cleaning Stove Pans

[Superman]

I need to clean some VERY baked-on grunge from some stove pans and rings on a very old cool-looking Thermador stove circa 1953. Internet suggests things like boiling in a soapy solution, using baking powder and vinegar, baking powder and hydrogen peroxide...

What is the very best way? I have struggled with this challenge before, and nothing seems to work all that well.

Bonus points for this: 1953 birch kitchen cabinets....what clear finish did they likely use? Nitro/lacquer? Probably not poly, right?

[cabmandone]

I think my wife uses the vinegar in a plastic bag out in the sun "trick". I'll go ask her.

[masraum]

pics?

[rusnak]

I think you're stuck with some sort of media or dry ice blasting.

[Bill Douglas]

Super, I used to work as a stripper. A paint stripper of old furniture.

We had a caustic soda (I think you guys call it lye) bath that we immersed the furniture in and the paint fell off. It was also amazing on old cookware. They came out looking like new.

Caustic soda correctly diluted with water is good, and with warm water it's even better. Gives aluminium a bit of grief, but a few minutes in the solution won't do any harm.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by masraum

pics?

I think this might answer your question:

[Superman]

I have a bottle of drain cleaner which contains sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite.

[gregpark]

Personally I'd put those to the wire wheel on the grinder and make short work of it. A light sanding after if you want to paint them again

[Superman]

They were never painted. The drip pans fit down in the bottom of these rings, so much of the rings would need to be wire wheeled, which would scratch/resurface them. I don't expect them to look like new, but I think the wire wheel method would make them look.....wire wheeled.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Superman

I think this might answer your question:

Is it chromed steel? I think that's what those usually are, aren't they?

If so, then I'd be afraid to get too caustic, but at the same time if it is chromed steel, then there's probably already chrome missing and rust in it's place. If that's the case, then cleaning the cooked on stuff is probably still going to leave something that's not too attractive. Oven cleaner would probably do the trick. Maybe barkeepers friend and/or maybe boil them in some water with some bar keepers friend. Heat often helps a cleaning process like this.

If you can get them clean and they are/were chromed, then you can probably get them rechromed. If that's the case, then you may want to check with a place that does that to see if part of the process will be them cleaning them before the chroming process.

[Superman]

Oven cleaner feels like my best bet perhaps. I am not looking for concourse here. Just hoping for something considerably less ugly than you see in this image.

[cabmandone]

It's ammonia in a plastic bag and then out into the sun. She said she uses about a quarter cup. She lets it out in the sun a couple of days and the crud just kinda wipes off.

[flatbutt]

I'd paint over it with high heat paint. But I live alone.

[Rusty Heap]

acid dipped then chrome plated at an auto trim shop.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by cabmando

It's ammonia in a plastic bag and then out into the sun. She said she uses about a quarter cup. She lets it out in the sun a couple of days and the crud just kinda wipes off.

Only 1/4 cup in a plastic bag? This means the part is not immersed in the ammonia, right? It's just baking in an ammonia atmosphere, right?

Now it's just a matter of waiting for a sunny day. Those can come as early as mid-July here.

[flatbutt]

Originally Posted by Superman

Only 1/4 cup in a plastic bag? This means the part is not immersed in the ammonia, right? It's just baking in an ammonia atmosphere, right?

Now it's just a matter of waiting for a sunny day. Those can come as early as mid-July here.

If it's grease then some EZ Off oven cleaner caustic could help.

[Superman]

Originally Posted by cabmando

I think my wife uses the vinegar in a plastic bag out in the sun "trick". I'll go ask her.

Show her the picture. Ask her if she has ever cleaned something this dirty.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Superman

Only 1/4 cup in a plastic bag? This means the part is not immersed in the ammonia, right? It's just baking in an ammonia atmosphere, right?

Now it's just a matter of waiting for a sunny day. Those can come as early as mid-July here.

Right! She said the fumes from being out in the sun actually work the crud loose. I kinda forgot for a moment where you lived

[KFC911]

Try boiling them in water with baking soda ....

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Superman

Show her the picture. Ask her if she has ever cleaned something this dirty.

OOPS. Missed this. I showed her the picture last night as we were discussing this. She said it might take a couple tries since that looks pretty well caked but that it should help get it clean.