Non Toxic BBQ/Oven cleaner like Mr Muscle

[RIC23]

I am trying to find a Non toxic cleaner for cleaning my BBQ. In Australia there are many to choose from

I'm thinking I might find something in Villa market, HomePro  

[JaiMaai]

You can buy Mr Muscle here...

Tesco Lotus, Big C, Tops will most likely have it.

Sent from my ZX81 using a dial-up modem.

[Crossy]

Yup ^^^.

 

Also.

 

Washing soda (sodium carbonate, soda ash) is a cheap, reasonably safe (wear gloves), strong cleaner. Great for getting the baked-on shrimp off the barbie.

 

Get it from your pool supplier (it's a pH increaser).

[Damrongsak]

Washing soda is easily made from baking soda.  Just heat it in a pan or oven on medium heat for a bit.  150 C should do.  Good way to get rid of old baking soda that's been used to absorb odors.

 

"Above 50 °C, sodium bicarbonate gradually decomposes into sodium carbonate, water and carbon dioxide. The conversion is fast at 200 °C."

 

I like lye (or lye-based cleaner) for removing baked on grease.  But it will blind you in a heartbeat if you get it in your eyes.

[mogandave]

For the grill I just use a heavy duty wire brush.

[attrayant]

Sodium hydroxide chips are available at every mom ‘n pop hardware shop, and is dirt cheap. You can make the solution as strong or weak as you need. You’ll have to soak the parts to be cleaned since it doesn’t cling very well.

Keep it away from aluminum and dump the waste down the shower drains to clear out any grease or hair clogs in there

[planemad]

Hi attrayant, sounds like good advice, but can you help with Thai product name as I am sure that "Sodium hydroxide chips" will be met with blank stares!

Many thanks.

Planemad

PS. "dump the waste down shower drains" - what if using PVC piping, will that cause a problem?

[planemad]

OK, so I should have checked with Google first! Sodium hydroxide chips are also known as Caustic soda or Lye, however, doesn't help with the Thai name, anyone help?

[attrayant]

When I get it from my local shop, they call it "soda-fai", but of course they say it like "so-DAAAH fai".  Maybe have this picture on standby just in case:

 

 

Wear standard dishwashing gloves when handling this stuff (unless you feel lucky).

[planemad]

Many thanks, I will give it a go!

Planemad

 

[Damrongsak]

The Thai spelling for Sodium hydroxide is โซดา ไฟ .  AGC Chemicals in Thailand is apparently a big producer.  It is made in flake and granular forms.

 

It is extremely caustic.  It will eat skin and eyeballs, blind you in a heartbeat.  Great for dissolving baked on grease, removing oil, making soap and cleaning clogged drains.  It will remove colored anodizing on Aluminum and continue to eat the base metal if left too long.  Can be used to strip paint.  I used a commercial mix of a bit of lye and a bit more chlorine bleach to clean an old, green, slimy wooden deck.  Worked great.

 

 

[Crossy]

 

A picture speaks a thousand words ?

 

[impulse]

8 hours ago, Damrongsak said:

The Thai spelling for Sodium hydroxide is โซดา ไฟ .  AGC Chemicals in Thailand is apparently a big producer.  It is made in flake and granular forms.

 

It is extremely caustic.  It will eat skin and eyeballs, blind you in a heartbeat.  Great for dissolving baked on grease, removing oil, making soap and cleaning clogged drains.  It will remove colored anodizing on Aluminum and continue to eat the base metal if left too long.  Can be used to strip paint.  I used a commercial mix of a bit of lye and a bit more chlorine bleach to clean an old, green, slimy wooden deck.  Worked great.

 

And yet, it's used to make pretzels, corn tortillas and lots of other popular foods. 

 

That was always a head scratcher for me.  But then, I confuse easily.

 

[attrayant]

3 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

And yet, it's used to make pretzels, corn tortillas and lots of other popular foods. 

 

That was always a head scratcher for me.  But then, I confuse easily.

 

 

One of the basic tenets of toxicology: The dose makes the poison.  It's the same reason why we can't even touch pure acetic acid but we can liberally splash vinegar (5% acetic acid & 95% water) on our food.

[RIC23]

Thanks everyone lots of ideas & some precautions to take

 

Ric

[mogandave]

 
One of the basic tenets of toxicology: The dose makes the poison.  It's the same reason why we can't even touch pure acetic acid but we can liberally splash vinegar (5% acetic acid & 95% water) on our food.

Yeah, I had a dose once...not fun!

[Damrongsak]

The vinegar sold in the USA is generally 3%.  4-5% is sometimes available for cleaning and maybe killing weeds.  My Thai MIL had a little bottle she called "head of vinegar" (hua nam som), and warned that it had to be diluted.

[attrayant]

I've tasted both and can't really say I detect a difference, flavor-wise, between 3% and 5%.  Five percent is commonly available in supermarkets here and makes my pad see-ew nicely tangy.  Here's what I have right now both in my kitchen (left) and in my lab (right):

 

 

Horticultural vinegar (for killing weeds) is usually a 20-30% concentration.  Anything less wouldn't be very effective on anything but the youngest, most tender weedlings.