Just cleaned my pan last week

[Woodsrover]

Old-timer told me about this a while back. Second year doing it so I thought I'd post.

Last boil of the year I left a pretty thick pan behind. Filled it with water about 5" deep and let it sit........until July.
Drained it and washed it out with fresh water and a sponge. No real scrubbing needed. The moldy, nasty, smelly goo in the pan cleans almost all the niter and crud off leaving a nice shiny pan behind.

I highly recommend it.

[Andy VT]

Cool, let me get this straight though... by "pretty thick pan" you mean you left a good bit of sap in the pan? And then added water to that and let it go to vinegar over 3 months or so?

I hear about this trick quite a bit but can't help but wonder if there is an advantage besides the money savings of not buying vinegar... (asking for opinions on that). Basically trading stench for $$?? Or more to it than that?

[NhShaun]

I have tried this method as well and the smell was less desirable and attracted a lot of bugs. Though vinegar is pretty potent stuff to smell, it is more pleasant to deal with than a gunky science experiment when cleaning up. I have been using vinegar for 7 seasons now and it is very effective, but costs me around $25 versus $0.