cross posting from cooking and baking - cleaning question

[Kali]

what is the your preferred/best way to clean disgusting, OLD, hardened, yellow grease from appliances (and walls - ugh)?

I finally ordered a new igniter for my oven and in the process oc taking the old one out to check part numbers, I finally felt compelled to clean. I can be a slob for a long time, but when I do decide to clean I tend to get really OCD and work down to toothpick/q-tip detail.

Anyway so far the best I have come up with is plain old dish soap and the hottest water I can handle. This requires rubber gloves and a LOT of water. And lots of scrubbing - my hands are getting sore. I have no fear of chemicals if they actually work, but I'm not seeing any results from the 409/windex quaternary type products on this gummy crud. Vinegar was useless, bleach doesn't cut grease. TSP works GREAT (is it still legal?) but it softens paint and even enamel so don't want to use it on the appliances.

Anybody have any suggestions to make this easier, besides my usual of keeping my glasses dirtier than the house so I just don't notice how gross it is?

[Lars39]

1. Ammonia does wonders on cutting grease.

[Kali]

11. yeah - I'm going to pick some up today

and give it a try, I don't have any around, how do you use it - label directions or some other combo - like with detergent?

[Tuesday Afternoon]

2. vinegar and baking soda ...

might cut through that grease

[Kali]

5. isn't that how kids make volcanoes for science projects?

:o :P

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. heh

don't necessarily have to use them together ....

[Kali]

6. dupe hiccup - delete

[City of Mills]

3. Maybe full strength distilled white vinegar

That stuff is an amazing cleaner and pretty good on grease :)

[Kali]

9. tried it out of desperation ( I hate the smell)

but it was the same as cold water on this stuff - maybe if I boiled it, but then I wouldn't be able to stand working with it. PU - I know a lot of people like it for general cleaning but I just can't handle the smell.

[kentauros]

4. One way I've found to soften the hardened stuff

is to just leave the sponge sitting on that spot for a while. When I come back later, it's moistened enough that it comes right off. You might try the same thing on the hardened grease, just with a very soapy sponge or towel.

The cleaner I use is Mrs. Meyers :D

[Kali]

20. yeah I throw a hot towel over one spot while I work on another

but it is slow going. Also my houwse is cole, guess I should have waited until summer?:rofl:

[kentauros]

36. Pour rubbing alcohol on it and light it.

That'll warm things right up!

[Kali]

39. "houwse is cole"

it's so cole I can't type!

[kentauros]

41. I thought maybe you were making slaw

and your fingers were all sticky :P

[av8rdave]

8. Do you have a steamer?

Often times a few minutes of hot steam applied to it will soften it up.

Good luck!

[Kali]

19. I wish

I have the water heater cranked up to "boiling" and that seems to be the key, but I'm going trough a lot of water.

[av8rdave]

23. That sucks....maybe a good old fasioned tea kettle could blow some steam at it.

[Dappleganger]

54. We found a Saeco steamer from Costco

online for about $70 a few years ago and I use it in the kitchen on the walls, under the microwave, in the shower stalls and on our bedding for dustmite allergies. IMO it's a great investment and you don't need a big one to get the job done. It's great to be able to not use any chemicals when cleaning.

[sammytko]

10. Try Awesome degreaser - $1.00

Can be found at Dollar Tree, Dollar General etc. It really works.

[Kali]

13. I have a whole gallon of industrial degreaser

my kid brought home from a cleaning job - it doesn't touch this old stuff - it's like sticky wax - I can just imagine that it's exactly like the crud in my poor arteries!:scared:

[sammytko]

15. Did you try to let it sit for a while - maybe even overnight?

someone suggested vinegar and baking soda together. It works great on soap scum, so try it on the grease. Soap scum is just your greasy body cells - yuch.

Maybe buy a new stove?

[Kali]

21. You don't know how tempting it is to buy a new stove!

problem (beyond waste) is the whole kitchen is pretty disgusting. Last paint/remodel was in 1992. Tight budget, kids, preference to work outside, and just plain old procrastination/laziness a big factor. Stove was new in 2004. They should last a little longer than 6 years.

[sammytko]

25. i bought a new stove a couple of years ago and swore I

would take good care of it. I love it. Its a 5 burner gas stove - convection, warmer drawer etc. I clean it thouroughly after every use. Same with the new fridge.

I'm in the middle of an endless kitchen remodel. Its taking long cuz I hate to pay someone to do things I can do myself.

I love working in the yard, but this year I am concentrating on the veggies, especially the tomatoes.

No more tending flowers in pots. I'll buy them when they are pretty and when they die, out they go and new ones will take their place. I used to spend lots of money on potting soil, blah blah blah. I'm done with that. I want tomatoes!

[MiddleFingerMom]

60. Home-grown tomatoes!!! YUM!!!

.
Only way to get good taste/texture anymore (maybe some of the heirloom
tomatoes, but what a COST!!!). Saw a documentary 20 years ago or so
that pointed out that the reason our tomatoes taste so crappy is that
they weren't bred for taste or texture, but for their ability to survive
a 10-15 foot drop in the big tomato-harvesting machines to the floor of
an empty bin/trailer.
.
Grew up with an avid avid AVID gardening dad -- about half-a-dozen
different types of fruit trees and an ENORMOUS garden with dozens of
different types of fruits and veggies (he never did learn how FEW
zucchini plants he should put in -- every year the neighbors would lock
their doors and HIDE when they saw us kids approaching with grocery bags
full of free zucchini).
.
HATED gardening chores (except picking fresh peas -- one for the bucket...
two for me... one for the bucket... two for me).
.
That said, the ONLY things I would plant for myself now are tomatoes.
.
Or pot.
.
Pot was also ruined by the big conglomerates who bred it not for
potency, but to survive a 10-15 foot drop in the big pot-harvesting
machines to the floor of an empty bin/trailer.
.
Funny... and this is hypothetical/fictional, mind you... but if I WOULD
have ever dabbled in illicit agriculture, my partner and I MIGHT have
decided to refer (reefer?) to the, um... fruits of our labors as "Australian
tomatoes"... so that we could discuss the business in public.
.
Shame that never happened.
.
No, really.
.
I mean that!!
.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. Uhmmm...I hate to state the obvious but E-Z Off works pretty damn good

nt

[Kali]

16. oven cleaner?

I'm talking about the outside of the stove (and walls/cabinets) ooo talk about stink - I remember my Mom using that. The inside is fine (it's self-cleaning, but it also hasn't been used much in the last 6 months because it wasn't working:mad:

[MiddleFingerMom]

14. I'm not off 'til this weekend... ... ... ...

.
.
.
... but... is it bacon-flavored?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

.

[Kali]

17. please don't post pictures of Mike

:rofl:

[Heidi]

18. Denatured alcohol.

I am NOT kidding. It might damage the paint, but it works like NOTHIN' else. (Here, we call it "fondue gas," but it's denatured alcohol.) You fill up a five-gallon pail with hot water, and pour in several healthy "glugs" of denatured alcohol, then get to scrubbin'. It won't take a bunch of elbow grease, but it'll do the job. And it smells kinda good -- to me, anyway, but I'm used to smells like that in my studio.

[Kali]

22. hmmm cheap enough - I will give it a try

I like those aromatics too - coulda been a glue sniffer in another life:rofl:
mmm gasoline, ink, spray glue....paint...

[MiddleFingerMom]

24. DENATURED ALCOHOL!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

.
From Wikipedia: Denatured alcohol is ethanol that has additives to make it poisonous and/or unpalatable, and thus, undrinkable.
.
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/walter-impersonating-brando/DA924745733F5F18E11BDA924745733F5F18E11B
.
.

[Kali]

47. that link went to a 7 second clip

of something (stuffed animal/puppet?) imitating Brando??? I don't get it??

[MiddleFingerMom]

59. I'm rather famous for doing things at a 7-second clip. It's a gift.

.
That was somebody doing Brando from "Apocalypse Now" with a sock-puppet.
.
"The horror... ... ... ... the horror".
.
I used to have a friend who fronted a 90's punk band who wrote all his
own material. I loved his philosophy -- "If I can't say it in about a
minute-and-a-half... fuck it."
.
7 seconds was all I needed to express my feelings about denatured alcohol.
.
Maybe my first mental use of the Biblical concept of "abomination" in my
whole life.
.
If the caked-on grunge on your oven is bacon-flavored and you have a good
supply of "natured" alcohol... I'm still your guy.
.

[dembotoz]

26. those mr clean eraser thingys

work pretty well

the off brands are ok too

[lunatica]

27. White vinegar diluted in water works well.

EZ Off will take out stains that even clorox powder won't get.

[sammytko]

28. here's another thing you can try

I use this to clean floors, but what the heck

You will need

Oil based liquid soap, such as Murphy's Oil soap
vinegar
Arm and Hammer Super Washing Soda. Comes in a yellow box. You can find it in the laundry aisle.

Use about a gallon of hot water, 1/4 of Murphys, cup of vinegar, 1/2 cup of washing soda.

Use gloves. Try it on a small area. It did melt the top layer of some old old linoleum I was trying to remove in my bathroom.

[Kali]

49. hmm washing soda - another old time product

I love the smell of murphy's - the whole house has wood floors so I do use that.

[sarge43]

29. I've cleaned ovens with full strength Simple Green.

It does cut grease and it wipes up easily.

[GoCubsGo]

30. Barkeeper's Friend

You can find it in most grocery stores with the kitchen cleansers. Target has the best price in my town:




I love this stuff. It and Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are the two of the best cleaning products out there. I would also suggest "Mean Green", but they appear to have changed their formula, and it doesn't seem to work as well these days.

[Kali]

45. barkeepers is great for rust

and metal, but not that great on grease. I need to try these eraser things - haven't seen them or noticed them in the cleaning aisle (it stinks so bad I try to grab what I need and get out of there, don't know why we need so much perfume in laundry detergent)

[jmowreader]

31. d-limonene is your friend

You can get some "food grade" d-limonene at this website:

http://www.greenterpene.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=001005527&Click=20451&gclid=CN2eir2r9Z8CFZ8N5QodHUvRIg

D-limonene is the active ingredient in those "citrus" cleaners. It's also the most potent degreaser on the market. If you take your average, garden-variety, World War II-vintage Detroit Diesel that's got an inch of grease on it and scrub it with d-limonene, you'll see the green paint on the engine in just a couple of hours. And if you've got some left over after you clean your range, just mix it about 1 to 9 with water, stick it in the fridge and use it in your iced tea.

If that grease won't come off with d-limonene, the only remaining alternative is to unhook your stove, take it outside and burn the grease off with a MAPP torch.

On edit: you might also like http://wiki.dmt-nexus.com/69ron's_D-Limonene_Mescaline_Extraction.

[jmowreader]

32. About the last post...

I swear, I googled "cooking with d-limonene" and figured I'd get a recipe for lemon cookies or something. I had NO idea the first hit I was going to get was how to extract mescaline with it.

[Kali]

42. too funny

but the link didn't work! - even funnier
thanks for the source link - I have used those goo gone type things to remove tape and price tags - so it's edible too? wow

[jmowreader]

56. Goo Gone isn't edible. Only the pure stuff is.

Goo Gone has, as far as I can remember, petroleum distillates and a bunch of other shit in it. You want the pure d-limonene.

I learned about this stuff when I was still selling lumber. I needed to mark down a bottle of cleaner to clean the old price tag glue off my rack beams. I wanted something that wasn't flammable. The only pump-spray product I could find in stock was a product that was basically water, Murphy's Oil Soap and d-limonene. (A 72-foot-long aisle full of cleaning products, and ONE that wasn't flammable. Go figure. Murphy's spray isn't, but we were out of it.) I took the product to the other end of the store and it just floated the glue off so nicely it was unbelievable. And it's got a lovely scent--it even covers up the smell of roofing tar.

[surrealAmerican]

33. Borax.

Just put some dry borax on a slightly damp sponge. Rub at the greasy mess, and it disintegrates. Then rinse with a plain wet sponge or towel.

[Kali]

52. hmm I have borax for laundry and ants, will check it out

[flvegan]

34. For grease/oil, I always turn to Dawn.

[BrklynLiberal]

43. It is used to clean animals caught in oil spills..and has worked for me every time I have used it.

[Kali]

46. yep it is the best for normal grease

this stuff was getting really waxy - turns out regular old ammonia really did the trick on it

[Mugu]

35. Detergents come in different strengths depending on the job.

Around the house dish washing detergent is weakest (because of exposure to hands) followed by clothes washing detergent, followed by dishwasher detergent which is the strongest (that I know of) that you are likely to encounter in a home. Just be sure to wear your gloves because it will take your hide off. The powdered stuff will also give you a bit of grit to work abrasively until it dissolves.

[Kali]

44. oh yeah

and back in the day it was discovered that Amway clothes detergent is the best bong cleaner, wonder what those wing nuts would think about that?:rofl:

[Pool Hall Ace]

55. I used to know a sweet Christian lady who sold Amway

and she never told me about the bong-cleaning properties. Huh.

[rug]

37. I just move.

[Kali]

53. ...

:spray:

I used to do that! Worth the cleaning deposit back when it was only $100 or so!

[Ptah]

38. I love spray on oven cleaner.

[Kali]

48. on the outside of the oven?

the inside of mine isn't too bad, compared to the grease on the outside and on the cabinets and wall from too much frying on the stove top

[Ptah]

50. I use it on the stove top often, and the enamel on the outside too

The walls, only if they're tile I guess.

[Kali]

51. this is the lye based oven cleaner right?

and yeah, the inside is enamel so it would work on the outside too, I guess. I have bad memories of the smell of that stuff - and haven't use it in 20 years or more, I bet. Is it the same? You had to warm up the oven then spray it around and it foamed up - I think you waited a few hours and then wiped it off.

[sammytko]

57. do you use a splatter screen?

It kind of helps. I like to use a deep pan when I make anything that might splatter. Helps keep it contained. My favorite is a big Calphalon wok looking thingie.

[Kali]

40. some more great advice here - thanks

I haven't ever seen these Mr. Clean eraser thingies - I am intrigued. Also the steamer! If I ever get some extra cash that is on the short list of gadgets.

Well it turns out of the things I tried good old ammonia kicked ASS! Wiped it off like it was a fresh spill.

I missed trying the alcohol but I will keep it in mind to try. It certainly smells better than ammonia! (and while it is harsh, I can handle its smell better than vinegar for some reason. And I LIKE dill pickles!)

[Blue_In_AK]

58. Another vote for ammonia.

It cuts right through grease.

[dugaresa]

61. Fire! it is always cleansing!

[Petrushka]

62. PineSol --- n/t