Nasty Frypan

[mvick]

Help. Over the Holidays, several used my electric (stainless steel) frypan. Inside is fine, but bottom is stained and black ----. Yuck!! It can be put in dishwasher, but I am afraid that once the heat will set it and never come off. Dishwasher does not have a pot scrubber cycle.
Tried SOS pads. Slowly, some came off, but not much.

[Oggie]

Have you tried a little oven cleaner?

[mvick]

No. Any kind?

[starlady]

Heating it up with soapy water might help loosen some of the gunk.

[mvick]

Thanks!!
Heated up and put
On newspapers now. Upside down. Sprayed with oven cleaner.
Fingers crossed.

[Wolf mom]

Soak it in ammonia (watch the fumes - maybe put it outside if you are in an area that doesn't freeze) for a couple days if everything else doesn't work.

[Farmer Willy]

boil lye and water in it and be careful (glasses and gloves)

[Chief Cook]

I understand the gunk is on the outside. I use salt and lemon mixed to a paste and rub, rub, rub. I have been known to use some baking soda also. Good luck!

[starlady]

Ah, I misunderstood and thought OP meant the bottom of the inside. A paste of baking soda and peroxide works pretty well to get gunk off of baking pans, so it might work here if the oven cleaner doesn't.

[jwal10]

Vinegar, salt and steel wool or scrubber....James

[mvick]

Thanks! Y'all are the best!
The oven cleaner and then a little "elbow grease" and steel wool did away with most of it. Still a few dark spots, but seems to be a stain under the finish.
NO ONE but me going to use my pan again.

[Paumon]

Originally Posted by mvick

Thanks! Y'all are the best!
The oven cleaner and then a little "elbow grease" and steel wool did away with most of it. Still a few dark spots, but seems to be a stain under the finish.
NO ONE but me going to use my pan again.

I'm glad you already got the worst of the gunk off it. I just wanted to give you another tip for in the event it ever gets gunked up like that again by whatever means.

If the electric frypan is dishwasher safe then it means it's also safe to soak the entire thing completely submerged in a sink or pan full of hot water and one or two tablespoons of dishwasher detergent mixed in the water. It's better to use gel dishwasher detergent rather than the powder (I favour Palmolive gel).

Let it soak in the hotwater/detergent solution for about half an hour then give it a light scrub all over with a bristle brush and then rinse it thoroughly. You might not even have to scrub it.

The detergent has bleach in it as well as other solvents that dissolve the greasy baked on stuff on the pan, it dissolves and lifts it right off and the dissolved gunk all turns to scum and floats up to the surface of the water. Don't worry about the heat of the water setting stains, it won't do that. Instead it makes the detritus melt and expand and makes it easier for the detergent to dissolve it into liquid scum.

I do this with all of my metal pans or glass or porcelain casserole dishes whenever they get stains and food or grease baked right into them and it bleaches them to brightness as well as cleaning the gunk off.

If you don't have dishwasher detergent you can try it with hot water and regular chlorine bleach, that will work almost as well but you may need to do a bit more scrubbing.

[suitcase_sally]

This stuff:

http://www.qcidirect.com/sokoff-pot-...FWgV7AodCmQA0A

[buffalocreek]

Next time don't loan it out.

[hippygirl]

Originally Posted by Wolf mom

Soak it in ammonia (watch the fumes - maybe put it outside if you are in an area that doesn't freeze) for a couple days if everything else doesn't work.

That jogged a memory...

When we were kids, someone told my Mom to do that very thing, but failed to warn her about the fumes. She wrapped up two skillets in a couple of old towels, placed them in a plastic bag, dumped in a large bottle of ammonia, closed the bag and let it sit. Two days later when she unceremoniously dumped the contents into the sink, down she went...blam!

It was funny once we realized she was OK.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Bartenders Friend works for me.

[mitchell3006]

Barkeeper's friend