Cleaning burnt crown urn element

[captaincleanoff]

I've always used my crown urn for BIAB, but the other day was experimenting with a kit, and poured a can of goo into the urn while boiling.

This was pretty stupid as it went directly onto the element, and burned onto it pretty badly. It's now got a black crust all over the element.

I've been soaking in PBW for a few days but it's not removing it.

Is there anything that will work better than PBW to get it clean again?

 

[wynnum1]

Bicarb and peroxide seem to be what a Google search recommends pbw could that do harm if left for too long.

 

[Stouter]

A few others on here report success with citric acid, even in the form of lemon juice squeezed on and left overnight. I've only had this prob once before and not badly, used my regular sodium percarbonate soak and scrubbed off easily with a non-scratch scrubber sponge.

 

[pnorkle]

A few others on here report success with citric acid, even in the form of lemon juice squeezed on and left overnight. I've only had this prob once before and not badly, used my regular sodium percarbonate soak and scrubbed off easily with a non-scratch scrubber sponge.

Yep, I use lemon juice on the bottom of my GF - no need to soak it in this instance, just give it a bit of a rub and presto. Better than PBW.

 

[earle]

Is it a concealed or exposed element?

 

[n87]

Acid, with the urn on.
I dont have an urn, but my old RIMS tube is much the same. I use concentrated starsan and have it recirculate for a while (while i clean the kettle with that water) with the heat on. leave it like that for a while then turn it off and hit it with a non scratch pad (after it cools a bit)

 

[MHB]

Try some oven spray.
M

 

[Bribie G]

Concealed or exposed element? If exposed and the baked on stuff is black, then a stainless steel kitchen scrubber(birds nest variety) is probably the option of last resort. I scorched mine horribly a few years ago and the scrubber eventually fixed it up... no problems at all with it nowadays. You'll probably take the nickel coating off the element but no harm done. I now scrub away between brews, I'll probably wear the copper off down to the live wires, estimate: 2075

Here's what it looked like after much scrubbing.

 

[klangers]

Caustic soda! Make a 2% w/w solution and let it soak for a couple hours. All going well it should dissolve all organic molecules inside your kettle.

The active ingredient in oven cleaner.

 

[MHB]

If you were right I would agree.
Caustic is one of the ingredients in oven cleaners, along with a bunch of very powerful high temperature detergents and dispersants.
Caustic works well enough for most cleaning, but when we are talking about a build up of coked on crud on an element it is rarely enough, and like I said try some oven cleaner, it's very effective and in most peoples kitchen cupboard.
Truth is if you are getting that sort of buildup your element is too short - the surface temperature gets too high and it is harming your beer - but that's a different question.
Mark

 

[Rocker1986]

Citric acid and water, then boil it for a few minutes. Let it cool then wipe it, scrub it whatever and it should come off pretty easily. Is the element exposed or concealed?

I've had black shit buildup that sounds like a similar thing on my concealed element before, used the above with a scrub with a stainless steel wool and it came up like new. Citric is bloody good for that kind of thing.