Any chemists around here?

Nikolai

We had a little accident tonight.. :cry
A brand new pan was left empty on a brand new (and very expensive) cooktop's induction cell while the cell being set to a max power... :huh Yeah, I know. "Don't". Well, it wasn't me. But I paid for it.. :rolleyes
Well, it didn't melt down completely, but "just partially" was enough...
No, no, the house is still intact.
The pan is totalled, but that was a matter of $20, sh1t happens.
What bugs me the most is that the melted paint left some hard ugly looking residue on the otherwsie shiny glass surface of the cooktop. Our initial attempts to get rid of it lead to no success. :scratch

Anybody has any idea of how to clean a sturdy glass surface from a melted paint/metal? :dunno Acid? Heat? Cold?
Any practical hint is appreciated!:thumb

gus

I would try an old fashioned razor blade ..maybe one of those paint scrapers you get from the hardware with the razor blade in it.

Be very careful with strong acids/alkalines....im no chemist but i know that they can etch glass which will put a perm haze on it.

DoctorIt

Cross your fingers and try to get a warranty replacement. If its new, you shouldn't have too much problem. I did the same thing with a glass top cook surface last year, it actually cracked when I ripped the melted pot off of it. I was honest about it, and they said, no worries, new top was ordered and installer came within days.

Problem is, the heat was so intense that you've essentially fused the two together. No scraping will ever bring it back to the way it was, definitely not any chemical process. It's a ceramic glass with a specific temp operating range, the pan has basically caused a heat concentration and affected the crystalline structure (kinda like a stress concentration). or at least thats the best answer I can come up with.

not what you want to hear, but its one of the unfortunate drawbacks of those sleek smooth glass cooktops.

aktse

How thick is the melted on mess? The surfaces scratches... avoid stuff like steel wool.

People seem to like some cleaner at sears, but dont' know what it's called.

Bar Keepers Friend is also popular as well as bon ami.

If all of fails, you can try this list of suggestions.

And I believe there are scrappers made for glass stove tops.

Tanuki

No photo?
Can you post a photo of it? This is Dgrin, after all.

LiquidAir

DoctorIt wrote:

Cross your fingers and try to get a warranty replacement. If its new, you shouldn't have too much problem. I did the same thing with a glass top cook surface last year, it actually cracked when I ripped the melted pot off of it. I was honest about it, and they said, no worries, new top was ordered and installer came within days.

Problem is, the heat was so intense that you've essentially fused the two together. No scraping will ever bring it back to the way it was, definitely not any chemical process. It's a ceramic glass with a specific temp operating range, the pan has basically caused a heat concentration and affected the crystalline structure (kinda like a stress concentration). or at least thats the best answer I can come up with.

not what you want to hear, but its one of the unfortunate drawbacks of those sleek smooth glass cooktops.

That sounds right to me. The paint was likely a baked on enamel which essentially just a colored glass at the point it leaves the factory. Your pot got hot enough to fuse the enamel with the cooktop and nothing short of Maxwell's demon with his atomic tweezers will sort the resulting mess out in a way that will leave the top looking good as new.

Nikolai

Tanuki wrote:

Can you post a photo of it? This is Dgrin, after all.

!
There were taken tonight, 30 min BEFORE the incident..
http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/4438327_Lgaj7
Sorry - cyrillic comments, for my family back in Russia. Nothing interesting in them...

Nikolai

Gus, Erik, April, Ken - thank you very much for your quick responses!

Looks like I was lucky... The cooktop came with a cleaning gel and a razor scraper. And while my wife's initial attempts didn't succeed, I decided to have another go at it after she retired... 20-30 minutes of soaking and 15-20 minutes of furious scraping did the trick . I guess it didn't melt the pan THAT much and no welding actually happened.

Call that a relief....

Tanuki

Nikolai wrote:

There were taken tonight, 30 min BEFORE the incident..

Darn, I wanted to see some carnage.

Nice looking cooktop, though, and I'm glad to hear that it cleaned up okay. It's really amazing what modern materials can withstand.

Nikolai

Tanuki wrote:

Darn, I wanted to see some carnage.

I'm sure you did :-)
But it was such a mess and despair (the melted pan was not the only victim during this technology attack) that I really didn't dare to bring my - also brand new :-) - lights to the smelly, smoky and half-covered with gravy kitchen once again..

Tanuki wrote:

Nice looking cooktop, though, and I'm glad to hear that it cleaned up okay. It's really amazing what modern materials can withstand.

Thanks! I only hope I would not have a chance to find out of where its actual limits lie ;-)