Put your die grinder away

[Kyle in Woodstock]

After 30 seconds to a minute on a test spot on the exterior of a fire box. It did strip the paint.

After a test shot on the end cap from yesterday it came out shiny aluminum.

Another test was on the exterior of a red head. It did not seem to affect the porcelain at all. I did a small spot but I’d err on the side caution.

I need to do a better test on the interior of a fire box.

Wire brush the crud off then apply. I did see a few small spots that showed aluminum.

Sorry don’t have time to post pics. Early work day tomor row.

Thanks for the info! I have a bottle of the gel coming on Saturday. Going to try it out on the inside of a genesis lid and firebox and will post some pictures. If this stuff is anything like gel strippers I've used in the past, the longer you leave it on, the better it does at penetrating and breaking down the paint that's on there.

 

[Ed L]

So a quick second shot on the middle and and a shot along the edges last night. 15 - 20 minutes Quick rinse with hose.

I’m sure if I applied more along the edges and waited longer it would’ve come up better.



Working on 2 skiarondack chairs for someone at the moment so just testing product and pleased with results.

Preview

 

[Bruce]

That does look like some pretty strong stuff.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

I bet if you let that stuff sit on there over night and then used a simple metal scraper that it would come pretty clean.

Ski chair looks cook, you going to remove the foot holds on the skis?

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

I'll give it a thumbs up.
Before I put it on I scraped off the large chunks and wasps nests with a basic metal scrapper. Then used an air gun to blow out the dust.
I used the large bottle of gel and applied with an acid brush.
I let it sit on overnight. Then used the same metal scrapper, it came off easily with minimal effort.


First picture is before any product was applied.
In the second picture you can see one portion where i scrapped and the other side is where I didn't scrap yet. I'm going to apply some more pressure and know more black carbon will come off, this was literally 60 seconds of scrapping.

If you look at the left side from the first picture, that's the area I'm showing in second picture. Big difference.




Next up, I'll see what it does on the exterior painted surfaces.

Also, with the gel, a little goes a long way. For the inside, I used maybe 1/8 of a bottle.

 

[JBaker]

I've not done a lot of hoods or chambers, but when I have I've soaked with Simple Green then put them in a black trash bag and left them in the sun on the driveway for a day or two. Everything melts off. Not sure if Simple Green is eco, but it works.

 

[CWalker]

Actually Simple Green is eco friendly, it’s the main thing we use for cleaning in the Coast Guard because of it

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

I use Simple Green all the time on grills, but it doesn't do much on the inside of gas cook boxes. Works excellent on kettles though

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

Ok, here is the final product. I'll do a little more scrubbing, but not going to put much more time/effort into the cook box.

This was my method....using the gel version of this product,
- start my using a metal scrapper and get all the big junk cleared away
- take cook box outside and blow out all the dust using my leaf blower
- poured some gel in the small grease tray (the tray where you use disposable foil trays) and used a cheap acid brush to apply to the inside cook box
- USE GLOVES AND GOGGLES, don't want to burn yourself....and FYI, I was a dummy and poured some in a plastic solo cup....took about 45 seconds to totally melt the cup
- Let the gel sit over night
- use metal scrapper and scrap inside of cook box
- take cook box outside, rinse off with water hose
- spray inside really well with Simple Green, then use a scrub brush on interior of cook box
- and lastly spray off Simple Green
- Done

It didn't get it 100% clean, but it certainly is MUCH LESS messier than using an angle grinder, and it much easier
It also didn't take a lot of product to do this, so you could do 4-5 grills with one bottle, maybe more.
Pictures below are the cook box after I rinsed it off, so still wet

I did not try applying this to the exterior paint, but when I was applying the gel to the side near the burner holes, some gel dripped over to the exterior and you can see from the pictures that it did help breakdown the paint. So that could be an option for exterior. I didn't do that with this grill because it looks decent on the exterior and I'm only going to do some touch up painting, not a full on paint job.

 

[Bruce]

I would call that a huge success. Regular grill cleaner and household steel wool and a bunch of vigorous scrubbing won't do that. In fact, that would rival a grinder job.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

I would call that a huge success. Regular grill cleaner and household steel wool and a bunch of vigorous scrubbing won't do that. In fact, that would rival a grinder job.

Yeah, it's a pretty good product. If I was wanting to get it really clean....I could probably apply another coat of gel to those dark areas and it would be looking very fresh.

 

[DSteinschneider]

Wow - that's clean - I'm glad I didn't read this post before I put mine back together

 

[Clint S]

Thanks all for the tips. I'll try Carbon-off on the interior of my Genesis 320 firebox. I use easy-off oven/grill cleaner on my stainless steel bottom pan and "flavor" bars, where it seems to do the trick. For the grates, I have some stout aftermarket cast iron grates which I love. Simply steam cleaning the hot grates with a spray of distilled water, with light wire brushing seems to keep them in good shape. For the firebox, Easy-off is not recommended for aluminum - hence I have not risked it for the firebox. I went through the same laborious and painful exercise of cleaning my firebox with a steel wire brush attached to my grinder. The wire-brush grinding effort still left some stubborn spots where I swore the carbon had evolved to diamond hardness. As we all know, a little bit of carbon is a good protective coating with a neutralizing flavor effect, which is why we like to break-in our grills. But too much carbon buildup is an undesired insulator, working aginst the radiation and reflective heat we rely on to achieve desired temperature and efficiency.

 

[LMichaels]

Easy Off is perfectly fine on the cook box just not on the exterior if you're trying to save the paint and be sure to rinse well with plenty of fresh water. Either by way of a power washer or a hose

 

[Bruce]

Yah, it might "discolor" bare aluminum, but it won't harm it structurally.

 

[Kyle in Woodstock]

Another run with this product. This time on a Q320 lid, underside.

spread it on pretty thick. This time I only let it sit a few hours instead of overnight. Didn’t work as well. Think it needs time to really break down the carbon buildup. I am going away for Labor Day holiday tomorrow, so wasn’t able to let it sit over night. I’m still happy with the result since this is my keeper grill and not a flip. Just really wanted to try out the product again.

One observation...I applied a much thinner amount of gel on the back side of the lid and this is the area it worked best on. Maybe the super thick layers on the other parts of the grill didn’t allow the product to work as well as it could have?

Before:




And after:

 

[Jeff MA]

Kyle,
I agree, the product seems to work best when you leave it on 24 hours or overnight. I put one side on thick and one much thinner. It seemed to work the same on my grungy Cook Box.
Jeff

 

[Jon Tofte]

I have been following with great interest. Thanks for posting these updates. I am thinking about getting some.