I am doing an experiment with Citristrip. I figure it should lift the baked on stuff on the glass of the oven door, as it seems to cope with oil based paints well enough. I have painted on a small section, left it for 15 minutes (instructions for paint are 20-30 minutes or longer) and indeed the stuff scrapes off fairly well. Here is the MSDS for the stuff:

http://www.floodaustralia.net/safety/msds/MSDS_Citristrip.pdf

Now, I won’t get it near the rubber seal, but can anyone think of any way this might affect the glass itself? I will have to be careful with the scraping, so as not to scratch the glass, I know that bit.

And if it works on the glass bit, should I give the enamelled parts a go too?

Won’t harm the glass bits (it’s distilled in glass). Isn’t it designed to lift oil based products…such as enamel?

Results of part 1.

Citristrip brushed on glass. Left 30 minutes. Carefully scraped with plastic scraper…..pathetic. Go back to even more careful with metal scraper……works. But not lifting all of the gunge. The glass was very gungey. So I’ve washed, Jiffed, and painted another lot of Citristrip on the glass.

I did throw caution to the wind and put a bit on the enamel, on the basis that it is baked enamel and not an enamel paint. It doesn’t appear to have done any harm. But I’ve washed it off to be safe.

poikilotherm said:

Won’t harm the glass bits (it’s distilled in glass). Isn’t it designed to lift oil based products…such as enamel?

Yes, despite the undeclared ‘secret ingredient’ it is unlikely to harm the glass. The enamel in a stove would be a vitreous enamel, would it not? In which case it should be ok for that too. Pyrrolidones are commonly used for cleaning vitreous surfaces.

http://www.google.com/patents/EP1613573A4?cl=en

Sorry – slight thread hijack: This summer I might be having a Citristrip-fest.

I think I have..no, I have, convinced mr kii that the three doors in the passageway will look great stripped of the dowdy white paint :D they are original to the house and therefore the wood should be gorgeous.

kii said:

they are original to the house and therefore the wood should be gorgeous.

How old is your home?

This is a pretty far-out suggestion, probably belongs in omegafour rather than here I suspect, but have you considered cleaning the oven more often?

Or using it less? (This is my preferred option.)

Or just treat your oven as a consumable and throw it out and get a new one.

My oven gets very heavy use but I’m content to clean it with actual oven cleaner.

Witty Rejoinder said:

kii said:

they are original to the house and therefore the wood should be gorgeous.

How old is your home?

The original part is about 70 years old. It was a rural farm worker’s home.

>>My oven gets very heavy use but I’m content to clean it with actual oven cleaner.<<

This presumes I remember to wipe over the glass after use. I often don’t. I’m rather suspicious that it might be several years since I actually did clean the inside of the glass. Ordinary oven cleaner is fine for the walls and floor and ceiling. I soak the racks in a trough of washing soda mix overnight and then they clean very well. But it’s difficult to get the washing soda and water to be convinced to stay on the vertical surfaces……

buffy said:

But it’s difficult to get the washing soda and water to be convinced to stay on the vertical surfaces……

You’re not trying hard enough.

buffy said:

>>My oven gets very heavy use but I’m content to clean it with actual oven cleaner.<<

This presumes I remember to wipe over the glass after use. I often don’t. I’m rather suspicious that it might be several years since I actually did clean the inside of the glass. Ordinary oven cleaner is fine for the walls and floor and ceiling. I soak the racks in a trough of washing soda mix overnight and then they clean very well. But it’s difficult to get the washing soda and water to be convinced to stay on the vertical surfaces……

I get a cleaner in but the oven/stove only gets done every 6 months or so. She generally just does a bit of vaccuming with odd jobs like bathroom etc as needed.

buffy said:

>>My oven gets very heavy use but I’m content to clean it with actual oven cleaner.<<

This presumes I remember to wipe over the glass after use. I often don’t. I’m rather suspicious that it might be several years since I actually did clean the inside of the glass. Ordinary oven cleaner is fine for the walls and floor and ceiling. I soak the racks in a trough of washing soda mix overnight and then they clean very well. But it’s difficult to get the washing soda and water to be convinced to stay on the vertical surfaces……

I get a cleaner in but the oven/stove only gets done every 6 months or so. She generally just does a bit of vaccuming with odd jobs like bathroom etc as needed.

Results of second coat. Not as impressive, but getting cleaner. I’ve now, for the sake of science, applied a paste of baking soda, as suggested by pretty much every interwebs site for cleaning oven glass. I have my doubts…..

I don’t like using chemical cleaners. Just hot soapy water and one of those green plastic scourers applied with a bit of muscle power gets the oven clean every time.

fsm said:

I don’t like using chemical cleaners. Just hot soapy water and one of those green plastic scourers applied with a bit of muscle power gets the oven clean every time.

Soap isn’t a chemical?

poikilotherm said:

fsm said:

I don’t like using chemical cleaners. Just hot soapy water and one of those green plastic scourers applied with a bit of muscle power gets the oven clean every time.

Soap isn’t a chemical?

You know what I mean.

One of my brothers and his wife were terrible at housework in their early years….both computer nerds…he’d fill the old bath tub with caustic soda and water to clean the baked on gunk on the many, many cheap pots and pans they had. When the stove got too yucky he put it in the backyard and replaced it with a new one.

kii said:

One of my brothers and his wife were terrible at housework in their early years….both computer nerds…he’d fill the old bath tub with caustic soda and water to clean the baked on gunk on the many, many cheap pots and pans they had. When the stove got too yucky he put it in the backyard and replaced it with a new one.

LOL. I wonder how many of them dissolved away?

morrie said:

LOL. I wonder how many of them dissolved away?

No idea….I hated babysitting for them :/

fsm said:

poikilotherm said:

fsm said:

I don’t like using chemical cleaners. Just hot soapy water and one of those green plastic scourers applied with a bit of muscle power gets the oven clean every time.

Soap isn’t a chemical?

You know what I mean.

.

So, then seeing as caustic soda is used to make soap, would you consider using caustic soda to clean ovens?

(I use caustic soda when gunk is burnt on. I don’t use green scourer pads on stove-enamel or glass, because they scratch the surface, as do various feldspar-based creams.)

morrie said:

kii said:

One of my brothers and his wife were terrible at housework in their early years….both computer nerds…he’d fill the old bath tub with caustic soda and water to clean the baked on gunk on the many, many cheap pots and pans they had. When the stove got too yucky he put it in the backyard and replaced it with a new one.

LOL. I wonder how many of them dissolved away?

Mainly just the aluminium ones.

There’s some frypans in this house that look like aluminium, labeled “hardened anodized”. One of them, the underside has been stripped back at least a milimetre from the original surface in an upwards drip pattern.

…because they scratch the surface, as do various feldspar-based creams.)

——

Such as Jif.

And if it works on the glass bit, should I give the enamelled parts a go too?
——-

Stove-enamel is a glass.

But it’s difficult to get the washing soda and water to be convinced to stay on the vertical surfaces……
————————————

One way is to thicken it with cornflour. Even caustic soda (NaOH, lye) solutions can be thickened with cornflour. The thickness won’t last weeks, but it will help the NaOH to stay on the vertical or upside-down surface.

Frankly though, a strong NaOH solution can be painted on thin-and-runny and will do its job very efficiently, generally long before the water evaporates.

Safety:

**Use gloves,eye protection and full length old clothing. **Add alkali (NaOH) to water to make the solution (not water to alkali). **Protect all nearby painted surfaces with many sheets of newspaper. **Rinse well, and several times with clean water. **Do not allow NaOH solution to touch aluminium or zinc metal surfaces. NaOH will ruin them.

Bummer. I tried to format the safety with bullet points and indents each on a new line. Didn’t work, sorry.

Michael V said:

fsm said:

poikilotherm said:

Soap isn’t a chemical?

You know what I mean.

.

So, then seeing as caustic soda is used to make soap, would you consider using caustic soda to clean ovens?

(I use caustic soda when gunk is burnt on. I don’t use green scourer pads on stove-enamel or glass, because they scratch the surface, as do various feldspar-based creams.)

Caustic soda may be used to make soap but none remains in the soap after saponification. I have never seen a green plastic scourer and soap scratch glass or enamel.

green plastic scourers

on glass? i thought those were a no-no as they were hardy than glass and so will scratch it. steel wool is preferred i believe.

fsm said:

Michael V said:

fsm said:

You know what I mean.

.

So, then seeing as caustic soda is used to make soap, would you consider using caustic soda to clean ovens?

(I use caustic soda when gunk is burnt on. I don’t use green scourer pads on stove-enamel or glass, because they scratch the surface, as do various feldspar-based creams.)

Caustic soda may be used to make soap but none remains in the soap after saponification.
—————-
Quite true – I was being a smart-arse.

………………………………………………………………..

I have never seen a green plastic scourer and soap scratch glass or enamel.
———-
I have, and on many, many occasions. It’s the reason I stopped using them when I had the cleaning busisness. Granted the plastic itself doesn’t scratch, but entrapped silica particles do the damage.

Boris said:

green plastic scourers

on glass? i thought those were a no-no as they were hardy than glass and so will scratch it. steel wool is preferred i believe.

We must be thinking of different green plastic scourers. I use them on all sorts of hard surfaces and they don’t seem to scratch.

why not leave the oven door open so the surface is horizontal, that way, unless there is a strong wind, the cleaner wont need thickening to stay put.

Michael V said:

fsm said:

Michael V said:

fsm said:

You know what I mean.

.

So, then seeing as caustic soda is used to make soap, would you consider using caustic soda to clean ovens?

(I use caustic soda when gunk is burnt on. I don’t use green scourer pads on stove-enamel or glass, because they scratch the surface, as do various feldspar-based creams.)

Caustic soda may be used to make soap but none remains in the soap after saponification.
—————-
Quite true – I was being a smart-arse.

………………………………………………………………..

I have never seen a green plastic scourer and soap scratch glass or enamel.
———-
I have, and on many, many occasions. It’s the reason I stopped using them when I had the cleaning busisness. Granted the plastic itself doesn’t scratch, but entrapped silica particles do the damage.

The soap that I use is generally dishwashing detergent in hot water, not those cleaning pastes.

just the generic green pads. not recommended for glass. maybe there are different types of green scourers.

The soap that I use is generally dishwashing detergent in hot water, not those cleaning pastes.
—-
Buffy uses Jif. It’s a feldspar paste. Granted, it is fine grained and the scratches are not easy to see, but they are still there. That’s why I mentioned the pastes.

Dishwashing detergent is the best first pass for cleaning pretty much anything. It is excellent stuff.

Boris said:

just the generic green pads. not recommended for glass. maybe there are different types of green scourers.

.

Scourers come in various colours from white to black with white being the softest and black the hardest. Green is in the middle. White will clean glass without scratching, but won’t necessarily get the burnt-on gunk off.

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CE0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmultimedia.3m.com%2Fmws%2Fmediawebserver%3FmwsId%3D66666UuZjcFSLXTtMxTcoXfEEVuQEcuZgVs6EVs6E666666—&ei=Kmw9UfvdGqOdmQXewoDgAg&usg=AFQjCNHpdbTZdO_28JmEjCnRELGlimBvPg&sig2=_D4FwGwi-oF8WZUr-A0dUQ

bloody google not giving the pdf but there stupid url.

3m scotchbrite products and their uses. hopefully.

Citristrip won’t hurt glass or baked enamel.

Scourers might(depending on grade). Ajax will Vim and Gumption won’t hurt baked enamel.

As an aside, Ajax or Jif will also remove hair dye from your skin if you’ve dripped some and not realised it right away.

(Usual disclaimers apply re: not using with sensitive skin, near eyes or face etc).

Divine Angel said:

As an aside, Ajax or Jif will also remove hair dye from your skin if you’ve dripped some and not realised it right away.

(Usual disclaimers apply re: not using with sensitive skin, near eyes or face etc).

I used to hate Saturday mornings when I was an apprentice. Because it was jewellery polishing and I had usually been out on the hops on Friday night(being 17 at the time). This entailed the use of both Nitric and Sulphuric acids, Ammonia and jewellers rouge which I had to wash off with Ajax.. not the kinds of things one wants to be breathing, with a hangover.

Final report.

I used a shielded razor blade. Got clean glass now. The third coat of Citristrip didn’t really do much, so I gave up and grabbed the blade. Hopefully the glass won’t now explode from weakness at the scratches. I’m not concerned about the look. It doesn’t look scratched, but I haven’t looked really, really closely.

And yes, I used Jif and a plastic scrubbing brush. And Ajax. And steel wool.

I’ll report if we have a catastrophe from me not following the rules.

buffy said:

Final report.

I used a shielded razor blade. Got clean glass now. The third coat of Citristrip didn’t really do much, so I gave up and grabbed the blade. Hopefully the glass won’t now explode from weakness at the scratches. I’m not concerned about the look. It doesn’t look scratched, but I haven’t looked really, really closely.

And yes, I used Jif and a plastic scrubbing brush. And Ajax. And steel wool.

I’ll report if we have a catastrophe from me not following the rules.

The only catastrophe would be a scratched look.

Michael V said:

Dishwashing detergent is the best first pass for cleaning pretty much anything. It is excellent stuff.

Do you mean dishwasher detergent (ie the machine detergent) or the stuff you use when you’re doing the dishes by hand?

AussieDJ said:

Michael V said:

Dishwashing detergent is the best first pass for cleaning pretty much anything. It is excellent stuff.

Do you mean dishwasher detergent (ie the machine detergent) or the stuff you use when you’re doing the dishes by hand?

.

Washing up detergent. The stuff you use when you’re doing the dishes by hand.