I enjoy grilling, but hate to clean the grates. I've been soaking them in hot water and Dove, but I still need to scrape them to get the burnt on carbon off them. Is there a better way?
Thanks

I always just heated them up good and used a wire brush / scrapper on them.

Oven cleaner

Fire it up full heat and burn it off. Anything that is left that doesn’t brush off is “seasoning”. Take a look at the smokers in the best BBQ places. “Cleaning” is counter productive to good smoke.

Arjay, I am always hesitant with chemicals that contact food. The food is placed on the grates.

I wash it all off afterwards

Put me in the "high heat/wire brush/seasoning" camp.

__________________
Music/Sports/Beer fan

I put the grates in the oven and run the self cleaning cycle. Crack some windows open, pull down the smoke detectors, and turn on the kitchen range hood fan, and bathroom fan. Absolutely no scrubbing.

Yep, hot fire and wire brush.

__________________
No baby we aint

I take good care of my grills. Keep 'em covered. My oldest dates from 1997, and I replaced its innards, its regulator, and its handle (twice).

But it never occurred to me to do anything to the grills other than burn off food residue and wire brush 'em.

With gas, I usually burn at full blast for about ten minutes after removing the food. With charcoal, it's pretty hot for a long time after cooking. I brush the grills when they've cooled down enough for me to put the covers back on.

I find that heat is the only way to clean a grill properly. Sometimes I do it right after I take the food off. While the meat is resting, the coals still provide enough heat for a quick brushing. Sometimes, the coals are still hot enough after eating that brushing can be done then.

Another method is to just close the lid and forget it. When you use the grill again, clean the grate before adding the food. I like to do both; I always brush after grilling and sometimes give it a quick brush while heating up.

I only use charcaol grills, but I figure the same method would apply to gas grills as well.

High Heat and Scrap here.

Find all currently owned containers of Easy Off oven cleaner, throw them away. Go to Lowes or other big box store and purchase Goo Gone Grill Cleaner. Spray on, wait 5-10 minutes, hose off.
You can thank me later.

I agree with the high heat and wire brush but I always use a stainless steel bristle welding brush. They do a good job and last a few years.

My daughter and SIL gave me a Grill Rescue Brush. It’s a heavy duty pad that you soak in water , heat up the grill to min of 400* and steam clean the grate. It works but, to me, water, heat and cooking salts are a recipe for corrosion/rust. I may go back to pyrolytic cleaning and brushing, but I haven’t found a wire brush that last…..

Disclaimer - I am not associated with Grill Rescue Brushes.

Attached Images

0CEF6F23-75CB-4591-8FF0-4B4B441F596A.jpeg (62.9 KB, 24 views)

__________________
"Your other right........."

FWIW...

My shooting partner is a professional chef, originally from San Antonio.

He never cleans his grill. He just gets it hot with tall flames, burning off the old stuff and then scrapes off the carbon with a stainless tong.


,

__________________
Death? Smile back...

I'm in the high heat and wire brush camp, but once a year in the spring before I start using the grill, I soak in a tub of hot water and Dawn dish washing soap.

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

I make time after the cook to hard spray with a hose then wire brush while still warm and replace over the coals to re season.
I dont give a hoot about the little bit of black around the edge.


Absolute cleanest I've ever made a grill grate was leaving it on a nest of fire ants for a day or two.

Make sure you clean off any small pieces of wire the brush may leave behind. Our neighbor got one stuck in his intestine and it darn near killed him.

Which is why I don't use a wire brush. Put the grill on heat and it will kill anything that may harm you. The food will burn off leaving carbon. I'll give a cursory scrape over the top of the grill with a steel spatula to knock off any loose stuff but that's about it.
When Angus was still around I would sometimes let him "clean " the grill before I put it on the fire and the heat would sterilize the grill

__________________
Forum consigliere

Be prepared to buy a new oven control board if you do this often. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Wiring/controls were not meant to withstand 1000 degree temps.

I clean my grill with a hot fire and scrape the grate with a wooden scraper.

Access to this page has been denied.

Access to this page has been denied.
Manufacturers, Adam implied, know this and they understand that self-cleaning cycles are a problem. But, he said, customers demand self-cleaning options. They’re so highly desired that it’s very difficult to sell an oven without one. And yet it’s pushing an oven to do something that is fairly extreme and difficult to engineer, and so there are genuine risks of damaging the oven.

And then, if the oven does have a problem, those hidden heating elements can make it much more expensive and difficult to fix. The entire oven has to be pulled out from the wall and fixed from behind, which makes it a more expensive service call, involving more time and trouble.

The answer? Well, the easy one is: Just don’t use your self-cleaning cycle. If your heating elements are hidden anyway, that makes cleaning with soap and water that much easier.

__________________
God spelled backwards is dog.

I believe the instructions say to burn off then scrape after you use it. It's almost like good cast iron. Don't use soap, just heat & scrape (or brush if you have a good one) so it stays seasoned. I have a very stout nylon brush for the Griswold pans and maybe once a year on the grill.
As stated above, the cheap wire brushes they sell for grills have no place around my house. That piece of wire you got on your weinie can kill you once it's lodged in you intestines. (I'm no doctor, but I've seen plenty of doctor shows on TV.)

I use one of these when the grill is hot holding it with a BBQ mitt.

Chainmail Scrubber and More | Camp Chef

Sent from my SM-G981U using Tapatalk

__________________
I used to be disgusted..

I understand the trepidation of broken rogue wire bristles.

One thing I don't skimp on is a quality, heavy duty wire brush. When they first start to look iffy I pitch them. I keep a back up as they are affordable.

__________________
Music/Sports/Beer fan

High heat and a grill brick is what I use. No wire brush for me as I don't want the risk of a broken wire ending up in my food.

__________________
"In God We Trust"

Once on a one day outing to the lake and using the grill provided with
cleaning gear forgotten and left at home, I used a flat sandstone rock
to scrape down the grill. This was followed by a chimmey of charcoal
and hardwood twigs to flame sterilize the grill.
Good to go.

Not all of my grates come with "Round" materials................
so there is a lot of "Clumps" locked on to some of my five (5) BBQ units.

High heat is nice if it works but removing the grates to clean them properly, is sometimes needed.

I smoked some chicken thighs the other day and with the 78* weather,
I noticed the grates were "Wet" when I lifted the smoker hood.
A little clean up and I lit the unit. Nice to finally have warm weather again.
Newspaper and foil can be used, in some cases, for a quick "Almost clean", look.

Another point on grill grates. When shopping for a new pellet grill I opted for the brand that had the basic cast iron grates. Most if not all the other major brands had the “non stick” coated grates. Personally I choose classic cast iron and avoid the non stick coating. Not just on the grill but with all cooking.

Great suggestions. I was surprised to see so many responses. It looks like burning the grill hot and scrape with a stainless brush is the most common method. That sounds good to me and it's a lot less work, but the same result.
Thanks for talking the time to respond.

I agree re danger of wire brush bristles getting stuck in the grates, winding up in your food and then in your gut. I think Snubbyfan first pointed that out here some years ago.

But, I also think that happens because there is food gunk on the grill that hasn't been fully burnt off with high heat. Burn it all off and there's nothing to stick to/embed in.

There are also different sorts of wire brushes. A stiff, thick wire paint removal brush, for example, is unlikely to shed bristles. Or, just buy one of those coiled grill brushes, designed not to shed, as others have noted.

Got to live up to your username

Attached Images

resized.jpg (48.2 KB, 43 views)

Wait I'm supposed to clean those?

I stopped using wire brushes as there is a chance a piece of wire can get stuck to the grill then cooked into what you are cooking. I am now using a wooden scraper that over time actually moulds itself to the shape of the grills.

I have a #18 Old Smoky pit that is at least 20 years old. It gets stored in the garage between uses and has never gotten any rust. When I am getting the coals going the flames carbonize anything on the grate. I scrape them with a brass brush as soon as the flames are low enough and let the coals percolate for about 20 minutes before adding the meat. Finally broke down and got a nice digital meat thermometer and have been cooking perfect steaks since. I like mine medium rare and Mom likes her filet well done.

One thing you need to be aware of is that if you have stainless steel grates you are not supposed to use a wire grill brush to clean them. It causes small splinters on the grates that may get into your food when you use it again.

__________________
Why duck?? It's a 9mm!

Disposable is the way to go.

__________________
Music/Sports/Beer fan

I guess I'm giving up my man card...but my wife will no longer allow me to have a grill. I do miss having one too. Will the pellet grills burn meat?? I want one!

I heard about that happening, so I got myself one of these.


It's a coil grill brush, it works great and doesn't have bristles to break off.
I'm a "crank the heat up a brush it" kinda person.

__________________
Keep on Chooglin'

Interesting long thread. What really surprised me was no one was using Hoppes #9 on their grill grates. Just saying considering the forum.

Many choices of bricks out there and safer than a wire brush.

Siaonvr Grill Brick,Griddle/Grill Cleaner, BBQ Barbecue Scraper Griddle Cleaning Stone - Walmart.com

__________________
"In God We Trust"

Well, speaking of Hoppe's, I noticed that the best grill brushes look a bit like the Hoppe's Tornado bore brush! Old Smokey sells one on their website, called the Big Strong Brush. It is made by Brushtech. It is a bristleless design so it would not leave anything on the grill to get into the food.

The single best method I have found is to lay a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil over the entire grate before you heat the grill. Set the grill to high and let it work. You'll get a lot of smoke but when finished you will just have ash to brush off of the grate.

I crumple a sheet of foil and use it to brush off the grate when it's been hot for five minutes.
Oven cleaner is designed for porcelain coated items, it will damage a grate.

__________________
Front sight and squeeze