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| Too embarrassed to take a before picture, I offer the finished product, a shiny clean vent filter for my stove's exhaust fan. |
I heated a kettle of water and ran boiling water through it with no luck. Soaking it in a sink of dish liquid and hot water brought few results until I took an old toothbrush to it. While the brush loosened quite a bit of the accumulated grease, the soap wasn't cutting the grease. Next I tried wiping the edges with a damp paper towel and Ajax. It helped the edges some, but the filter was still embedded with grease. All the while I kept pouring boiling water through it. Still no luck.
HINT: Use tongs to lift the filter from the boiling water.
AT LAST, THE SOLUTION: I emptied all the water from the sink, laid the still damp filter flat and sprinkled a good layer of automatic dish detergent on the surface. Next I poured another kettle of boiling water over it and let it sit. Within 2 minutes the water was brown; after 5 minutes the metal shown through. I emptied the sink and loosened particles with a toothbrush under a stream of warm warm while another kettle boiled. Then I repeated the process. In 5 minutes, the filter was aluminum bright, almost new. Left to air dry, it went back in with ease.
DON'T FORGET: All the grease going down the drain is not good. Pour several TBSP of baking soda in the drain, then add 1/2 a cup of vinegar. It will bubble like one of those old school project volcanoes, sure, but it cuts the grease, cleans the drain and eliminates odors.
Another way to do it is by removing the middleman adding the baking soda directly to the boiling water to dislodge most of the dirt accumulated by the vents. And if it’s not too murky, you can use it to clear grease build-up in your sink’s drainage.
ReplyDeleteStaci Severns