Each of the four DO's I bought took about three hours to clean/season each of them - using our Weber propane grill outdoors:

1. Washed each of them hard to "try" to remove the wax - it barely even dented it.

2. Baked each of them at highest temperature (all burners on hi) for about 45 minutes to burn off the wax. After the DO's got warm I did my best to wipe off the wax with a paper towel to speed the burn-off process, but it took about 45 minutes before the smoke & smell went away.

3. Covered them head-to-toe with good vegatable oil and then baked them for an hour about about 500F. After removing I added a second layer of oil as soon as my fingers could stand the heat.

4. After the DO cooled (while another was in burning or seasoning) I touched up the oil coating and then put it back into the grill for another hour. When done I again oiled it back up when it was cool enough to only hurt my fingers - and not burn.

They look really nice now. Four well-season DO's ready for the Scouts. I went through an entire 20# propane tank doing it (add that $$ to the total cost of getting non-pre-seasoned DO's).

I'm not too worried about them cracking if we get even a few months (years?) of use from them. Right now the troop is very cash-strapped. This spring we more than doubled the number of Scouts. We essentially have to gear up four patrols in one month. That includes dutch ovens, dining flies, propane tanks, propane trees/hoses, lanterns, cook kits, griddles, utentsils, water bottle, coolers, and patrol boxes. Four sets of all of the above!! Up until this point the troop has been using beat-up gear and cooking as one large group. The one huge dutch oven we used to this point wasn't even the camp type - it had no lip on the lid and no legs. We had to add roles of foil to keep coals from rolling off and set it on rocks so it didn't crush the bottom coals. Now we are trying to change things and do it right, but it is very hard on the budget.

Over time we can upgrade the DO's and other gear if needed, but right now we're having to watch every penny and buying some les than pefect gear - Harbor Freight rather than Lodge, and Texsport rather than Coleman, at least for right now.