Cleaning With Boiling or High Pressure Water?

J

JBPoole

Member
On a whim, I placed an extremely cruddy skillet on my gas range and slowly brought some plain water to a rolling boil for a few minutes. The water had turned a light brown color and some of the thick black crud fell off.

Is this an acceptable practice to help speed up the cleaning process?

Also had another thought. Earlier this week, I picked up 5 skillets. I was thinking about stopping at a self-service car wash on the way home and using the high pressure water to hopefully blast some of the thick crud off. Thoughts?
 
Both seem like more effort than necessary if one is going to complete the task with lye or electro anyway. But as long as whatever you do doesn't result in damage, it may be worth exploring.
 
Maybe my lye bath is getting weaker. Had some really cruddy pieces soaking for weeks and they still need scrubbing, then back into the bath.

When I get new skillets, I get very anxious to see what is underneath all the crud. Thought the high pressure would speed things up a bit...
 
The car wash removed maybe 1% of the crud. It was worth a try...

Boiling water on the gas stove is effective. Some of the very thick crud on the outside literally falls off while on the stove. Sometimes I see very thin bits of crud swirling in the boiling water. When pouring the water out, at times it is a medium to darker brown.

This seems to be most effective on the really cruddy pieces. Not so much on the cleaner items.
 
The most effective way that I have found to get years of baked on crud off both inside and outside of the piece is in a warm water with strong lye bath.

You fill find that some of the old crud does need to be worked a little to cut through some of the thickness. I have an SS wire brush good for getting in the lettering and whatever.
In between and after the lye bath I use my High Pressure washer to help lift some of the crud.

IMOM. Boiling water on the gas stove is effective, you are not cleaning the outside, you are cooking it on some more.

1) Lye Bath
2) Elbo grease
3) E-Tank

I have cleaned to many pans, not to have a time tested way of cleaning my iron. Clean to me is every speck of crud needs to come off. I win every time. :biggrin:
 
Just for clarification, I sometimes use the boiling water after the lye bath. Then, it's more scrubbing and back into the lye bath.

In my limited experience, I have found it to speed up the process somewhat. Maybe if my lye bath was warmer, it would be more effective.

Hope to have the e-tank running as early as this afternoon...
 
85% of my pieces go into the lye bath and come out clean, with out the need for any hard scrubbing.

I am heavy on the lye (STRONG).:evil:

You put your hands in my lye bath to steal a pan, you will need new skin.:biggrin:
 
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