Gunk stuck to the bottom of my kettle


 
T

tjkoko

TVWBB All-Star
...and it's really stubborn to remove. Should the kettle be preheated with some charcoal followed by scraping the gunk with a stainless steel brush or what? Maybe some Easy Off oven cleaner, would it harm porcelain finish?
 
Assuming that you're talking about in the bottom? I would scrap with a plastic scraper/putty knife. If it's hardened, a razor blade works good, and you can spray some Simple Green to soften it up a bit. I don't worry much about mine, as long as the sweeps still turn, but I use it all of the time. Easy Off does make a grill cleaner, but I've never used it myself. Hope this helps.

Charlie
 
C Lewis said:
Assuming that you're talking about in the bottom? I would scrap with a plastic scraper/putty knife. If it's hardened, a razor blade works good, and you can spray some Simple Green to soften it up a bit. I don't worry much about mine, as long as the sweeps still turn, but I use it all of the time. Easy Off does make a grill cleaner, but I've never used it myself. Hope this helps.

Charlie
Click to expand...
Yes the bottom. So with your unit you kinda' are not really fastidious with spic and span cleanliness of the bottom part?!?!?
 
Last edited:
Interesting factoid:
Since I have been using the Vortex, the intense heat seems to virtually turn any gunk to dust in the bottom of the kettle! The sweepers clean the bottom quite nicely.
I’m not as fastidious as many of the members here but, I use the rascal almost daily! I have not done a full down to enamel in several years. I just don’t mind as long as the grates are within reason.
Polishing the things interior simply seems like busy work. It’s nice to keep the outside nice as that’s what folks see walking up the driveway. I’m a slacker and darned proud of it!
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Interesting factoid:
Since I have been using the Vortex, the intense heat seems to virtually turn any gunk to dust in the bottom of the kettle! The sweepers clean the bottom quite nicely.
I’m not as fastidious as many of the members here but, I use the rascal almost daily! I have not done a full down to enamel in several years. I just don’t mind as long as the grates are within reason.
Polishing the things interior simply seems like busy work. It’s nice to keep the outside nice as that’s what folks see walking up the driveway. I’m a slacker and darned proud of it!
Click to expand...
I just got mine and have used it only four times or so, using only about half a chimney of Kingsford. I'm thinking that I'm not using enough Kingsford and should user at least 3/4 chimney for more heat and "char flavor".
 
tjkoko said:
I just got mine and have used it only four times or so, using only about half a chimney of Kingsford. I'm thinking that I'm not using enough Kingsford and should user at least 3/4 chimney for more heat and "char flavor".
Click to expand...
Are you talking about just getting a Vortex?
Use a full chimney, shut down all vents and save the tailings in the Vortex and either use them in the next cook using the baskets or leave them in the bottom and fire a second 3/4 chimney and top the Vortex off with that .
I have not used a full load of fresh charcoal in the kettle in a long time maybe half in the bottom of the chimney topping it off with old coal.
Does that make sense? Or am I getting too “wordy”?
 
tjkoko said:
Yes the bottom. So with your unit you kinda' are not really fastidious with spic and span cleanliness of the bottom part?!?!?
Click to expand...
Nope, much like Tim said, I just use mine a lot, and keep the outside clean. I run the sweeps every couple of cooks to get the ashes out, other than that I don't worry about it much, other than keeping the grates clean. I just recently scraped mine out some, just because it had built up a lot and I was in a grill cleaning mood. It's just a carbon build up, not like it's all moldy and all.
 
tjkoko said:
Not at al wordy. I meant I just got the 18 inch kettle and it appears too small to use with a Vortex.
Click to expand...
Get the small one from Marty Owens (Owens BBQ) he’s a member and makes a superior product! I would not trade mine for anything! The small will fit yours, the medium works perfectly for my 22. Once you do a batch of wings using it, you will never look back! Trust me.
 
Last edited:
C Lewis said:
Nope, much like Tim said, I just use mine a lot, and keep the outside clean. I run the sweeps every couple of cooks to get the ashes out, other than that I don't worry about it much, other than keeping the grates clean. I just recently scraped mine out some, just because it had built up a lot and I was in a grill cleaning mood. It's just a carbon build up, not like it's all moldy and all.
Click to expand...
Exactly! I just noticed some gunk build up on the grate tabs and removing the grate is a little “hinkey”, time to chip those clean😁!
 
If it's "your" gunk, then I'd just keep on cooking as long as the blades move freely.

If you bought the grill used and it's someone else's gunk...then I'd do a deep cleaning for sure. Oven Cleaner works well. Clean it as best you can without oven cleaner, then coat it really well with the oven cleaner and let it sit over night and finish cleaning.

If you have a colored (non-black) kettle, be careful to not get the over cleaner on the outside colored portion of the grill....especially near any area where it's rusting or chipping/flaking. Oven cleaner will make bad spots worse.
 
I use oven cleaner and I've even used spray-on paint stripper. I don't let the paint stripper sit very long, just long enough to soften the really tough stuff. Get yourself a brass putty knife. The brass is softer than steel (less chance of scratching) and can be formed (hammered) into a radius to match the inside of the grill.

You folks that don't ever clean your grills? Gross. Do you clean the oven in your house? :ROFLMAO:
 
Use a drip pan when possible. Most of the gunk is grease/ drippings and if you let that build up you could have a serious grease fire.
And yes it has happened to me.;)
 
Tim Snyder said:
I use oven cleaner and I've even used spray-on paint stripper. I don't let the paint stripper sit very long, just long enough to soften the really tough stuff. Get yourself a brass putty knife. The brass is softer than steel (less chance of scratching) and can be formed (hammered) into a radius to match the inside of the grill.

You folks that don't ever clean your grills? Gross. Do you clean the oven in your house? :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Tim, I never clean the oven in the house. The wife does! 🤣
 
I have run in to very bad ,hard build up in a couple kettles I flipped after doing the standard cleaning and scraping and still had material to remove I taped off the lower vents and made up a mix of Dawn and white vinegar and let sit out I'm the sun most of the day .

Then I returned to scraping and steel wool or SOS pad to clean remaining material.
With 99.5 % success.
 
Kevin L (NKY) said:
I have run in to very bad ,hard build up in a couple kettles I flipped after doing the standard cleaning and scraping and still had material to remove I taped off the lower vents and made up a mix of Dawn and white vinegar and let sit out I'm the sun most of the day .

Then I returned to scraping and steel wool or SOS pad to clean remaining material.
With 99.5 % success.
Click to expand...
Maybe I should do that when I leave for vacation?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top