Pot cleaning made easy

[zelph]

If you cook over a wood fire your pot will eventually wind up yukky on it's sides and bottom.
By accident I found a product that cleans the soot and tar off with ease.
Use liquid Chaffing Fuel as the cleaning fluid. Pour some in a shallow paper plate, wrap the sides of the pot with paper towels, put the pot in and soak over night. (I only soaked the bottom overnight for this photo session) It only took one min. to clean the bottom from start to finish. Use a paint scraper instead of a single edge razor, I think it's workk better. The razor blade was too sharp and kinda dug into the metal and made some skid marks
Liquid Chaffing fuel can be purchased at many big box stores or restaurant supply stores like Gordon Food Supplies (GFS) It's used for warming trays of buffet food. Can be bought one at a time or by the case. Makes a good summer time fuel for alcohol stoves that are wickatized. This stuff needs a wick to burn. Wick stoves are great!!!!! Even tiny makes them

This is how it looked after my recent 13 wood stove tests. YUKKY, but smelled good :mrgreen:

[k-n]

album cover.remove seeds and stems.nuf said.

[Hooligan]

Dude, we used to use a frisbee and a playing card.

Is that stuff toxic? It looks like a nasty job to clean, hence the gloves. Last week I just soaked mine in the sink with regular detergent (I use some kind of Dawn concentrate liquid) for a few hours and it seemed to melt it off fairly well.

I guess whatever works though, they probably came cleaner than mine.

[zelph]

Dude, we used to use a frisbee and a playing card.

Is that stuff toxic? It looks like a nasty job to clean, hence the gloves. Last week I just soaked mine in the sink with regular detergent (I use some kind of Dawn concentrate liquid) for a few hours and it seemed to melt it off fairly well.

I guess whatever works though, they probably came cleaner than mine.

Using wood has it's down side!!!!!!

Wood is my first choice for fuel

Learn fire making skills and you may just pitch your canister.

[Hooligan]

Funny you mention that. After all these years I'm finally thinking of using something other than fire. The only stove I own is a folding dry fuel tab(nesbit type I think they are called) type from Boy Scouts. I've used it a handful of times (in probably 14ish+ years), but other than that I'm strictly fire, coals, and a hot rock.

How nasty is that chaffing stuff to clean with?

[Montana Mac]

Before you put it over the fire smear dish detergent on the outside to cover the exposed area. Once you are done cooking over a fire you can just wash the soot/black off in hot water.

[Tinker]

Isn't that stuff mostly alcohol?

I noticed that denatured alcohol takes soot off of pots and pans pretty well.

[Obiwan]

Before you put it over the fire smear dish detergent on the outside to cover the exposed area. Once you are done cooking over a fire you can just wash the soot/black off in hot water.

Memory lane.....we did that in Boy Scouts...about 100 years ago

Or 30...I get confused

[russb]

Memory lane.....we did that in Boy Scouts...about 100 years ago

Or 30...I get confused

Same here. I still remember when we told the "tenderfoot" to soap the pots and he came back smiling having done a great job soaping the INSIDE!

As I got older, I started to think, why the heck do we care if the bottom of the pot is black? After then I never soaped my pots (inside or out)

[JAK]

Great idea. Is chaffing fuel the same as gelled alcohol? I like the idea of re-using it in a wickatized alcohol stove. Might be good in small quantities as a fire-starter also. I use wood mostly also, in a Kelly Kettle or Hobbo Stove. The mess on the inside of the Kelly Kettle I just leave there, but the mess on the bottom of a pot with a Hobbo Stove is an issue. Makes sense to clean it up now and then.

How often would you clean your pot with this method?
During a trip? After each trip? After a season?

[Montana Mac]

Memory lane.....we did that in Boy Scouts...about 100 years ago

I was probably your troop leader back then!

[Obiwan]

If so, I would like to ask why you didn't stress the part where you keep the inside hand free of soap during the procedure

That was kind of important....it took me a few tries to get it right

[zelph]

Great idea. Is chaffing fuel the same as gelled alcohol? I like the idea of re-using it in a wickatized alcohol stove. Might be good in small quantities as a fire-starter also. I use wood mostly also, in a Kelly Kettle or Hobbo Stove. The mess on the inside of the Kelly Kettle I just leave there, but the mess on the bottom of a pot with a Hobbo Stove is an issue. Makes sense to clean it up now and then.

How often would you clean your pot with this method?
During a trip? After each trip? After a season?

Hi JAK, It's not the same as jelled alcohol. It won't burn without a wick. If you use a paper towel to clean it with, the towel will burn clean and you can heat your water with the left overs.

Use it to clean your pot when ever it suits your fancy. The pot in the photo was used for 13 wood burning tests over a 2 day periode to test double wall versus single wall wood burner. My cook pot never gets that groddy when used on the trail. I use mostly hot coals and it's not subjected to the smoke that was encountered in my tests. YUK!!!

The Material safety Data Sheet says not to be consumed. Toxic when swallowed. Follow the same precautions as you would with gelled alcohol or denatured and all of the other fuel we use. I used disposable gloves because of the staining power of the wood tars that are on the pot. That stuff is bad news also, do not swallow!!!

It makes for a nice summer fuel. It's hard to light in the cold temps. The container makes for a good wickatized stove/burner. Just fill the entire opening with wick and your good to go.

The use of liquid dish soap is recommended as a prevention of the hard to remove build-up. It has worked for me when I can remember to doit, which is very seldom.

[middle to middle]

I wash the inside and rinse the outside and pack in a pan bag. When opportunity arises then wash outside.

[Newb]

I hang my dirty pot from a tree away from camp and let the bears and raccoons lick it clean for me

[zelph]

I hang my dirty pot from a tree away from camp and let the bears and raccoons lick it clean for me

They(coons) not only have black masks, but also black tounges, YUK!!!! In your neiborhood