Preferred Cleaning Methods?

J

John M.

Member
Recently brought home 3 CI skillets & 1 CI Dutch oven. Total of 5 pieces that need cleaning. All pieces are less than 12" diameter. I don't believe that any are what might be considered highly collectable & they will be put into service.

I've read the articles on using either canned oven cleaner, a lye bath, or an electrolysis tank.

I happen to have a plastic tote with a lid & a battery charger that I think would be sufficient.

Which method of cleaning should I pursue?

I hope to locate more pieces in the future.

Thank you.
 
Hi John, the "Cast Iron Restoration" section of this site does a very good job of explaining the ins and outs of the various options you have to clean your pans. It is worth giving it a read.

Cheers, and good luck.
 
I have read that section.

Is there a single method of cleaning that excels over the others, or do most use a combination of two or more methods?

Found another skillet today. I think it may be an unmarked Wagner #8. The handle has a letter "D" on the underside & the ridge forms a flattened triangle shape where the handle joins the skillet side wall. There is a #8 on the top of the handle. There is some very faint letters on the skillet bottom, but I cannot determine what they are.

Thanks.
 
John,

I am not aware of any quantitative comparison of the various cleaning methods. It is a personal decision with a number of factors to consider. I primarily use a lye bath and an e-tank. The lye bath has the advantage of just leaving a piece or depending upon the size, multiple pieces alone for as long as necessary to remove the crud. Once it is set up, you can reuse it many times. This past winter when my lye tank froze, I had to use oven cleaner and trash bags a couple of times. Both instances required at least two applications. Both work.

I also have a couple instances where the lye bath did not remove some really caked on crud and it was necessary to augment the lye bath with the application of oven cleaner and elbow grease.

The down side for the lye bath is, in my opinion, it needs some amount of "security". My lye bath is inside of a fenced area and so, the deer, fox, rabbits, dogs, etc are protected. We're empty nesters, so there are no young kids at our house or at the next couple of neighbors to worry about.

The other consideration is quantity. If you will be cleaning 1 piece/yr., oven cleaner is probably more economical.

For lightly rusted pieces, the vinegar bath is effective. I cleaned a BSR skillet last fall that was very badly rusted.

https://imgur.com/fY0zTIT

It would have taken a lot of 30 minute sessions in the vinegar bath to get it ready for seasoning. Again, it depends upon what you have to work on and the number of pieces you will be trying to get ready for initial seasoning. I was fortunate this past winter in that when I needed to use the e-tank, it had thawed out.
 
If you have most of the items for an e-tank, I would consider it. It is the most thorough cleaning and requires little supervision, just read up on it and make sure your battery charger will work. If your pieces are caked on really bad, use the lye bath or oven cleaner first to remove all of the caked on oil.

A lot of people that I've read on hear use multiple methods just like myself (lye tank and vinegar bath). I have in excess on 60 pieces, so the lye bath works great (no place to have an e-tank in my apartment).
 
After measuring the plastic totes that I have, I decided that I will need a taller container for an e-tank.

Picked up four 16oz. bottles of Rooto from Ace today. One of my plastic totes measures about 15"W x 27"L. I made a mark at 10" from the bottom & brought the water level to that mark. Should be in the 17 to 20 gallon range. The lye didn't completely dissolve & left a few hardened chunks in the recess around the perimeter of the tote.

There are 3 pieces in the tank at this time. One began to show rust almost immediately after being submerged. I suspect the rust may have been hidden by oil.

I have 4 other pieces in a plastic bag that I sprayed with easy off this morning. Be interesting to see the results between the two methods.
 
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