How To Clean & Season Your Evo Cooktop
Cleaning Video:
Clean the Evo cooktop in 3 easy steps – scrape, scrub & wipe.
Cleaning Instructions:
To maintain the natural non-stick properties of your Evo cooktop, it is important to keep the cooktop clean and oiled with vegetable oil. Proper cleaning will prevent carbon build-up.
Items Needed:
- Evo Scraper and Evo Cleaning Kit with cleaning handle, cleaning pad and screen (supplied with your Evo grill)
- Paper towels or terry cloth towel
- Vegetable oil (any type)
Regular Cleaning:
- Start with a warm cooksurface (preferably right after cooking).
- Using the Evo scraper, scrape and remove food particles and debris.
- Place a cleaning pad directly on cook surface. Pour a liberal amount of oil over the pad. Place insulated blue cleaning handle on the pad.
- Push handle against the pad and scour cooksurface in a circular motion with special attention to heavy carbon areas. Use more oil, if needed, for lubrication.
- Wipe clean with paper towel or terry cloth. Repeat as necessary. The cooksurface should be black and glossy.
- Finish by wiping the entire cooksurface with a lightly-oiled paper towel or terry cloth towel to season.
Heavy Cleaning
- If you have burned sugar based sauces or heavy carbon buildup follow the steps above with a screen placed under the cleaning pad.
Note: Special Care for The Ceramic Coated Cooksurface
If you are a home owner that purchased the ceramic coating upgrade for your Evo cooktop there are a few things to note with regard to handling your cooksurface and protecting its ceramic coating from becoming scratched or gouged. Much like fine cookware, you should be careful when using heavy utensils. Avoid heavy impact techniques such as chopping and pounding. When removing the cook surface from the burner skirt, take care to rest it on heavy paper or cardboard to provide protection against scratches. Never use a wire brush or other aggressive implements to clean the ceramic cooksurface.
Seasoning Information:
Seasoning is cooking oil heated onto the Evo cooktop, not a chemical non-stick coating. Seasoning creates the natural, easy-release properties. The more you cook, the better it gets. Here are some tips on how to create, maintain, and even repair the cooktop seasoning.
- Create: The Evo cooktop is pre-seasoned before shipping and ready for use.
- Maintain: Clean the cooktop after every use and maintain the seasoning by applying a very thin layer of oil after each cleaning.
- Repair: If the cooksurface is not cleaned after every use, carbon will build-up. Use the scraper to remove carbon build-up.
Unless you are prepared to re-season your cook surface, you should avoid cleaning the flattop with soap and water (as it will wash away the oil seasoning). A few cleaning rules:
- DO NOT POWER WASH the cook surface – not only will this strip the seasoning away, but water will inevitably find its way into any electrical/electronic parts and ruin them.
- DO NOT USE CLEANING BRICK on the cook surface – besides being too aggressive a cleaner and unnecessary, it will eventually smooth out the surface removing the texture that holds the seasoning oil.
Important Tips:
- Using high heat burns off the seasoning. Use medium heat when cooking on the Evo.
- Similar to a cast iron skillet, NEVER cook on a dry surface, ALWAYS apply oil to the cooksurface prior to EVERY cooking session (Use vegetable, canola, soybean or grapeseed oil).
- After cleaning the Evo, pour 3-4 tablespoons of oil in the center of the cooksurface, and wipe the oil over the entire surface with a paper or terry cloth towel. This will condition the surface prior to cooking.
- ALWAYS properly clean the cooksurface after every use while the surface is still moderately hot. This will clean and re-season the surface in preparation for the next time you cook.
- Do not use water, club soda, salt, soap, degreasers, cleaning bricks, steel wool or any abrasive product on the Evo cooksurface. These will deglaze the surface, remove the oil seasoning and can cause rusting. If you accidentally deglaze your surface, follow instructions below to clean and re-season the cooksurface.
To Re-Season The Cooksurface:
- Apply about 4-5 tablespoons of vegetable oil to the surface and wipe the entire surface including the sides.
- Turn both burners to medium and allow the oil to smoke and burn off slightly for about 5 minutes.Reduce heat to low, wait several minutes and apply a second layer of oil.
- Repeat steps 2-3. The surface will appear dark and glossy black. This repeated process will carbonize the oil and create a blackened patina and a natural non-stick oil seasoning.Using the grill pad and cleaning handle, lightly polish the surface smooth on low heat.
- When the surface has cooled, wipe the cook surface with a lightly oiled towel.
If you are seeing flaking, peeling, rust or heavy carbon buildup on your Evo cooktop follow the steps in this video to recondition the cook surface.