Cleaning niter

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

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I have some pretty thick niter on my pan the guy I naught it from never cleaned it. I tried using pan cleaner and letting it simmer for a while with minimal results.

Any ideas?

Scott


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[psparr]

Milk stone remover from tractor supply, or a dairy supply.

[DrTimPerkins]

I have some pretty thick niter on my pan the guy I naught it from never cleaned it. I tried using pan cleaner and letting it simmer for a while with minimal results.

It looks to me based upon the label that this might be a soldered pan? If so, you want a little niter on the soldered joints to reduce lead mobilization into the sap/syrup. You should also be careful using strong acids as these can degrade the solder. That leaves you with either the manual approach (scrape it off) or the nice and slow approach (dilute acid, vinegar or spoiled sap method).

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

It's a lead free solder pan

Scott


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[Biz]

Vinegar works wonders for me! I use a gallon of white vinegar and dilute it 50% more or less. Let it soak for an hour or so.

Dave

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

Heat it up or just cold?


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[Biz]

Should work find cold but let it sit a little longer. Warm water will be faster.

[BAP]

You want to be careful not to leave the vinegar in the pan to long or it can eat thru the stainless and leave holes.

[Flat Rock Farmers]

Scott,

I've got a 2' x 8' arch that looks a lot like yours. In the flue pan I used 3 gallons of white vinegar and in the syrup pan I used 2 gallons. I flooded the pans with water
up past the niter marks and then added the vinegar. I then built a fire and got the pans to simmer. I shut it down and the next morning cleaned them up. Most of the
niter came off with little effort while the rest took a little of elbow grease with scotch brite pads to get off. All in all, I was impressed with the job it did!

Good Luck,

Jay

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

So last night I filled the pan with water and two gal of vinegar boiled it for about an hour and let it sit all night. Well let's just say that it is still stuck good. Are you guys just using the green scrubby pads and muscle to try and get it all off after that.

Scott


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[Flat Rock Farmers]

Hi Scott,

I bet there's a lot of baked on, caked on stuff if the guy who had it before you never cleaned it properly. You could try to scrape gently
with a new paint scraper or putty knife. You'd want to keep it flat and go easy as not to scratch your stainless. I think we even used a
cheap plastic one at one point. I used two different scrubby pads, a course and fine pad I picked up from our local sugaring store. I
wonder if S.O.S. pads would work? They worked great for the underside of our pans to take off soot but I'm not sure if the soap from those
would be ok to use on the inside. You'd have to be sure to rinse really, really well if so. Whatever you try to use, make sure to try to keep
the pan wet the whole time as it seemed to me that it's harder to clean if that niter is at all dry.
Ultimately, it ends up using a lot of elbow grease to get it up to par. If you don't get it all this time I imagine each time you clean it in
the future you'll get more and more off and it'll be easier to keep clean.

Good Luck,
Jay

[maple flats]

I wouldn't even dare scrape it. On my 3x3 flat pan, when I cleaned with white vinegar, I drained and rinsed the pan, then I added just 1 gal of white vinegar, no water. Then I warmed it to maybe 100-110 by running a torch under the pan. Let it set about 15 minutes, warm a little more, set another 15-20 minutes. Then I tried cleaning using either a plastic spatula or a scrub brush. If it didn't come off easily, heat another cycle or 2. I never had to do it more than an hour with 3-4 cycles, but if this is truly baked on hard you may need several more repetitions. Once the niter starts coming off in chunks, lightly loosen what comes easily and then repeat the heat cycle. Once you get some chunks to come loose, the vinegar gets under adjacent niter more easily. Don't drain or rinse until everything is loose, then do a total cleaning and be sure to do a real complete final rinse.
My method has worked for over 10 years with no elbow grease (labor), just heat, vinegar and time/ repetitions.

[stephen wheeler]

"Spoiled sap" as Dr. Perkins mentioned has worked beautifully for us. If you have the luxury of letting the sap sit for a couple of weeks in your pan - it should clean up without much effort. We have used this method several times with great success. Nature provides a natural solution. Good luck.

[lpakiz]

I have used the " sour sap" method also, and it works great. It's just that in some situations, I don't have the luxury of several weeks time. I tried the milkstone remover and the vinegar. Not much luck, but I didn't do the gentle heat cycles mentioned above. I will give that a try this mid-season.
If you use the sour sap method, keep a clothes pin handy, because the smell is just plain disgusting. I covered the pan with a piece of Dowboard insulation to contain the smell.

[maple flats]

Pre-season won't work for the sour sap method. That method needs time and warmer weather.

[Chicopee Sap Shack]

So vinegar only helped on the thin spots where it was thick I was able to put the torch behind the pan and it would literally pop off in small chunks. Frustrated I was ready to just run it for the year when a buddy said to try a power washer. We'll that is the only way to clean niter. Other than a few spots it's all gone and you can see where the previous owner used a wheel and scuffed the pans causing the sticking problem.

Now just a quick touch up cleaning and I'm ready to light the fire.

Thanks for the different ideas

Scott


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[Flat Rock Farmers]

Good to hear Scott! Great, now I have to put a pressure washer on my never ending wish list!

Happy Sugarin',
Jay

[Brent]

we tried several different pan cleaners then last year tried "cleaning vinegar" It has double the
acid strength of table vinegar and with a bit of heat worked like a charm. 5% I think. I used my Lee Valley
flame thrower to heat just to the point of getting a few traces of steam. Swish it around, light brushing
and it was great.