fairy liquid is also quite potent, I would use it neat and rub it into up the sides. As it dries out a bit you can spray it with a water mister

arian

Baking soda is NaHCO3; hydrogen peroxide is H2O2.

I wonder - and that's all - I wonder if the extra oxygen atom from the peroxide forms caustic soda, NaOH, with the sodium and hydrogen from the baking soda, leaving water and carbon dioxide?

Caustic soda scares the crud out of drains: how about my pan, and what'll it do to it in the process?