Cleaning off Liquid Wrench

Hello.

I had a screw badly stuck in an espresso machine. One of the people trying to fix it used Liquid Wrench on it, which did not help.

I finally managed to remove the screw with a screw extractor. But now the machine has a petroleum smell to it that is hardly condusive to making a good cup of coffee.

Does anyone have any ideas on what I could use to flush the LW out of the machine? So far I have used hot water and non-toxic descaler to no effect. My espresso manual instructs me not to use vinegar or any other harsh acids... so I am little at a loss regarding what to try.

Any ideas?

Reply to
Stavrogin
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Washing soda? Baking soda? Both work for removing odours. Mabee use dishwashing detergent first? Either way, it's going to take more than one step. LW is nasty.

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Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

According to Stavrogin :

Isopropyl alcohol for the first pass or two, then water.

Good Luck, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Or Everclear.

Reply to
Jim Stewart

If the machine has any plastic parts, don't use strong solvents or you may have a really gummed up mess. Since the stuff is petroleum-based, use a strong detergent(Dawn works well on oil) and maybe some sodium bicarbonate solution to flush it. You'll want to get it as hot as you can. May take a bunch of work to get it flushed to where you don't smell it. If there're plastic parts in there, you may never get rid of it. If the unit could be disassembled, it's a whole lot easier soaking the stinky parts than trying to just keep flushing something through the assembled unit. Metal parts you could boil in soda water.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Reply to
RoyJ

How to clean an espresso machine depends a lot on its construction. If it's a Gaggia machine it has an aluminum boiler, so you really don't want to use anything alkaline (since they dissolve aluminum readily). I'd start with putting

4 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice in the water reservoir and then filling it the rest of the way with clean water, and running that through completely, then flush with 2 more reservoirs full of clean water, then taste the last bit of the second flush. Or try vinegar and water, or citric acid and water, or get some espresso machine cleaner (basically some combination of what I've just described maybe with some sodium carbonate but for about ten times the $$) and run those through followed by copious flushing. Also it depends a lot on how hard your water is - if you have hard water you will need to descale your machine much more often.

Google on flushing espresso machines of your make. There may be some coffeeheads on this NG but not too many.

GWE just scored 80 pounds of green beans if you're into home roasting

Reply to
Grant Erwin

So Grant, did you and dp ever hook up, email or otherwise?

Snarl

Reply to
snarl

Yup, he's coming over Sunday to watch me roast some beans .. thanks! - GWE

Reply to
Grant Erwin

Mmmm, I can almost smell that from here.

Hey, if he brings his lovely wife, Nancy, give her a hug from Snarl... you can thank me later. But if dp wants a smooch from me, tell him he's cut off.

No problem, Dennis and Nancy are some of our bestest friends, and you seem like good people too. Have fun!

Snarl

Reply to
snarl

"Liquid Wrench" is just kerosene in a pretty can for the gullible.

It will evaporate in a few weeks if you just leave it alone. Or automatic dishwashing detergent or ZEP industrial spray cleaner (purple) from Home Depot are suitable alkali surfactants, if not incompatible with the machine (no aluminum).

Naphtha evaporates quickly and takes off kerosene residues. Find it by that name at a paint store, or as Zippo lighter fluid, Coleman fuel, Goo be Gone, to name a few overpriced packagings.

Reply to
Richard J Kinch

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