Dirtiest Pyrex dishes ever. Are they salvageable?

[LemonViolet]

OK NO JUDGING AT THE STATE OF THESE PLEASE!!!

I found these languishing at the back of the pan cupboard when I went to put away a lovely new pan and it didn’t fit. Not used for aeons and from an old life really when I was a student-style clueless slob well past the age that I should have known better!!!

This is very old, very thick dried grease-grime, solidified on. I don’t want these dishes now as I have some beautiful colourful Le Creuset stoneware that I am unhealthily obsessed with carefully clean after each use. Clearly I didn’t take care of these in the same way.

If they were in decent condition then I’ll donate them, otherwise it’s landfill and guilt sadly. Is there a way to save these does anyone think? They’re beyond a squirt of oven cleaner and a scrub with a sponge I think.

A soak in a strong solution of soda crystals in hot water would be worth a try. Or else just bin them.

Sorry here are the offending articles

Give them a long soak in (initially) hot water with loads of washing up liquid.

Then rub over them with a dishwasher tablet or two.

Then show us the photos of what will most likely be two very clean Pyrex dishes.

😂 Those take me back to my student days.

Do you have a dishwasher?

I was going to suggest rubbing with a dishwasher tablet too. Definitely salvageable as that trick works on dirty ovens too!

Or maybe some pink stuff paste?

You filthy slattern. They look like mine!

I tried soda crystals and they did get some lot off but will the dishwasher tablet really work (nb I am the dishwasher!) ?

How about covering in oven cleaner and leaving for a few hours?

@LemonViolet

Sorry here are the offending articles

Eeewww you rotter! 😅

Mine were like this, I haven’t totally cleared it off around the handles but they are now see through clear glass again. I tried the bicarb paste method and rubbing a dishwasher tab they worked a bit but the thing that worked best was gentle scrubbing with steel wool and hot soapy water.

Just be really careful not to scrub too hard and scratch it all up.

Dishwasher tablet trick does work brilliantly on similar grime that is maybe a few days or so old. This is…..longer than that…..and would have been repeatedly baked on over and over again by lazy (depressed) former Lemon who didn’t care she was basically cooking her dinner in dirty pans, just superficially rinsing/washing off the surface stuff each time. (AGAIN NO JUDGEMENT PLEASE!).

It’s going to be a project for tomorrow as I am working a late shift this afternoon/evening and don’t want to leave mess in the sink whilst I’m out. I think I might give it a go though. Please keep sharing ideas and I promise to update!

Just be really careful not to scrub too hard and scratch it all up

Yes good advice - I did this with a dish once using a brillo pad and not only is the glass quite scratched and cloudy, grease seems to stick to it worse now.

Get through oven cleaner that comes with a bag for oven racks, use the dishes and cleaner in bag and tie off,then make sure the dishes are covered in the liquid, leave overnight and rinse (wear rubber gloves). They'll be clean and you'll want to keep them.

I'd go to pound land and buy some oven pride. The one with the big bag. I'd out all of the bottle of the stuff all over them and leave them for 24hours.

Then I'd try cleaning them.

Or you could buy yourself a new one while You're in Poundland?

Soda crystals generally help and I wondered about biological washing liquid, which I actually use for defleshing skulls for taxidermy.

As a last resort, I'd think about caustic soda (v dangerous, but effective) or drain cleaning products that contain caustic soda.

I would fill them with cold water & a bit of bio laundry powder.
put in cold oven and slowly heat to 100 degrees. once cooled down take out and scrub (or put in dishwasher)

I’m now wondering if buying new nuclear strength cleaning products and single use plastic bags might negate the point of trying to save them from landfill to assuage eco-guilt-stress!

Kettle of boiling water and a dishwasher tablet. You might need to repeat a few times but it’s likely to work.

Bio laundry powder and boiling water soak, like when you get a burnt pan and cook the bio laundry powder hot water in the pan on the and it gets the solid stuff off.

I'd try pink stuff. It's 99p in b&m.
It's surprisingly effective and doesn't take much effort.

Yes. Sometimes very very old things just need to quietly die.

Lakeland oven cleaner will shift that
Paint (with the brush they provide) a thick layer on and leave it for a few hrs and rinse off you may need to reapply it on the worst bits but there is no scribbling involved so it's easy to do

I can't imagine getting them completely clean by hand. Ask someone with a dishwasher to do them for you, they should come out like new. (All casserole dishes used to look like those back in the days before dishwashers)

I don't think a dishwasher is going to sort those out.

Sink them in a strong solution of Daz bio
powder in lukewarm water and leave for a few days. Then go over with a soapy brillo pad. Some elbow grease probably required too!
Boiling water will set the stains even more.

Oven cleaner and an aluminium pad will sort them out.