burned my burner

Need some advice on how to get burned up crap out of a burner. I have a propane outdoor burner and had a boil over. Of course I got the pot off as fast as I could and saved the beer, but the burner has burned in wort and DME foam (burnt sugar pretty much) burned in. Now it can barely keep a pot hot. How can I get the crud out? I think it may be in the burner not just on it. Burning it off has not worked. Hoping for a chemical or soaking solution.

Try drilling it out .

Pressure washer.

My first try would be a PBW soak. It generally works pretty well for most organics. When you take it out blow it out good with compressed air (don't want rust).

I would take it completely apart. Rinse it off with hot water as best you can, then put it in your oven and heat it up to 250F or so. Carefully take it outside or someplace where you can spray it down with Heavy Duty Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Get the more potent version of the Easy-Off and not the fume free wussy stuff. Follow the directions on the can including how hot to warm it up. I was guessing at the 250F temp. The directions may well call for something different. I think they suggest pre-heating an oven before applying the stuff. Something like that.

Wear gloves and eye protection. The active ingredient in the oven cleaner is usually lye and it can be hazardous. Do not get it in your eyes under any circumstances.

Rinse and repeat as necessary. Use a small drill bit to ream out any of the gas ports that may be plugged up. Blow it out with compressed air if you have it available. Otherwise, just air dry, reassemble and you should be good to go.

Drilling, nice, not helping.
Water and heating won't work, I was trying to save a batch and cooked in a (as far as I can tell) a black sugar dam (que the smartass music correlations).
Need advice for burnt on sugar cake on the burner!

Catt22 said:

I would take it completely apart. Rinse it off with hot water as best you can, then put it in your oven and heat it up to 250F or so. Carefully take it outside or someplace where you can spray it down with Heavy Duty Easy-Off Oven Cleaner. Get the more potent version of the Easy-Off and not the fume free wussy stuff. Follow the directions on the can including how hot to warm it up. I was guessing at the 250F temp. The directions may well call for something different. I think they suggest pre-heating an oven before applying the stuff. Something like that.

Wear gloves and eye protection. The active ingredient in the oven cleaner is usually lye and it can be hazardous. Do not get it in your eyes under any circumstances.

Rinse and repeat as necessary. Use a small drill bit to ream out any of the gas ports that may be plugged up. Blow it out with compressed air if you have it available. Otherwise, just air dry, reassemble and you should be good to go.

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Think you are right, on the outside. What about wort/malt in the burner holes and in the burner?

Anyone have something that worked?

Try soaking it in oxyclean, or vinegar, or even something as strong as muriatic acid overnight. Any of those given some time should be strong enough to dismantle a little burnt on sugar.

See above. Pressure washer. You ain't washing panties. Been doing it for years. Works wonderfully.

moinkyschmoink said:

Anyone have something that worked?

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moinkyschmoink said:

Think you are right, on the outside. What about wort/malt in the burner holes and in the burner?

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Which burner do you have? I would spray the Easy-Off on both the inside and the outside. Scrape or chisel out any chunks that you can reach on the inside. If the burner has gas ports (holes), there's no reason why you should not be able to drill them out. The drill bit should go through caramelized sugar like nothing.

All of the above replies have good suggestions for cleaning your burner, yet you brush them off without trying them? have you soaked the burner in PBW or oxyclean overnight? have you tried the oven cleaner, have you tried cleaning out the burner holes with a drill bit? have you tried using a pressure washer to blast the gunk off?

All of these seem to be honest suggestions from people trying to help you get your burner working properly again, and after a quick search I found several threads with similar answers, some from the same people that posted here.

When I plugged up my burner I gave it a good pressure washing, ran a welder tip reamer through the holes and re-pressure washed it. been working great for a year now.

I also just ran a drill bit through my grill burners by hand to clean them up, some of them were burning pretty weak and I had a cool area in the grill that made it a pain to cook evenly on, so far everything is heating great and the cool spot is gone.

If you can remove the cast iron, and only the cast iron from the burner setup, try putting it in your oven and setting it on clean for two or three hours.

I do that to burn crud off cast iron cookware that needs to be reseasoned. Turns everything but the iron to ashes.

azscoob said:

All of the above replies have good suggestions for cleaning your burner, yet you brush them off without trying them? have you soaked the burner in PBW or oxyclean overnight? have you tried the oven cleaner, have you tried cleaning out the burner holes with a drill bit? have you tried using a pressure washer to blast the gunk off?

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+1 The response seemed odd to me as well.

moinkyschmoink said:

Drilling, nice, not helping.

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Drilling is proven to be a great mothod for cleaning burnt on gunk out of the holes of hurricane style burners. Maybe you could help us help you by telling us what type of burner it is?

moinkyschmoink said:

Water and heating won't work

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FWIW I use BG-10 style burners, and when I had your same issue I took the burner apart, soaked it overnight in hot oxyclean, and then used a wire brush to clean most of the gunk off. The remaining stuff easily burned off the next time I fired it up. Have you tried water and heating, or are you just assuming it won't work?

moinkyschmoink said:

Need advice for burnt on sugar cake on the burner!

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And you've already recieved plenty of it.