I barbequed this evening, warmed up the grill and was getting ready to use a wire bristle grill brush on the grill to clean it up a bit. I took a look at the brush and saw there were a lot of loose wire bristles on it. This thing wasn't more than 3 month old. I remember that years ago the daughter of a guy I worked with got a wire bristle from one of these brushes in the throat and had to go to the hospital to get it out, The wire had come loose from the brush and stayed on the grill, from there it stuck to whatever he was BBQing and she ate. Then and there my brush went in to the trash. No more brushes for me, I'll be using one of those green pad type cleaners from now on.
So, you may want to take a look if you use them.
Good luck,
Steve W

I think it is better to use the brush after your BBQ is done. I bet the bristles get stuck in greasy residue. With a gas BBQ, I turn it on full blast for ten minutes or so after I've finished cooking. With charcoal, I just let the grill sit over the coals until the coals die. When it cools off, the residue is pretty crispy and brushes or scrapes right off.

I use a piece of loosely wadded up aluminum foil to brush the hot grill. Works great held with tongs.

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Memory of Randy Freas-Rimfired

Hi Stevens,
I bought a industrial quality cup brush for a angle grinder. I take about a three foot piece of conduit or pipe and hammer it flat for about two inches on the end. I drill through the flat spot and bolt the cup brush to it and I end up with a brush you cant knock a bristle off of. You can really lean on it if you have a hard to clean spot and it cuts trough most anything fast.
It is cheap and better than most anything you can buy.
Thanks
Mike

Genuine China junk! If you look around there are some better than others even if they are still China made. My grill has porcelain grates so nuking it on high pretty much cleans them.
I use the scrubby pad kind.

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Still Running Against the Wind

Very timely post Stevens, BBQ season is upon us and there have been many documented cases of the wire from the brushes making it all the way to the stomach before causing problems.

Like Mickey D, I use wadded up foil and then a paper towel with oil on it to clean the grill after it gets hot.

bob

Old cheap gas grill with real lava rocks in it. Has never seen a wire brush in 15 years, but several new grates, multiple new burners. Not a believer in "sanitary" barbecue, but scrape off the excesss with old putty knife once in awhile. Occasionally it flairs up and self cleans. Turn it on, stand back and throw matches at it.

Will likely never buy one of those folded stainless pan/grates thingys. Will go back to charcoal first.

Some people may think i'm kidding em.

I think the green cleaning pad you mentioned is called Scotch Brite. If so, it works well on lots of things around the house where steel wool may be a little too much. It holds up pretty well too.

I have some around the house that I use to shine up old guitar frets, and I discovered that it works wonders on cleaning up the cork handles on old fishing rods. Use with a little warm water and dish soap. I found a $5 vintage Garcia rod in the antique store that had a handle that was black with grime, and the pad made it look like new.

Josh P

Thanks for the heads up. Think I'll retire the brush & go with heat & a good scraping.