cleaning the cooker

What about a steam cleaner?

Angle Grinder :) we have carbon steel frying pans (pub kitchen) and when the underneath gets caked in burnt on fat thats the only thing that will remove it with a grinder wire brush

Scrap it off and then use wet and dry and buff with T-cut.

Or get teh whole top re-enamelled

Nope. Maybe a blowlamp would work

ROFLMAO. You have never owned an Aga have you?

Sodium hydroxide. Dangerous stuff. Dunno if you can still buy it these days

You used to be able to buy it in a "jellied" form which you plastered on and left for a couple of hours and then washed off.

Paint scraper

Stovax glass cleaner has been mentioned.

Owain

would nitromors do it?

I don't think even the old Methylene Chloride "Nitromors" will touch the worst of it. Boiling, strong sodium hydroxide solution probably gives you the best chance. Not recommended unless you are used to handling aggressive chemicals.

The lacquers from oxidised oils and greases are *very* chemically resistant. Otherwise you are down to mechanical methods (wire brush, sanding disk).

That’s going to really f*ck the aga enamel.

Sodium hydroxide, (dangerous, 1 drop in the eye and you are blinded) I think this is what the `oven cleaner companies` use but in gel form to avoid splashes. it would help if the parts concerned could be diassembled and taken outside and soaked in a tray for an hour. Available on ebay:

When were were students, a place we rented had a Baby Belling cooker. It was pretty grim when we moved in- various oven cleaners didn't really do the job.

I mixed up some strong NaOH sol., immersed the bits I could, and used a paint brush to apply the rest- covering it with kitchen roll and cling film.

After maybe and hour, I cleaned it all off and there wasn't a trace of old grease etc.

Or just buy it as 'caustic soda' at any decent hardware store.

But be aware that NaOH gets pretty hot when being dissolved, and can boil and spit, so there's a real risk of it splashing into your eyes. As a very minimum precaution, wear goggles, preferably a full-face visor.

Have you got one of these?

As others have suggested, caustic soda may soften it up.

Tim

But only on reasonably flat surfaces. Great on ceramic hobs, but Aga hotplates are machined cast iron and the enamelled parts are not particularly flat.

I've just been cleaning off kitchen grease today. Tried for the first time what I call public toilet cleaner on it - and it's pretty good. It's what's used industrially for toilets, available from janitorial supplies. Does not smell good.

If you're going to scrape it you need to use plastic, else the enamel will get trashed.

If using caustic I'd brush it onto the heated surface. DO wear eye protection.

Steam cleaners are good for some kitchen grease, certainly not all but it's probably an easy way to make some progress.

Whatever you use may need many soakings. Patience is better than wrecking the finish.

NT

yes, but the blade scratches the enamel. TW

nope

Even sidium hydrxide does not work on this.

I have had an aga for 14 years....