best cleaner for greasy steel condensers

[craig1]

I need to clean a bunch of greasy steel condensers on various pieces of restaurant equipment. Whats the best cleaner for this? I often use Alka-Brite on the aluminum condensers and it works great, but it doesn't foam on the steel ones, and takes many applications to start disolving the grease

[Rcb2875]

Are you talking about the grease filters on the hood exhaust system? Super Clean is good and if they aren't a complete disaster I have used Awesome Cleaner that you get at the dollar store for a few bucks and that stuff works real good for all sorts of cleaning and it isn't acidic or harsh.

[VTP99]

I need to clean a bunch of greasy steel condensers on various pieces of restaurant equipment. Whats the best cleaner for this? I often use Alka-Brite on the aluminum condensers and it works great, but it doesn't foam on the steel ones, and takes many applications to start disolving the grease

Yep the Alka-Brite works great on aluminum but sucks on steel. Most the kitchens I work at have some good degrease solutions. Have you tried 409 or Purple Power ?

[Rcb2875]

When I was working in the fire suppression field installing and servicing the fire systems and hoods the absolute best and fastest way to clean the worst of filters was with a pressure washer. Even the little electric models work well which is what we used since we weren't in the hood cleaning business and only did so for few clients or the job required it.

You could call one of your local hood cleaning companies and probably get some good advice there but all the ones we worked with used high pressure machines.

[ahiggins91]

I need to clean a bunch of greasy steel condensers on various pieces of restaurant equipment. Whats the best cleaner for this? I often use Alka-Brite on the aluminum condensers and it works great, but it doesn't foam on the steel ones, and takes many applications to start disolving the grease

Best luck i've had is get all the surface stuff with a wire brush, spray coil with water, then spray with the foaming coil cleaner at kind of an angle, that makes it so it actually foams a little better. Then rinse the coil and do another once-over with the wire brush, and then throw a towel or something over the condenser and give it a nice blast of CO2 to knock all the crud out that the foam didn't carry out.

Make sure you carry a bunch of paper towels or rags and put it below the coil to catch the foam/water/crud especially if its an upright unit with the condenser on top of it so the crap doesn't run down the front of it.

Once at a chinese restaurant in town, they had a small walkin RIGHT next to the area they fried everything, and the condenser coil on top of the w/in got so plugged up with grease we literally pumped it down, recovered the rest and cut the sucker loose, took it to the carwash and cleaned the s**t out of it as a last resort.

[ICanHas]

What's the surface plating on it?

Lye based oil cleaner is very effective, but it will corrode aluminum and zinc plating.

[Dchappa21]

Maybe try KO Blaster... Works great on txv screens and is a good degreaser.

[vzenuh]

Maybe try KO Blaster... Works great on txv screens and is a good degreaser.

agree on that too. Just prebrush with a wire brush, then hit it up. If its really bad you may need to wire brush it again and go for a second or third application. But for easy clean up you can't go wrong.

The foam and clean works good too, esp if there is a hot water hose nearby. Just make sure you cover the fan motor with plastic and don't go to crazy with the hose.

Hot water in a pump up sprayer works just as good too for rinsing.

[ICanHas]

A safe bet for anything is a foaming or biodegradable engine cleaner. Engine blocks are made of iron or aluminum so engine cleaner is safe on either.

When it comes to oxidized non petroleum oil stains like frying oil though, there isn't anything much better than caustic based cleaners which aren't aluminum safe, but ok on steel.

Avoid using the type that smells like diesel fuel. Because, the smell is really that horrible.

[crymtide]

On steel I use industrial strength degreaser and hot water. It usually takes more than one application, but I keep at it until it rinses clear. For coils where breading or flour is mixed with the grease a wire brush helps with the face of the coil.

[HeatMaker]

I use Simple Green HD, it's actually purple. I have also used Grease Off with pretty good results.

[itsiceman]

Viper won't take the paint off, don't stink and rinses of good with a hand sprayer.

Viper in the can if you want foam or HD Viper if you want to mix and spray.

http://www.refrigtech.com/Product/Co...sol/viper.html

http://www.refrigtech.com/Product/Sp.../viper_HD.html

Stuff works great on regular grease but real bad coils need a lot of work no matter how strong a cleaner you use IMO

[dave sulz]

I used a base solution it foams nicely. Rince and use 2shop vacs. Long wide across bottom and the other in your hand. Rember dont make a mess.

[pvc1984]

Viper works okay on light duty degreasing and just use a pump sprayer to rinse.

On the real thick nasty greasy coils, I'll brush off what I can and then I'll wet the coil down with some warm water and then use straight Nu-brite out of a spray bottle. I know straight nu-brite is frowned upon, but it really works off you're careful about what you're doing and rinse thoroughly.

I'm not a big fan of the KO blaster. It works okay, but it takes a lot to use effectively and cover the surface area needed.

Some of the kitchens I work in use a orange colored degreaser made by ecolab. It comes in a squirt bottle and the stuff really works!!! Way better degreaser than KO or viper.

[carmon]

nu brite........

[itsiceman]

Viper works okay on light duty degreasing and just use a pump sprayer to rinse.

On the real thick nasty greasy coils, I'll brush off what I can and then I'll wet the coil down with some warm water and then use straight Nu-brite out of a spray bottle. I know straight nu-brite is frowned upon, but it really works off you're careful about what you're doing and rinse thoroughly.

I'm not a big fan of the KO blaster. It works okay, but it takes a lot to use effectively and cover the surface area needed.

Some of the kitchens I work in use a orange colored degreaser made by ecolab. It comes in a squirt bottle and the stuff really works!!! Way better degreaser than KO or viper.

Econolab Grease Strip Plus?
Works good on the bad ones but strips all the paint off.

[pvc1984]

Econolab Grease Strip Plus?
Works good on the bad ones but strips all the paint off.

Yeah I think that's the stuff. I've only used it a few times and was very impressed with the results. Wasn't aware about stripping paint off though. Nubrite tends to strip paint off of coils too. Just gotta be careful on how we use it and how often.

I would honestly rather deal with a clean unrestricted coil with some paint missing rather than having a caked up greasy mess. Just my opinion.

[Rcb2875]

Are you talking about the grease filters on the hood exhaust system? Super Clean is good and if they aren't a complete disaster I have used Awesome Cleaner that you get at the dollar store for a few bucks and that stuff works real good for all sorts of cleaning and it isn't acidic or harsh.

When I was working in the fire suppression field installing and servicing the fire systems and hoods the absolute best and fastest way to clean the worst of filters was with a pressure washer. Even the little electric models work well which is what we used since we weren't in the hood cleaning business and only did so for few clients or the job required it.

You could call one of your local hood cleaning companies and probably get some good advice there but all the ones we worked with used high pressure machines.

And this is why you don't post after a surgery and full of Percocets...

[AKREFER]

Blast o coil in a spay can works good on greasy coils

[gsxrsquid]

I use Greased Lightning.