How can I clean the brush that I am using for burnt pots? It is black and greasy..
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1The grease will come off with enough dish soap, but if your brush has plastic bristles some of that black, burnt carbon is probably embedded in the bristles and not going to come out. Eventually you just have to buy a new one.– AirAug 8, 2014 at 17:10
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1We can be more helpful if you provide details on what kind of brush you have. A picture would be even better.– logophobeAug 8, 2014 at 17:26
2 Answers
Automatic Dishwasher
I toss a number of my cleaning tools (sponges, brushes, etc) into the dishwasher anytime there's a bit of extra space. If done regularly it keeps the grime buildup from happening too much.
If yours is REALLY greasy, you might want to try heating some soapy water in a pot and simmer it for a little while. (This will get the pot quite greasy too, so be ready to clean that as well). You can even boil it if the plastic is the right kind. Heat will help dissolve the grease.
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I'm a bit undecided on the brush part, but I've tried the sponge-through-dishwasher and it turned out to be as bad as I've expected. Soft and hard things just need totally different methods of washing, and a dishwasher is optimized for hard, unsoaking plates. A sponge in the dishwasher just sucks up all the dirty water from the beginning of the cycle and comes out terribly dirty. Maybe a brush works better.– rumtscho ♦Aug 10, 2014 at 12:52
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Tried brushes like the one Vicky depicted in the dishwasher, works OK, comes out cleaner than it was before. OTOH, given such brushes are 60-90 cents apiece here, they dont have to last forever. Jan 8, 2016 at 14:03
What sort of brush is it?
If it's like this one:
then the only way I have found it to soak it in almost neat washing up liquid (add a bit of water if you need to thin it down a bit), mash it around then rinse it all out, and finally soak it in bleach if it's still stained. This is really time, labour and materials intensive and likely not worth it for a cheap brush.
I have had much more success with the kind of metal-coated scrubby things, which you can simply wash off afterwards, but they are more expensive to buy in the first place.