Cleaning up Craycort Rust on 22.5 grates


 
L

Laura D

TVWBB Fan
Dear Everyone - I have a question. I have Craycorts on all my grills, I love them, huge fan. I had to move and now I store my 22.5 OTG outside, vents opened, covered with an unventilated cover. Even though my climate where I live is pretty warm and mild, the Craycorts have rusted a little bit, probably because of the unventilated cover and also I did not use it for a while, went for my Smokey Joe for fast quick dirty grills. I'm going to go ahead and clean up the grates and bring them in for the rainy times, put them back out for Spring and Summer with no grill cover, I think that'll be fine but I'll keep a close look to see how they do.

I went to Ballistic BBQ YoutTube channel and got some good advice on what to do to clean up the rust. Here's my deal - I am looking for the simplest easy solution to heal up my grates and get them going again. I have scrubbed them but only a beginning scrub to see how bad the rust is. I think I will need to do more than just scrub with a brush. I have heard I can -

Put them in the oven with oven cleaner setting on (whatever an oven is; I'll have to google that)

Spray white vinegar on them and scrub them and rise them really well with hot water

Scrub with a sponge coated with sand paper

If they are really badly rusted use Naval Jelly by Loctite then wash and towel dry it

Any other suggestions?

The other thing is reseasoning it after - I may want to do that in this magical thing called the oven that lives in the kitchen, but wondering what degree temperature to do that, any further instructions on that. I am not an indoor girl and I am the Great Destroyer of Cast Iron.

Or I can always just put them on the grill and do a non cook, just for the purpose of reasoning. It depends how bad the rust is and what else is going on - I don't have a lot of time to just do things like that but I'll make some for my lovely grates I love so much.

Any help appreciated - thank you -

Laura
 
If it's just surface rust, what you've done already plus a coating of cooking oil is all I'd do. Well, that plus cook up some greasy burgers. :)
Unless you keep a decent coating of seasoning/grease on them, you'll battle rust forever. I keep my cast iron indoors except for the sear grate of the gourmet system.

I'm not much of a CI expert, so I'm looking forward to seeing what others have to say. :)
 
I spray more oil on my craycort grates after cooking. (after I take the wire brush to them). My kettle stays outside without a cover year round
 
I remember there was an old trick where a solution of blackstrap molasses and water could be used to dissolve rust without removing good metal, a google search should yield the details.
 
Thanks Everyone!

What I did was scrub with a wire brush. For rust that didn't come off from that, I used a sponge coated with sandpaper. For some of the deeper rust I sprayed vinegar on it and let it sit and then rinsed it off. Then I oiled it up with peanut oil, put it in the oven at 400 degrees, let it sit in there for a half an hour, then cool off for a half an hour. It seems to have done the trick.

I'm going to put them on the grill outside with no cover and under an overhang and keep a closer eye on them, see if I can leave them out year round.

Thanks for all your help - I love my Craycorts and I was scart!

Laura
 
Hi Laura; that should work just fine. I'm a bit south of you and pretty close to the water so I have pretty much the same salty air and PG is known for its very foggy summers. I've got a craycourt on my Performer and haven't had any issues with rust - but it does get used a fair bit. Also, I do keep mine covered fwiw. Using it about once a month should easily keep rust out. Good luck.
 
Lookin' Good Laura!
Wish Mine Looked As Good...

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