Easy way to clean fireboxes?


 

Stefan H

TVWBB Guru
Ok I spent another day in the coal pit today. Cleaned out 4 fireboxes with the grinder. As much as love restoring these old beasts I really hate this part.
I tried that sams club grill cleaner which was discussed here but that stuff really didn’t do much on 10-15 year old baked in grease. Even with the wire brush cup on the grinder I had a hard time. Especially on one Genesis 1000 firebox. Plus the dust. Lots of dust which isn’t probably healthy either.
So has anyone of you guys found a way to magically clean fireboxes???
Thanks guys....
 
Nope, no one has seemed to find the Holy Grail yet Stephan without going to extremes. You could invest in a media blasting outfit, but that isn't really practical unless you do a whole lot of grills. And if you don't invest in a blast cabinet big enough to hold the media, you will have a lot of waste. You may be able to take them in somewhere and have them blasted, but that would likely be cost prohibitive.

I give you a whole lot of credit doing 4 in one day. I have a hard time getting one done at a time. And, yah, I know all about the "dust". I have posted a couple of my raccoon photos on here after cleaning a box. I have forced myself to start using a cheap filter mask along with the safety glasses. It is a pain, but after blowing black snot for two days after cleaning a box, I figured it was for the best.

The angle grinder and wire cup brush has seemed be the solution most people are opting for if they want a clean and shiny cook box. But, if anyone knows an easier, cleaner and inexpensive alternative, I am all ears.

Maybe I should call up cousin Vinny and ask him what type of solvents they use to dispose of bodies over there in Chicago.
 
Maybe I should call up cousin Vinny and ask him what type of solvents they use to dispose of bodies over there in Chicago.

We use lye. It dissolves everything bones and all ;)
 
My wife has several pounds of industrial lye under the kitchen sink. She uses it to make soap, the old fashioned way. Anyway, maybe I should steal a container????
I know they use it to strip the carbon off of cast iron frying pans. Does it affect aluminum at all?
 
Yes it will effect it though used carefully the only issue is it discolors it though on a FB who cares?
 
Yah, a light run over with the angle grinder would bring back the shine, I would imagine. I did try to strip a couple CI pans several years ago using instructions on line but I didn't get very good results. I might have to go back and research this again.
 
Worst case scenario at least you know what to use if you want to dispose of a body without the police knowing :D
 
Yah, and if they do come sniffing around, I can blame it on the wife. Heck officer, that Lye stuff belongs to my wife.
 
I wonder how much easier it would be if you removed the lid, scrape the obvious stuff out then cover the lidless firebox with foil and run the grill full blast for a couple hours? My experiments today cooking crud off of flavorizers bars and a drip pan indicate this method is worth consideration ...
 
Do you have a decent air compressor ? If so, media blasting really isn't a bad alternative, and can be done somewhat on the cheap. My last 50lb bag of sand was $4.
 
Dave, I was actually thinking of that today. Yes I do have a compressor. But it is a small 125 PSI compressor. I guess I have to look at that harbor freight catalog again.
 
I wonder how much easier it would be if you removed the lid, scrape the obvious stuff out then cover the lidless firebox with foil and run the grill full blast for a couple hours? My experiments today cooking crud off of flavorizers bars and a drip pan indicate this method is worth consideration ...

My concern would be to warp the fire box.
 
Dave, I was actually thinking of that today. Yes I do have a compressor. But it is a small 125 PSI compressor. I guess I have to look at that harbor freight catalog again.

FWIW, based on my limited research, it's more about the SCFM I have a 2HP 10 Gal Cali Air Tools compressor that puts out 6.40 CFM @ 40 PSI and 5.30 CFM @ 90 PSI. It basically works ok with the cheap portable blaster from HF. It has trouble with seriously baked on stuff, but it did a good (but somewhat slow) job on the last firebox I cleaned. I'm thinking about picking up another matching compressor then running them together. PSI won't change, but the SCFM will increase.
 
It sounds like a great idea, but if I invest on something like this, I don't want to have to worry about it not doing a good job. What do you do with the waste sand?
 
My opinion is (and this is not a challenge to anyone) that any 20 plus year old grill has already had enough abuse to be able to withstand a few hours at full heat.

That being said, I defer to Hedley Lamaar: "Right as usual, sir."
 
The media blasting idea is definitely appealing. Since I don’t already have a compressor the initial investment looks like it would be fairly high. I have glanced at a few in the Harbor Freight catalogs but the reviews aren’t very good. I also wonder if you could make your own cabinet big enough to adequately hold a firebox. Could it be made from thick plywood?
 
It sounds like a great idea, but if I invest on something like this, I don't want to have to worry about it not doing a good job. What do you do with the waste sand?


Well, the reason I'm having somewhat mixed results is that I don't want to get a stupidly loud HF air compressor that has the right amount of power, and I also got the cheapest sand blaster they had, and under $20 with coupon. Basically, I wanted to try to do it on the cheap, and also just a kind of "proof of concept". Would have been stupid to spend $400 to find that it didn't work and I wouldn't have any other use for it. BTW, I picked up my California Air Tools 10020C for $58.

As for the sand, right now, I just spread out a 20x20 tarp and do my blasting on it. Most of the sand ends up on it. The stuff that doesn't just gets blown out into the grass. I'm seriously thinking about building a blast cabinet that grill boxes will easily fit into.
 

 

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