Cookaholics Bulletin Board

All,

I have a taylor oven thermometer which works well. However, over the last year or so of use, it has become coated with burned-on brown spots (not sure why) which now make the thermometer very difficult to read.

Last time this happened, we ended up buying a new thermometer. I'd like to find something which will clean this one, though, without removing the temperature markings. Ideas?

krud kutter?

Steel wool pad?

I have one of these too, and I solved the problem by marking the 100's with a black line of a magic marker. I can now intrepret 325, 450, etc by reading between the lines. I also shine a high intensity light into the oven to read it without opening the door.

EB,

The problem is the brown crud on the thermometer glass itself. That makes it hard to see the mercury.

I've taken a stainless steel scrubber to mine (just the glass). I think the SS is way too soft to damage the glass. Anyway, it seems to work just fine.

I've used Dawn Power Dissolve with success...I just spray it on, then 30 minutes later use a razor blade to scrape the gunk off.

Amy

I always use Simple Green. I place the thermo in a plastic bag (in SF you may have to send away for one of these ), spray it, wrap it, and rinse it 10 minutes later or whatever. It didn't damage the letters on mine. I did screw up the letters and numbers using oven cleaner but Taylor replaced it for free!!!

I just spray oven cleaner on them (one of those dollar store things, with lye - the old fashioned type). I just did this last weekend, along with all my range top (after taking it outside, of course!). I just set all the thermometers (three of them, this time, including the worst - the one from the grill) on top of the range top sections, and spray an entire can of oven cleaner on everything, then I scrub them on the worst areas (pilot light spots, plus those thermometers glass areas - I use an old tooth brush for those), then hose it all down. Amazingly, the grass under this area never seems bothered by this, and I do this twice a year.

I'll try the Simple Green first, since i have some around.

Besides, I thought oven cleaner was for cast iron pans.