quote: Monte L Fullmer

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course, spray on "Easy Off" oven cleaner (the yellow can variety with is the genuine stuff) does the trick as well

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Yes that works too. But Easy Off also took off some of my skin and gave me a few nice chemical burn spots when I got it on me one day and didn't wash it off quick enough. yummmmy. So if you do use that, where gloves!
 

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Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 06-02-2005, 11:49 AM:
 
So, I shouldn't have sprayed the Easy Off all over my face...
 

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Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 06-02-2005, 12:08 PM:
 
We're currently using Sysco's Real-A-Peal product.
I don't think it works very well, but it does disolve the oil with a bit of elbo grease and a pad of steel wool.
At one point I know they scraped off all the built up black crud and coagulated oil in the nooks and crannies with a screwdriver.
Long as it's kept clean it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

If all else fails, I'm sure Gojo would work
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-02-2005, 12:22 PM:
 

quote: Dominic Espinosa

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Long as it's kept clean it doesn't seem to be much of a problem.

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There you go. We got a new popcorn machine about 8 years ago and to this day I tell every new employee, If it doesn't look like it's still brand new every night, you can't leave until it does. So it still looks new today!

It's much easier to clean off today's crud than crud from 6 months ago.
 

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Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 06-02-2005, 11:52 PM:
 
As mentioned by Monte, I bought some yellow can "Easy Off" and let it sit on the grimy parts for a good six hours or so. When I went back to wipe away the mess, the inside of the kettle had a flaky black residue that doesn't seem to come off. The stainless steel parts (i.e. the lid, handle, and thumb screws) came out as clean as a whistle, but the thicker parts are covered with this rust-like film.

I scrubbed and scrubbed the stuff with a scotch-brite pad, but hardly any of came off. In an act of desperation, I plugged the kettle back in, poured in some "heat-n-clean" mix and brought it to a boil. I then let that sit for about two hours, poured it out and brought another batch to a boil, which is currently sitting in the popper overnight. I'm going to go back in tomorrow morning and take some steel wool to the inside of the kettle in hopes of cleaning off the rest of the mysterious black junk. Then I'm going to do another "heat-n-clean" treatment and give it a thorough cleaning. My question(s) is this:

1. If the multiple heat-n-clean treatments don't work, what else can I do?

2. Will the mysterious black residue taint my corn for Friday night?


 

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Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 06-03-2005, 12:19 AM:
 
What is the kettle made of? Oven cleaner is basically lye (sodium hydroxide), & I can't think of its reacting with steel, rust, stainless, etc. to create something you've described (the flaky black stuff). You'd need an acid. Of course, depending on what was already there, something surprising & complex could have happened. But the black stuff is still likely something the fat-based crap in the kettle was turned into, & is now adhering to the kettle.

I have a feeling the blue stuff others are using is basically similar to other grease removers that are in a sort of cream carrier, like that mechanics use for cleaning their hands. In other words, it's probably GoJo cream-style hand cleaner dyed blue to make it seem proprietary. You can find GoJo hand cleaner at auto parts stores & at the auto section at Wal-Mart.

However, now that the stuff is carbonised, even soaking with grease remover & constant agitation may not get you very far. In that case, you may need some stronger caustic (like carburettor cleaner, not recommended) or more likely a monster solvent. I doubt you'll get far with acetone, you need something stronger. But some stronger solvents can discolor metals. Stainless can be finicky.

I know time is money with your popper, but if nobody's got any first-hand solutions, I'd try (in order):

1. Pour some vegetable oil over the blackened part to soak & try to re-soften it overnight, then wipe out all you can, & try cleaning the rest out with GoJo while it's still sort of softened.

2. Go to an auto parts store & get a can or two of Brake Parts Cleaner aerosol & a palm-sized stiff, non-metal bristle parts cleaning brush. Aerosol brake parts cleaner is a delghtful collection of gorilla-strength flammable & carcinogenic petroleum distillates. Pick one that doesn't claim to be environmentally-friendly, has a terrifying list of ingredients (not just hexane, but things like trichlorofluorobubonicplague 1, 1, 666) & preferably has a warning like CAUTION: WILL CAUSE YOUR BABIES TO BE BORN WITH CLOVEN HOOVES & REPTILE EYES. Blast at the black stuff & knock as much off as possible, scrub with the stiff brush.

Afterwards, thoroughly wash the kettle with a good grease-lifting detergent which will remove the solvent residue. Then wash it 2 more times.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-03-2005, 03:12 AM:
 
..now, if one REALLY wants to get nasty with backed on grease..is...to disassemble the unit, take off ALL of the electrics, then find a big pot to hold the kettle unit, take some bleach-a good two cups of it, throw it in the pot, fill the pot with water (do this outside over a raging fire) then just let that water/bleach boil all of that grease off -for the bleach will eat away all of that grease from the surface. Used to do this trick with frying pans that had gobs of baked on grease-amazing what boiling bleach water does with grease (granted, these frying pans, teflon coated, were aluminum, but it didn't take long for the grease to be boiled off to where it didn't hurt the alum too bad....)

Now, if that's a aluminum kettle-forget this trick. Bleach will eat up that raw alum real nice.

On the black-some kettles are nickel plated instead of stainless steel, and some chemicals will also eat that nickel away from the raw steel.

True, when using lye-get the gloves on....

..reason of my recommendation with oven cleaner is that I used the stuff on one of our kettles that was in the same condition as the one mentioned. Yet, our kettle wasn't black inside as the one mentioned here, for we kept the inside pretty well scrubbed and scoured out to where the oven cleaner was basically used on the outside.

I think that the black is just years of grease cooked in the metal of the kettle itself and the one treatment of the oven cleaner just barely broke loose the cooked in grease - to probably where one needs to do multiple treatments to get the surface of the kettle clean as the outside turned out to be with the one treatment of the oven cleaner.

Now, with this cleaning of my kettle using the oven cleaner: I didn't let it stand for the six hours mentioned, for I sprayed the stuff on and let it sit for just an hour, then took a paint scraper and loosened up what was sprayed over. As for the inside of the kettle, I did the same-sprayed and let stand for an hour then did the scraping as needed. Then washed the inside extremely well to where no cleaner was left. Then cooked two batches and threw them away to get rid of any trace of the cleaner. On my comment of leaving it soaking overnight was the outside surfaces only. For we didn't want to have any problems with the inside cooking surface-being that I mentioned of covering up the inside surfaces.

Sorry, if I might have lead somebody on the wrong path on this, but for me, it worked extremely well.

-Monte
 

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Posted by Dan Chilton (Member # 2288) on 06-03-2005, 09:47 AM:
 
Well, I went back into the theater this morning around 6:00 am, armed with steel wool, a tub of Gojo, brillo pads, plastic scrapers, a wire brush, and concentrated dish detergent. I'm happy to announce, that after two and a half hours of applying healthy amounts of elbow grease and plenty of glop (grayish mixture of Gojo, orange detergent, and brillo suds) the inside of my kettle is as clean and smooth as a baby's bottom.

The blackish film had turned gray by the time I showed up this morning, and was considerably less flaky... although still somewhat annoying. After all the cleaning I did, the inside of the kettle now looks antiqued... like the sides of a big wrought iron stove kettle. The metal was also slightly pitted and bumpy in certain areas along the side. Long story short, although it may work for some people, I don't think we'll be using oven cleaner again.

I appreciate all the fine advise, and may all your Friday night kettles runneth over.
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-03-2005, 12:39 PM:
 
Dan - you should probably make a few batches of popcorn and throw them away before making a batch for sale. (Taste issue, possibly, plus you want to make sure all those nasty chemicals are gone.)
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-03-2005, 01:29 PM:
 
Now...with all of that hard work cleaning that kettle, I'm sure now that a daily cleaning procedure will be in order to where the usage of the inside/outside kettle cleaner from Cretors will be used.

I bet that kettle was nickel plated on the inside - to be pitted and bumpy as mentioned where the oven cleaner eroded some of the nickel away. And with the pitting and when one boils the kettle out each night, one has to make sure that the kettle gets dried to endure no rust spots develop in the pitted areas.

-monte
 

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-03-2005, 01:37 PM:
 
Yeah...on second thought, I think I would start saving up for a new kettle.
 

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Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 06-03-2005, 04:27 PM:
 
Just a spitball, here... But now the plating is off, might it not be better to just let the inside of the kettle turn black?

That's how you treat a cast iron skillet. You LET the oil carbonize on the surface. That's how you season them.

We have several Grizwold cast iron skillets. That's how we treat them. To clean them, we simply soak them in hot water and wipe them clean with a cloth while they are still hot. They don't rust and food never sticks to the inside. (It's better than Teflon, some say!)

Of course, you'd keep the outside nice and clean B/C that's what the customers see. But the inside... Let it season, I say.
 

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Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 06-03-2005, 08:54 PM:
 
At the moment I have a loan kettle from my corn supplier while my old kettle is being re-nikleplated.
At a cost of approx $300.00 incl. rewiring as opposed to around $1200.00 for brand new.
 

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Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-04-2005, 02:45 AM:
 

quote:

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They don't rust and food never sticks to the inside. (It's better than Teflon, some say!)

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