Chemicals for cleaning ovenware?

[Domdom]

Morning all,
I am now officially heartily sick of cleaning the wife's oven dishes with all the welded on bits. In the UK I used to have an oven cleaner chap come out and he had a heated tank in the back of his van for all the wire racks and baking trays, etc.
Here in Spain there is no such service sadly cos I hate cleaning cookers and cookware. Happily paid for it in the UK every couple of months.
So which chemicals might be good for such things? I can probably muster up a decent tank and propane burner to heat it, such things are really cheap here. Fairy liquid - the genuine stuff, soaking overnight does naff all, this definitely needs something a lot stronger.
Thanks

And one other thing I had to deal with last night. Jobs like this I can cope with, but oven cleaning is best left to "Other People" LOL.
Not venomous, but a feisty little sod. Did his level best to sink his fangs into me. A bit over a metre long and a lovely pattern. A Ladder snake according to Google.

 

[Cobbler]

When our oven racks need doing, I drop them in a watertight tray & add some bio washing powder then fill up with boiling water. I then cover it over with anything that will insulate it & leave for an hour or two. Pressure wash it & all the grot comes off.

 

[colnerov]

Oven or BBQ cleaner left to soak for 15 mins then rinse off you can also help it along with a scotchbrite. You are looking for Sodium Hydroxide as the active ingredient in it.

 

[Domdom]

Aha, Sodium Hydroxide. That's the stuff. €3.50 a kilo over here in the Ferreteria. The same place might also have a deepish tray I can make into a soak tank. Many thanks.

 

[gaz1]

Morning all,
I am now officially heartily sick of cleaning the wife's oven dishes with all the welded on bits. In the UK I used to have an oven cleaner chap come out and he had a heated tank in the back of his van for all the wire racks and baking trays, etc.
Here in Spain there is no such service sadly cos I hate cleaning cookers and cookware. Happily paid for it in the UK every couple of months.

im with you on this i have loads of baking trays that my mum had, ive tried heating them in the oven and then cleaning with hot water for the sponge to end up being cacked in grease from those pans and still loads left on them

as goes for the heating part id just build a rocket stove and make a hot plate using the steel tank

i was bored over the weekend so built this

with this in mind

as all the it needs is an angle to fire the flame to the side and stick your tank on top as it will fire the flames underneath heating the tank up if you fire direct it will burn out the bottom after a while of use but angled it stops the brunt of the heat on the metal

 

[arther dailey]

Morning all,
I am now officially heartily sick of cleaning the wife's oven dishes with all the welded on bits. In the UK I used to have an oven cleaner chap come out and he had a heated tank in the back of his van for all the wire racks and baking trays, etc.
Here in Spain there is no such service sadly cos I hate cleaning cookers and cookware. Happily paid for it in the UK every couple of months.
So which chemicals might be good for such things? I can probably muster up a decent tank and propane burner to heat it, such things are really cheap here. Fairy liquid - the genuine stuff, soaking overnight does naff all, this definitely needs something a lot stronger.
Thanks

And one other thing I had to deal with last night. Jobs like this I can cope with, but oven cleaning is best left to "Other People" LOL.
Not venomous, but a feisty little sod. Did his level best to sink his fangs into me. A bit over a metre long and a lovely pattern. A Ladder snake according to Google.

View attachment 495420

I used the spray on oven cleaner/foam by mr muscle , works great , also good for decoking inlet manifolds ...and excellent for cleaning the black gunge off you screw driver handles .honestly .

 

[Seadog]

Aha, Sodium Hydroxide. That's the stuff. €3.50 a kilo over here in the Ferreteria. The same place might also have a deepish tray I can make into a soak tank. Many thanks.

Just don't buy an aluminium one

 

[Domdom]

I used the spray on oven cleaner/foam by mr muscle , works great , also good for decoking inlet manifolds ...and excellent for cleaning the black gunge off you screw driver handles .honestly .

I've tried that. I can get Mr Muscle on Amazon over here but honestly, it was about as much use as mammary glands on a fish. Mrs DomDom's cooking is at a level of advanced welding.

 

[indykid]

I was astounded how much baked on varnish came off our oven racks just with a cycle in the dishwasher. A couple of goes and they were practically spotless.

All our oven trays go in the dishwasher too. They usually last about 18 months before the non stick starts peeling and then I get more garage trays. They're cheap enough to make the reduction in life acceptable.

 

[Mick Annick]

A French range, brilliant stuff if you can find it near you.

Produit d'entretien cuisine : hotte, évier, plaques | Le Briochin

Entretenir sa cuisine est indispensable pour la garder saine. Découvrez nos produits pour nettoyer votre hotte, votre évier, les plaques, etc.

www.lebriochin.com

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

Aha, Sodium Hydroxide. That's the stuff. €3.50 a kilo over here in the Ferreteria. The same place might also have a deepish tray I can make into a soak tank. Many thanks.

Soaking in concentrated caustic solution would be my first choice too, at least 35% by weight sodium hydroxide, maybe 50%.

That's how commercial bakeware companies clean tins when they come in for inspection and reconditioning.

As a bonus if you mix it fresh, the solution will self heat quite readily due to the heat of solution released as the pearl caustic dissolves...

But that means you need to add it slowly with stirring, tipping the lot in at once to make a caustic solution can result in it suddenly boiling over and going everywhere, including on you, which you don't want.


If you're using it at the kind of concentrations I'm suggesting:

1a) Wear a waterproof apron and a decent set of Rubber/PVC/Nitrile Gauntlets. Wear goggles when mixing it and handling or rinsing the trays.

1b) Don't do anything likely to cause splashes, it's difficult to fully remove a concentrated caustic splash from you skin before it causes a burn, even with vigorous rinsing. Getting splashed in the eyes doesn't bear thinking about.

2) Be aware that it will etch any vitreous enamel cookware if left for an extended period.

3) Be aware that if you put scratched non-stick cookware in, the caustic will remove the aluminised strike-coat under the teflon around any scratches, causing the teflon to then flake off.

 

[julianf]

Also -

If you chuck a load of caustic into water, and it forms a block at the bottom, be aware that the reaction will produce enough localised heat (now that the block at the bottom is stopping the convection currents in the same way) to cause "trouble" with plastic containers.

Plastic is fine, but just make sure you mix whilst adding the caustic, and dont allow it to form a block down at the bottom.

 

[droopsnoot]

Interesting reading, I am also having issues with baked-on "stuff" on various cooking containers and I haven't got a dishwasher, and one of them is the omelette maker which doesn't have removable trays. Advice from mates usually goes along the lines of "clean it as well as you can, then when it gets too bad, throw it out and get a replacement".

 

[julianthegypsy]

Just don't buy an aluminium one

I knew someone once who thought it would be a good idea to soak a lawnmower engine overnight in a heated caustic tank, suspended by two bits of wire wrapped around each end of the crankshaft. It was beautiful. He lifted out the crankshaft in the morning and couldn't understand where the rest of the engine was. Rubber gloves on and he retrieved the camshaft and a few other bits but the entire engine had basically dissolved!

 

[julianf]

I use caustic for stripping alloy from gummed up milling cutters.

Also for stripping zinc from small galvanised parts (like nuts etc) that i want to weld.

 

[atomant48]

Also for the glass a dishwasher tablet works wonders used like a scrubbing block.

We used to have a guy in a van come around too but he stopped the business. From memory it was close to £100 each time (2 ovens) and I remember thinking it was just about cheaper to replace them. But it was money well spent. I thought he had a good business - not sure why it stopped.

 

[qwakers]

this really works.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253841037?gQT=1

my oven was filthy. this cleaned it up perfectly with no effort at all.

 

[rtcosic]

this really works.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253841037?gQT=1

my oven was filthy. this cleaned it up perfectly with no effort at all.

Contains amongst other ingredients: 5 -< 12% Sodium Hydroxide,

 

[droopsnoot]

this really works.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/253841037?gQT=1

my oven was filthy. this cleaned it up perfectly with no effort at all.

Oh, that's interest, I think I bought some of that to clean the oven but of course I can't find it now. I didn't use it for the oven because it turned out that the extended warranty that I'm still paying includes a deep clean by a proper cleaner. I keep meaning to phone them to check whether it's a free clean every year, or just once.

 

[bricol]

I knew someone once who thought it would be a good idea to soak a lawnmower engine overnight in a heated caustic tank, suspended by two bits of wire wrapped around each end of the crankshaft. It was beautiful. He lifted out the crankshaft in the morning and couldn't understand where the rest of the engine was. Rubber gloves on and he retrieved the camshaft and a few other bits but the entire engine had basically dissolved!

25 yrs ago we improved the use of strong casutic in removing aluminium solidied in estrusion dies - for lamp standards etc - many kilogrammes of aluminium. Stuck ultrasonics in a 5000 ltr tank, stick your stillage of dies in , pump in caustic, switch on the ultrasonics.

Run away slightly worried about the amount of hydrogen coming off the tank.

Come back carefully and do the same to the other 5000 ltr tank . . .

I'm not aware of it going "BANG" in the intervening 25 yrs plus.