A. Hi Julia. This thread offers many different perspectives on that; but if youd like it distilled down to its essence, some people including me dont think it should be done, but Kimberly Huseman claimed success and offered full instructions in one short paragraph 🙂
Q. Hi, I am looking for a way to remove teflon coating from 304 stainless steel without heating it to over 400 °F. If anyone can help, I would appreciate it. Paul
A. Paul, Teflon can be effectively removed by abrasive blasting with aluminum oxide blast media. I trust that your part is able to withstand the rigors of abrasive blasting.
A. Paul As Dan said, you can do it by grit blasting with aluminium oxide, but depending on the thickness it will deform the substrate. You can use a plastic media to do it like “aerolite” is the abrasive that is used for the airplanes paint stripping. If your Teflon is a thin coating, you can try with n-methyl-pyrrolidon solvent.
? Hi, Tim. Are you sure it was Teflon that you removed from those locknuts? All of the locknuts that Ive seen are “Nyloc” (nylon), not Teflon. Although they might look similar, nylon dissolves in acids but Teflon does not. Regards, Ted Mooney, P.E. Striving to live Aloha finishing.com – Pine Beach, New Jersey
Q. Can teflon coating be removed from aluminum pots and pans? The thin coatings have been scratched off over a period of time but the pans still look to have more useful life. We are concerned about a possible health hazard of ingesting teflon particles that come off the pans.
A. Most people want to keep Teflon on their pans as it stops food sticking to the metal. The usual complaint about Teflon is that it comes off when scrubbed with a very abrasive scourer, so you could do that. Depending how good the Teflon was put on, you may be able to remove it by sand blasting the pan, but this may also damage the inside of the pan. However, removing the PTFE may well adversely affect the performance of the pans, so perhaps you will be better off getting some good old cast iron pans with no Teflon (or PTFE as it is also known)
Multiple threads were merged: please forgive repetition, chronology errors, or disrespect towards other postings [they werent on the same page] 🙂
Q. I have some nice and expensive stainless steel utensils with Teflon coated inside. The Teflon has (as usual) lost its function and I would like to strip it off to recover the steel surface. Any tips on how to do this? Chemicals rather than abrasives? Thanks
A. Hi Sigurd. Unfortunately Teflon is a largely non-reactive substance, Teflon is “baked” on to pots and pans at a relatively high heat (the surface of the pan is still semi molten). I cannot think of a way to get the Teflon coating off without an abrasive (suggest sandblasting). As for chemicals? Well you are kinda out of luck, most of the chemicals that would eat off the Teflon would either heavily stain or destroy aluminum or steel.
A. Teflon can be burned off in a high temp oven. I think youll need about 900-1000 degrees (no higher, as you may melt your pans). A small blowtorch might work too, Im not sure. Be very careful not to inhale any fumes, as it will make you sick (similar to metal fume fever).
A. The way to strip Teflon coatings is burning off. The temperature must be from 480 °C to 550 °C. This temperature burns the plastic and it becomes ash powder. Then you will need to coat again the metal part or polish it. Regards,
—- Ed. note: Jordi is an industrial specialist in this and is surely right. However, burning is probably quite unsafe for homeowners and hobbyists who do not have industrial ovens and fume extraction systems.
A. Its going to depend on the details of your situation, Mark: the quantity in question, what you are going to do with the parts after teflon removal, their size and shape, whether abrasives can get to the recesses, etc. We appended your inquiry to a thread where you will find details & recommendations for the three different approaches of 1). abrasive removal, 2). solvent/chemical removal, and 3). burn-off. If you can describe the parts and quantities, someone may be able to suggest which of the three methods sounds most promising for your particular case. Good luck.
Vinegar and Baking Soda: Mix a solution of equal parts of water and vinegar, and bring it to a boil in the frying pan. Remove the pan from the heat, and let it cool for a few minutes. Then, sprinkle baking soda over the surface and use a sponge or brush to scrub the Teflon off.
Teflon griddle was in oven during self-clean cycle
“In the Mouth of the Dragon: Toxic Fires in the Age of Plastics” on AbeBooks or eBay or Amazon (affil links)
Q. I did a very stupid thing and therefore have a related question re Teflon. I put a stained Teflon coated griddle in the oven and set it to self-clean. When the oven cooled off the griddle was of course ruined — but my real concern is that the enamel finish inside the oven is now covered with a fine material like light grey spray paint that I cannot remove. It appears that the Teflon evaporated during the self-cleaning and then condensed on the inside of the oven when it cooled. Is the oven ruined or is it safe to use? Is there any way I can clean the Teflon residue off the enamel inside the oven? Thanks,
Multiple threads were merged: please forgive repetition, chronology errors, or disrespect towards other postings [they werent on the same page] 🙂
Removing teflon with lye
Q. I want to remove the Teflon from a cast iron electric skillet, and will even try the lye I read of on Letter 17784, “Removing Teflon non-stick coating from Visions and Pyrex Glass Cookware”. Does anyone know of any dangers that could possibly result from putting lye on cast iron like that? Thanks!
A. Deanne, that reference was for removing the non-stick coating from Visions glass cookware, and Im not confident that the non-stick coating on visions is even teflon anyway. If you are concerned about Teflon, please buy pyrex or plain cast iron or hard anodized aluminum instead of trying to strip the Teflon from your pots and pans.
Are you sure that you know the difference between cast iron and cast aluminum? There is no danger to cast iron from lye, but aluminum can react rather violently with lye, rapidly dissolving. And there is potential danger to you. Lye is designed to dissolve animal tissue, and children have died from putting a lye-covered spoon in their mouth that their parents forgot to immediately wash. Please wear goggles and be careful. Good luck.
A. Since aluminium doesnt rust, rather it forms a protective oxide in air (Al2O3), then the problem of scratches that go rusty doesnt apply. Even applying Teflon to aluminium is an overkill. So if it aint going rusty in the scratches in the Teflon, then it aint iron! Its the caustic soda [affil links] (or lye) in Drano that lifts the teflon layer. I had success removing a scratched teflon coating from a George Foreman grill by spraying it with oven cleaner [on eBay or Amazon] which also has caustic in it. Cheers, Tony
Q. Why cant you use sandpaper or a drill with sandpaper to remove the coating?
A. Hi Dearina. You surely can! But one of the readers was looking for a non abrasive method, and burning seems to be the alternative to abrasion. Further, while homeowners might have no problem spending two hours sanding a pot, that investment in time may be impractical in industry — a consumer wont pay a shop $325 to have the teflon sanded off a pot, so burning may be more practical for them. Thanks!
A. Teds a little over the top with his alarmist views of lye. We have used lye for decades to clean grease off of things and take the skins off of our peaches at canning time. Bases are safe if used safely and can be neutralized with acids like lemon juice or vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon] or dilute it with lots more water and pour it on your compost heap.
As for the PTFE you remove, toss it into a trash can wrapped in plastic and your great grandkids can deal with it when they have to mine the dumps for resources. Why anyone would consider it safe to put halogens into our food is beyond my comprehension. Nasty stuff!
Hi, Ed. Thanks for the interesting and informative posting.
But funny, I was just about to say that you may be a little over the top with your alarmist views of halogens 🙂 Iodine is a halogen and a vital nutrient; the oceans are sodium chloride dissolved in water, and chloride is a halogen. Maybe your concern is fluorides, halogenated hydrocarbons or chlorinated fluorocarbons? Regards,
Thanks yall for giving me some ideas for my problem. My pots and pans are heavy gauge aluminum and are about 40 years old, but I love them and hate the thought of just getting rid of them. Have been looking for others for replacements, but have not found what I like yet, so will try one of the suggestions on my little frying pan to see how it works, then if needed will try another method. Thanks again.
A. My husband removed the teflon from our stainless steel frypan with great success. If I am allowed to post the website where I have given these instructions then you can read how to do it successfully. We removed ours about 8 weeks ago and have used this s/steel pan with success ever since.
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This is the link to learn how to remove teflon … www.squidoo.com/buying-a-new-frypan-which-to-buy-scan-pan-stonedine-or-flavorstone On second thought I will just post the name of article: “buying a new frypan: which to buy scan pan stonedine or flavorstone” |
I hope this will help anyone looking to do this. Thanks, Eileen.
Thanks Eileen.
| Its true that we dont much like to post links because almost all break within months whereas this site (on line since 1989) is trying to be a permanent reference, and broken links leave readers wasting time reading a paragraph of introduction here about where to go to read an answer, only to have 99%+ of those links break 🙁
Your answer on that page is one sentence of 13 words. Wouldnt it have been better to simply re-post that single sentence here? 🙂 |
—- Ed. note, Dec. 2013: Sorry, that link is now broken. Ed. note, May 2016: Sorry, there is no squidoo.com anymore, and google doesnt seem to find any article with that title.
Mouse Sander on Amazon (affil links)
Multimax sander on Amazon (affil links)
! I just cleaned off the flaking Teflon by using a mouse sander and a Multimax sander to get into the curvy spaces. Then I used clean sandpaper to polish the shining metal. Works fine. I get to keep using a skillet which is exactly the right size for me, and I didnt add to landfill. Just be sure to wear a mask when you sand off the Teflon.
Q. Im trying to remove Teflon from some favorite stainless steel Cuisinart pans. I dont want to wreck the stainless … it needs to be able to brushed out smooth after the Teflon is removed. Would you advise chemical or blasting? Where does one typically buy the products needed? Thanks, Greg
A. Hi, Greg. The reason such a slippery thing as Teflon was able to stick to the pan in the first place is due to mechanical interlocking; the surface of the stainless was specially etched to look like a sponge. Personally, I dont like the idea of using that etched surface, that was not intended to be a cooking surface, as a cooking surface, but you can read about the removal techniques above, and sand it smooth. There is no good chemical removal technique. Good luck. Regards,
Q. I am also trying to find a safe way to remove teflon. Lye just doesnt sound all that safe to me. I have several cast iron skillets and dutch ovens that we use for the scouts to cook over an open fire. My mother-in-law, in her “great love” for me had all my cast iron teflon coated for me, and I dont really want to put a teflon coated dutch oven directly on a fire then eat out of it.
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Stan Sag – West Hills, California —- Ed. note: Readers, see thread 4988, “SEASONING & RESTORING CAST IRON COOKWARE”, for further ideas or to continue that discussion. |
Q. I have a raised turkey pan (grate raises the bird) and the teflon is peeling off the bottom. I just assume toss it, but I thought, “hey, if I can remove the teflon, I can still use it.” But the juices go in there and I do make a gravy later. So, maybe toss it? I would rather be healthy. Tell me what you think (and I am a competent adult who can safely handle chemistry and keep it safe).
Q. I have a question to ask I have bought a Stainless Teflon Pot at Garage Sale and the Teflon is peeling off. I read your comments using Lye to remove the Teflon coating. Anything else I can Use?
Removing Nonstick Coating from a Visions Skillet Pan Part 1
FAQ
Should you throw away Teflon pans?
Will oven cleaner remove Teflon coating?
Is it safe to use a pan that the Teflon is coming off?
How do you remove Teflon from a pan?
A Teflon coating can be removed from a pan using an abrasive, such as walnut shell, sandblasting, aluminum oxide, baking soda and metal scrubbing pads. Any of these abrasives can be used to scrub away scratched Teflon to completely remove it from the pan.
How to remove non stick coating from Teflon pan?
You have totally removed the non stick coating of your Teflon pan. Don’t forget to season it 2-3 times before cooking on it again. Step 1: Wear hand gloves, goggles, and a dust protection mask. Take the angle grinder and connect the wire cup brush to it. And then start ripping off the non-stick coating of your pan.
How to remove scratched Teflon from Pan?
Any of these abrasives can be used to scrub away scratched Teflon to completely remove it from the pan. Teflon or PTFE coatings are a type of plastic coating with a low friction and non-conductive properties.
Can you remove Teflon from cast iron pans?
Depending how good the Teflon was put on, you may be able to remove it by sand blasting the pan, but this may also damage the inside of the pan. However, removing the PTFE may well adversely affect the performance of the pans, so perhaps you will be better off getting some good old cast iron pans with no Teflon (or PTFE as it is also known)