Cleaning smoking gun stainless filters

Hello, I am wondering if people have any advice for cleaning the stainless steel filters in Polyscience's Smoking Gun, handheld food smoker. The manual recommends hot soap and water, but the build up of the burned wood residue does not seem to be fully removed by this. I see that another site sells replacement screens, but I wonder if there is another solution. Would soaking in ammonia or lye help?

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Chris_Young_80640

@James — Oven-cleaner would be the best bet to remove the tars and creosote residue.

grant

Yes, sodium hydroxide or espresso machine cleaner in boiling water will do the trick.

James_Nieh_57990

Thanks! What concentration of sodium hydroxide would you recommend?

grant

That is a Chris question. I like this stuff:

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Muscle-Oven-Grill-Cleaner/dp/B000BAWNYU/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368462329&sr=8-2-spell&keywords=mr+uscle

It's mostly sodium hydroxide.

Grant

Chris_Young_80640

@James — I would really work with an oven cleaner.

It's going to contain detergents in addition to lye to help remove difficult creosotes. But if you have to do a lye, you're going to want to prepare an 8% solution or so. Be sure to dissolve the lye into COLD water, a little at a time to avoid a caustic boil-over.

Espresso cleaner is usually citric acid and phosphate salts. It's a bit more gentle, but likely won't remove any difficult tars if your screen is really dirty.

James_Nieh_57990

Thanks! I will try oven cleaner