Cleaning question for ya guy's

[BillA from CA]

Update on the Turtle Wax ICE polish.....after heating the kettle to as high as 385 deg F and averaging about 350 F for about an hour there was no discoloration or chalking of the polished area, but I can't say it is really noticeably much more shiny than the unpolished area.  You can certainly tell where it was polished though;  it does look a little different.  I checked and water drops don't appear to bead up differently on the polished area after my cooking experiment but I suspect that it probably confers some water repellency when freshly applied, based on how it acts on my truck.  That alone might be useful since SWMBO makes the kettles sleep outside when not in use.

[BillA from CA]

Update on my update for the effect of the Turtle Wax ICE polish.  I retract my comment about water not beading up on the polished area.  I went back and cleaned the whole kettle and this time noticed that the water was definitely beading up on the previously polished surface.  {I attribute my apparently erroneous initial comments to the somewhat poorer ambient lighting at that first observation)  After I did the same treatment to the whole kettle it very definitely is more shiny than it was after merely washing it. The surface is not "oily" and does not seem to attract dirt.   The best part is that it remained that way after another grilling session.  I'm making the ICE polish part of my regular cleaning process.

[Darko]

I'm a wee bit leery about using car wax. It was never designed to be used in high heat applications. But, I am looking forward to more results.

[BillA from CA]

I'm a wee bit leery about using car wax. It was never designed to be used in high heat applications. But, I am looking forward to more results.

well, it has survived two grilling sessions so far and the lid still looks shiny and the water still beads up. ICE is not a conventional car "wax".  It is a clear liquid product apparently very high in silicone. It is expensive and used sparingly.  Silicone is used in a lot of high temperature applications. 

Perhaps an alternative is any of the various commercially available porcelain enamel polishes that are used along with a lot of elbow grease or a  buffer.  The ICE is basically wipe on/wipe off with minimal manual buffing.