White vinegar for cleaning pans?

[18mile]

Who uses vinegar for cleaning pans. How much and how long to soak? Any special concerns?

[whity]

50/50 soft water and vinegar. Warm it up with a small fire, scrub with a nylon brush. Best if you can let it soak overnight and warm it up again scrub 1 more time then drain. Rinse well with soft water.

[MISugarDaddy]

We use it straight for an overnight soak in our syrup pan to remove build up on the bottom of the pan during the season. Some people will heat it to help with the cleaning process, but we have never found it necessary. At the end of the season, we use a 50/50 mix with water to clean both pans. You can leave that sitting for as long as you like to clean the pans.
Gary

[MarkL]

Who uses vinegar for cleaning pans. How much and how long to soak? Any special concerns?

I've done it. I'd say it's not much better than Oakite and doesn't completely remove nitre deposits. Neither does the "I use leftover sap at the end of the year. I fill my pans right to the top and let them sit till about June. Dump then and give em a wipe and just like new" as mentioned above.

Mark


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[antelope76]

I use leftover sap at the end of the year. I fill my pans right to the top and let them sit till about June. Dump then and give em a wipe and just like new.

I have also used vinegar in the past. Same idea.

[maple flats]

In my 3x3 syrup pan I use just 1 gal white vinegar, then warm it to maybe 100-110 using a weed burner torch under the pan. Then I let it set overnight. I warm it the same in the morning then use a soft brush, the bottom comes clean. I then keep wetting the brush in the vinegar and brush all the sides (inside only). That gets much of what is on the sides but not all. Then I drain it and flush very well with hot water using my potable water hose and spray nozzle with hot permeate. Then I pump the original contents back into the pan and start boiling again. I only worry about the sides to get them totally clean after the season. Then I use 2 gal white vinegar, fill with permeate to about 3" deep, warm it and let set overnight. Then I soft brush and repeat a few times all with that mix in the 3x3 pan and let it again overnight. I do that until the whole pan is like new, then I drain, flush with hot permeate, draining as I rinse. Let it dry then put my SS cover back on.
For my flues pan I use just permeate thru my Lapierre flues pan washer. That gets done2-3x in season and then after the season. That is with cold permeate. My 3x5 pan washer has 6 spinning spray arms.

[SeanD]

We use it straight for an overnight soak in our syrup pan to remove build up on the bottom of the pan during the season. Some people will heat it to help with the cleaning process, but we have never found it necessary. At the end of the season, we use a 50/50 mix with water to clean both pans. You can leave that sitting for as long as you like to clean the pans.
Gary

That's exactly what I do. The only thing I'll add is that I drain the pan back into the jug of vinegar and reuse it all season. The funnel I have has a sieve on it, so it keeps the chunks out. The vinegar gets cloudy, but doesn't lose any of its cleaning effectiveness.

[maple flats]

I just add some baking soda after draining to neutralize the mix, then send it to drain. I use fresh everytime.

[Person25]

I use vinegar in my 2x3 flat pan, great for cleaning up niter and getting in the corners where the brush cant get perfectly. Ive used it to save a burnt pan as well. 50/50 or 70/30 water mix, Ive found that a little heat activates the vinegar. I was always told not to use it straight because it can be a little rough on welds...but who knows. Sometimes I let it sit overnight, other times go after it with a brush right away, depends on the time I have. Then i rinse it out good, refill to the top with straight water, let it soak/disperse any residual vinegar, dump off and hit the go button.

[VT_K9]

We have used it for several years now and had very good results. We had a 2x6 WSE. We used about 3 gallons of vinegar in the front pan with permeate (or well water if it was not available). About mid season we clean the rear pans with vinegar as well, but mostly use only permeate or water. We would bring it to a boil and let it set overnight. The next morning we would warm it up, clean the pans, and then drain it. We then would bring more permeate or water to boil to rinse. We normally flushed the pans to drain them. Then back to boiling sap.

Mike

[slammer3364]

I use it all the time works great