Tried a steam cleaner on my flat top grill and messed up the seasoning

Used a dollar store steamer to clean the griddle last week and it stripped all the seasoning down to bare metal. Took me 3 hours to re-season the whole thing. Anybody else had steam cleaners wreck their surface?

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3 Comments

emerycarr4mo ago

Oh man, you hit the same wall I did last year didn't you? Steam is just too aggressive for a seasoned surface, especially the cheap steamer models that blast water at full pressure (they don't even have a low setting half the time). What worked for me was switching to just hot water and a grill brick for everyday cleaning, then doing a deep oil wipe after every session instead of steaming. If you're already in the re-season process, go heavy with the oil and let it smoke off three or four times to really build that base back up. Lesson learned the hard way right? At least now you know steamers are for kitchen exhaust hoods and tile grout, not our precious griddles.

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harper_owens4mo ago

That reminds me of the time my brother tried cleaning his cast iron skillet with a wire brush attachment on a drill. He thought he was being efficient but ended up with a pan that looked like a scratched up CD. Had to reseason that thing for a week straight before it was usable again.

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barbara843mo ago

My brother once tried to clean a cast iron pan with sandpaper, which went about as well as you'd expect.

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