The Best Way to Clean Barbecue Grills
Datetime:2013-08-02 Hits:
The Best Way to Clean Barbecue Grills
Before you store your barbecue grill for the winter, and before you take the grill you did not clean before winter and use it in the spring, you must clean it. Grills usually end up with a thick layer of black soot all over the inside. They become dirty on the outside and before you know it, no one wants to eat food cooked on your grill. The process of cleaning a grill is messy and may sound daunting, but it's a necessary part of keeping your gill in working condition.
Instructions
Gas Grill
1 Disconnect the propane tank from your grill. You're better safe than sorry. If you accidentally light the burner while you are working on the inside of the grill, you could seriously hurt yourself.
2 Fill a bucket with hot water, dish soap and one cup of bleach per gallon.
3 Remove the cooking grates from the grill. In most cases, they're cast iron or metal grating and easily lifted off the grill. Scrub both sides of the grates with a nylon bristle brush wetted with the water, soap and bleach solution. Make sure you get inside the holes of the grates so you can remove all of the black carcinogen. Hose off the grates with a garden hose and set them off to the side.
4 Lift off and remove the lava rock from the steel grate located just above the burners. Remove the steel grate and clean it just as you did the cooking grates. Not all propane grills use lava rocks. If yours doesn't, skip this step. If the grill does not have lava rocks, it will not have a lower set of grates to hold the rock.
5 Scrub the inside of the grill lid and lower grill basin with the water and bristle brush to remove as much of the black as possible.
6 Rinse the bristle brush clean and then scrub the fuel rails, including the holes for the fuel jets.
7 Pull the bottom tray -- the grease trap -- out of the grill and scrub the tray clean with the bristle brush.
8 Dry everything with a clean towel and reassemble the grill.
9 Clean the outside of the grill. Use fresh water mixed with soap and bleach -- again, one cup per gallon -- and a clean bristle brush. After scrubbing the outside clean, hose the grill off and dry it with clean towels.
10 Polish the grill with stainless steel polish and a cotton rag if the grill is stainless. If it's not stainless, apply a coat of automotive wax to shine up the surface of the paint.
Charcoal Grill
11 Fill a bucket with hot water, dish soap and one cup of bleach per gallon of water.
12 Remove the cooking grates from the grill. In most cases, they're cast iron or metal grating and are easily lifted off the grill. Scrub both sides of the grates with a nylon bristle brush wetted with the water, soap and bleach solution. Make sure you get inside the holes of the grates to remove all of the black carcinogen. Hose off the grates with a garden hose and set them off to the side.
13 Scrape all of the old charcoal off the charcoal rack in the grill. Use a small shovel or scooper for this. Lift the charcoal grate out and clean it just as you cleaned the cooking grates. Scrape all of the charcoal dust out of the grill basin.
14 Scrub the inside of the grill lid and lower grill basin with the water and use the bristle brush to remove as much of the black as possible.
15 Pull the bottom tray out of the grill and scrub the tray clean with the bristle brush. The bottom tray is the grease trap. Some charcoal grills don't have a grease trap tray. If your grill doesn't, forgo this step.
16 Dry everything with a clean towel and reassemble the grill.
17 Clean the outside of the grill. Use fresh water mixed with soap and bleach -- again, one cup bleach per gallon of water -- and a clean bristle brush. After scrubbing the outside clean, hose the grill off and dry it with clean towels.
18 Polish the grill with stainless steel polish and a cotton rag if the grill is stainless. In most cases, a charcoal grill is painted black. However, some are stainless. If the grill paint is a flat or matte black, do not wax the paint. If the paint is high gloss, you can apply a coat of automotive wax to shine up the paint.
