Top Menu

Navigation

Revere Ware Parts :: 2020 :: July

Archive | July, 2020

When your Revere Ware boils dry

By on July 20, 2020 in Care

Reader Nedra contacted us with a pot that had boiled dry with water and left black stuff all over the bottom.

Hello,  I have a 2 quart pan that I left on the stove too long.  The water that was in the pan completely
evaporated and left the bottom of the pan black.  What do you recommend to clean with?  I am so
upset….one of my favorite go-to pans.

Sometimes heavy hard water deposits, which you will always have some of when you boil a pot dry, can get charred black like this. Regardless of what it is, the best approach I’ve found is heating up some vinegar and powdered dishwasher detergent.  I have no idea why powdered is better than liquid, but that is what I’ve always used and it works.

We first tried this when my wife was making simple syrup (sugar and water) and boiled the mixture dry.  That smoked quite a bit and brought the fire department, as we had smoke detectors through our alarm company.  The firefighters were pleasant and somewhat amused.

Given the rock hard layer it left behind, we thought the pan was a goner.  But lo and behold, repeated heating and scraping with a flat metal spatula got most of the stuff off and a green Scotch Brite pad took care of what remained.   But that’s not the only method.  Here is what Nedra did:

Thank you for getting back to me so soon.  I did put baking soda and apple cider vinegar, that’s all I had on hand.  I left it over night and it seems to be lifting a little bit. I’ll buy straight vinegar today.

And then:

First I coated the pan with oven cleaner and left it on overnight, nothing.  Then I added baking soda and white vinegar and let that sit for a few hours.  Did it again but this time heated the pan.  I used a steel wool pad with soap and elbow grease and low and behold I have my shiny pan back   I’ve attached before and after photos for you.

Now, a couple of words of warning here.   Oven cleaner can cause pits in your stainless steel so is not recommended.  Steel wool can leave little bits of itself behind which will promote rust.  It is best to stick with a Scotch Brite pad for scouring and, if you want a bit more of a polish, use Bar Keepers Friend.

But, don’t use a Scotch Brite pad on the outside of your cookware as it will dull the finish.  On the inside, this is ok as the finish gets naturally dulled by acidic foods and metal cooking utensils.  Bar Keepers Friend however is good for both the inside and outside of your stainless steel cookware and is a great way to bring back some of that shine.

 

0

Revere Ware find of the week – NIB tea kettle

By on July 11, 2020 in Ebay

I think the largest downside to the discontinuation of the production of new Revere Ware is the iconic tea kettle.  While the quality of Revere Ware suffered in the last 3 or 4 decades, new tea kettles hadn’t changed much in ways that made them less useful.  I’ve used both vintage era Revere Ware kettles and new ones, and they all functioned about the same for me.

But they can eventually fail, requiring replacement, and with no new production, that has become harder.  So it is notable when we see a reasonably priced replacement kettle, especially one that is new in the box (NIB), as this one, which has a starting bid + shipping of under $40, not far off the price they once were new, just a few years ago.

0

Bakelite problems

By on July 5, 2020 in Care, Uncategorized

Reader Eileen contacted us this week with an inquiry about her Bakelite handles emitting a foul odor:

I use my Revere pots and pans daily. Today, while making my younger children mac n’ cheese, the handle to the pot started to melt. The chemical smell caused us to evacuate the house for several hours.

This presents a good opportunity to talk about safely using cookware with Bakelite handles.

The biggest danger to Bakelite handles is a gas stove.  If a small pan is put on a large burner such that the flames, or the heat licks up the sides, it will cause the Bakelite to fail and emit this foul odor.  Bakelite is a phenolic plastic; it doesn’t melt when overheated, it breaks down into its constituent parts, one of which is formaldehyde, which is the foul odor Eileen smelled.  Despite the potential risk for this type of failure, we hear very few reports of this type of problem.

However, one issue is that, as Bakelite becomes older and damaged, it will fail through overheating much easier.  Repeated washes in a dishwasher can cause damage that will make Bakelite much more susceptible to overheating.  We did a dishwasher test and have shown that it doesn’t take a lot of repeating washings in the dishwasher for the handles to show visible discoloration, a prelude to the type of damage that can make them more sensitive to overheating.

The other risk to Bakelite is using pieces with Bakelite in an oven.  You might think a Dutch oven was intended for the oven, and when Revere Ware first started selling their iconic cookware they did offer it as oven safe.  But some time later they reversed their position and no-longer suggested it was such.

Bakelite is safe up to 35o degrees F, for a limited time.  But modern ovens can often have hotter spots within them, especially when they are heating up.  We don’t offer our parts as oven or dishwasher safe.

So our three safety tips for the day for cookware with Bakelite handles are:

  1. Never use them in an oven
  2. Wash them by hand, not in a dishwasher
  3. Take care when using them with a gas stove, not to turn the gas up too high
1