surface rust spots

[bison1973]

I went to the sugar shack today and noticed my flue pan has small surface rust pots all over it. What is this from? I've never had it happen during the offseason before. This pan is only going into its third season. What will take it off without scratching the surface too much? And how can I prevent it from happening again? It's a CDL pan.

[Haynes Forest Products]

I think there are bugs out there that crap on the pans and it leaves rusty spots . Could it be a reaction with the SS.

[maple sapper]

some blends of stainless will rust. If you use a cleaner with lemon in it, it will create rust due to the acid in the lemon juice. How I learned this is from my flatware gettin rusty in the dish washer. Turns out it was the dish detergent having lemon in it. Also if you have cut any mild steel around the stainless before installation it may be the very small fragments that have rusted and clung to the stainless. One other thing I have noticed from my own line of work, is that if you have used a drill with a phillips bit or straight on a stainless fastener, it will leave a rust stain from the two being in contact with each other with the power of the drill it leaves tiny invisible fragments that rust after some weather. I actually had rust spots all over my brand new truck about a month after getting it. I took it to the dealer and they said it was called rail fall off. This is pieces of train rail dust from the ride on the train up from the south. Good luck Gregg

[bison1973]

Well what's the best way to make it look new again (what to use)? Without scratching the finish too much?

[brookledge]

Are your pans made from stainless? If so then you probably have 403 grade. does a magnet stick to it? 304 is non magnetic.
Anyways you might want to try scotch pads to clean them up
Keith

[bison1973]

Yes, they are stainless. Not sure if it's magnetic or not yet. But it's dissapointing to see this because these pans cost alot of money and it never happened in the two previous years. This pan is only a couple of years old.

[brookledge]

i'd complain to CDL or at least get them to tell you whats going on with them.
If you don't complain to them they will never know about it.
Keith

[Haynes Forest Products]

Have you been grinding around them? Could it be the start of pin holes due to strong cleaners sitting in the pans over the winter. I have resigned myself to the fact that the inside of my pans are going to show the scars of battle. I have been tempted to hit the outside of them with a scotch brite pad.

[WF MASON]

Remember scotch brite pads 'put in' scratches.

[bison1973]

Any type of cleaners that you'd recommend to get the rust off with out really scratching like the scotch pads?

[Jerome]

did you try soap and water it may just be dirt (flys etc.)

[BackwoodsBill]

well once upon a time when I was in the U.S. Navy in boot we had a time called service week we were assigned jobs for a week to run the base in short i was assigned to run the galley at fire fighting school and we used catsup to clean the steam tables there also was serpentine copper tubing on the inside bottom at any rate you never saw cleaner ss and copper shined enough to make a crow envious pour it on let stand 15 minutes and wash off it pleased the Navy brass at inspection hope this will help at least you will have the shiniest pans in the neighbor hood!

[PoorFarmNed]

I don't know if you were able to clean up your pans but for what it's worth: you can use the non-metalic (green) scrubbies to clean your pan, they should remove the surface rust, I've also had good luck with a fine cream polish like you'd use for a cook-top. Once you have it good and clean and well rinsed you might want to think about washing it with an acid, citric acid, muriatic, whatever (this would be for welded pans only I don't know how acid would react with solder). A lot of times the rust spots come from iron particles (from grinding, slapping the rust off the evaporator, something like that) that sit on the surface of the stainless and rust. By scrubbing and rinsing it off, you remove the iron and expose clean stainless, the chromium in the stainless will then oxidize and create a passive oxide layer on the surface of the stainless that makes it...well...stainless. You can give it a warm acid wash to help create the passive layer but after a good cleaning it should form up on its own. You should stay away from metallic scrubbies and chlorine because it can actually pit the stainless and then you'll never get it clean. Check out this link for more detailed info:
http://www.byo.com/stories/projects-and-equipment/article/indices/20-build-it-yourself/1149-metallurgy-for-homebrewers