oven cleaner

Aaron in IL · Aug 11, 2012

I have heard it mentioned before on this forum to use oven cleaner to remove old grease from tractors. I am concerned that as strong as some of that stuff is, that it might take the paint off too. We have a couple 4020's and a 60 that have years of oil and grease stuck on them. I would like to get them cleaned up some, but I am not ready to do any repainting by any means. Can anyone enlighten me as to whether its safe to use or not?
Thanks in advance.

huntingreen2day2 · Aug 11, 2012

Yep I have had it cut the paint also.

Royse · Aug 11, 2012

Oven cleaner can take the paint off.
If the paint is loose, so will a good pressure washer.
If you just want to clean them up good this one time, rent a hot water pressure washer/steamer.
It will also take off loose paint so be careful, but if your paint is good underneath, it will clean them up quick.

Aaron in IL · Aug 11, 2012

We have a pressure washer with a heater, but it seems like I can't get it to take some of that really caked on grease off without stripping some paint off as well. I thought maybe i could spray some oven cleaner on it, let it soak in good, then hit it with the pressure washer.

JDseller · Aug 12, 2012

Since you have a hot water washer then you need to spray the areas that are caked on with a solvent to soften the grease so it will not pull off the paint. Oven cleaner works IF you are going to remove the paint anyway to repaint. It can damage the paint that is already there.

I have had good luck with diesel fuel in a hand sprayer. Wash the tractor down without getting real rough on the bad spots and then spray it down with diesel fuel. Let it set a few hours and wash it off. Usually this will soften the outside layer of grease up. So you may need to do it several times.

showcrop · Aug 12, 2012

Another cleaner that is safe on paint is any of the d limonene based products. Those are the ones with the orange peel smell. Very rarely it is blended with a caustic like potassium hydroxide so you want to check the label.

Stephen Newell · Aug 12, 2012

Most oven cleaner contains sodium hydroxide which is the ingredient in a dip tank that you dip furniture to strip it so even though the oven cleaner has less concentration of the chemical, it will damage the paint. Also sodium hydroxide is a salt which is corrosive so anyone that uses it should rinse with vinegar afterwards to neutralize it. I used oven cleaner on my tractor to clean it for the purpose of painting and it stripped a lot of the old paint down to the metal. This was fine in my case because I was repainting the tractor.

SweetFeet · Aug 12, 2012

Don't know if it works on tractors... but the Watkins company makes a degreaser for laundry that sure is good at removing grease stains. So maybe a bucket mixed up and run through a sprayer would work to remove grease from a tractor.

Greenday · Aug 12, 2012

Sure it will take paint off thats the point. Most of the time when these guys are wanting to remove the crud is because they are restoring the piece of equipment

Geo-TH,In · Aug 12, 2012

Arron,
I purchased a 13 hp honda commercial pressure washer to remove the grease before I painted. Some grease didn't come off, had to scrape it.

I won't use a pressure washer again. It damaged the cork gasket around the valve cover, caused the head gasket to leak antifreeze, not to mention that water got in to the engine oil, tranny oil, hydraulic oil and rear end oil.

So, be careful if you use a big boy pressure washer and plan to do an oil change.

Perhaps that's why a steam generator was invented, to keep from doing damage to gaskets.

George

oven cleaner

Aaron in IL

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huntingreen2day2

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Royse

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Aaron in IL

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JDseller

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showcrop

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Stephen Newell

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SweetFeet

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Greenday

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Geo-TH,In

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