Cleaning Stainless

[Richard Gress]

I have 3 stainless pans for my homebuilt. Any advice on how to clean the black carbon from the fire wood off the bottom and the burned syrup from the top?

[mapleack]

Vinegar, bar keepers friend or dairy acid for the burned syrup and a pressure washer for the bottom.

[happy thoughts]

I'm going to try spray oven cleaner for the bottoms and do it some place outdoors where rinsing off the lye won't hurt anything. Everything else I tried is just one big mess.

[ckkrotz]

You can use a paste of cream of tartar and vinegar for the soot on the bottoms... I don't really have a good solution for the burnt on syrup other than vinegar and scrubbing really hard...

[wnybassman]

I can say that the Simple Green BBQ cleaner DOES NOT do a good job. Mine is sitting out there now, and has been for a couple hours, and it is not breaking it up at all.

On the other hand, the Easy Off BBQ cleaner I used last year rocked!! The foam instantly showed that it was working and lifting the soot. The store I was in the other day did not have that, so I grabbed the Simple Green. Lesson learned.

[red maples]

Easy off and pressure washer!!! Done!

[wnybassman]

My wife got home a bit ago with the "Heavy Duty" Easy Off. Sparkles like new now. I had a couple thicker soot spots where a few applications were needed (as I don't have a pressure washer). It's amazing how Easy Off just eats into that stuff.

DO NOT GET THE SIMPLE GREEN EQUIVALENT! lol

[Richard Gress]

Thanks folks. I decided to go after the bottoms with Easy off and the insides of the pans with Vinegar. Working well.

[Billy_the_Kid]

Ashes from your fire mixed with a tiny amount of water works as a good pumice on the soot, and they're free. Takes some elbow grease, but it works in a pinch. Thats how I clean the glass on my fireplace in the house. Wife probably wouldn't like me using a pressure washer in the living room!! :lol:
Otherwise, ditto on the Easy Off and pressure washer.

[maplekid]

i think ashes and water form lye. am i correct. and lye eats at stainless. or atleast eats at the chromium in stainless. just what ive been told. please correct me if im wrong.

[happy thoughts]

Oven cleaners are lye and they *are* recommended for use specifically on stainless. I see no pitting after using it on my stainless hotel pans. In fact, there are stainless steel tanks sold to store lye for soap making so lye can't be all that corrosive to SS. It's true lye will corrode other metals and should never be used on aluminum or tin, but it did a great job on my steam pans and with little effort. Ashes and water to make lye would seem like a cheap and or convenient replacement if you don't happen to have any Easy-Off.

[stoweski]

I just used barkeeper's friend for the first time both on the inside and outside of my finisher/canner... wow! Can't believe the difference. I hosed everything down to rinse off the loose stuff and then applied it with a wet cloth.

The thing looks brand new!

As for the bottom of my pans on the evaporator, after I clean them with a brush I found that Fireview works well... though I will try using some of the other suggestions to see which one works better... and if nothing else I'll throw some BF on there too just to see it works it's magic!

[PerryW]

guess I never worried too much if the bottoms of my pans being black as long as there is no buildup that would affect heat transfer. I pretty much just use a flue brush (dry) on the underside of the back pan and a flat brush on the bottom of the front pan to get loose stuff off.