How Do You Clean Your Grill ?

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I can't believe using a Grill Brush alone to clean a grill is safe/sanitary. I just hate the thought of bugs, mostly flies getting in the grill after I used it and eating the old dried up meat I cooked previously so I always clean it in the kitchen sink with soap and water. What do you think ?


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From a sanitary perspective, the heat from the grill should be sufficient assuming you preheat for 10-15 min.

I stopped using metal brushes to clean the grates after hearing about the tines breaking off and ending up in the food and body. I use nylon scotch pads and a wood scraper on the grates.

A few times a year I clean the burners / flame spreaders with a wire brush and degrease the catch pan. I have a built in Lion grill (NG).
 
Had an outdoor double sink but changed it to a large single so I can hot rinse, then soak the grills for an hour in Dawn.
Wash with stiff brush and more Dawn.
 
Yep, the heat before you cook is the cleansing agent...

I've got a water filled grill brush that releases water on the hot surfaces and does a good job...but similarly, I've heard of perforated bowles from stainless wires, and am thinking of dumping it.
 
Originally Posted by WagonWheel
From a sanitary perspective, the heat from the grill should be sufficient assuming you preheat for 10-15 min.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^

I never clean the grilling surface with soap and water. Or anything else. I light the charcoal, then place the grilling surface on to the grill. During the light up process the grill gets to almost cherry red. Nothing living could survive. Right before we add the food, I'll hit it lightly with a wire brush. It takes very little effort at that point to clean it to the bare metal.
 
Originally Posted by WagonWheel
I stopped using metal brushes to clean the grates after hearing about the tines breaking off and ending up in the food and body.
Yeah, those things are nasty. I see those tines all over my balcony. Sometimes I'll walk out barefoot and they'll get lodged in my feet. I really need to stop using those and find something better.
 
I use the long webber grill brush, Turn on the grill full blast and let it heat up about half way them scrub the grill. this will knock the heavy stuff off the grates, then let it go to full tempmand brush again.

dont worry about tines, just look for them but the webber is a good quality brush and doesnt produce many until is it worn out,

Once done i wet a paper towel and fold it 4-5 times the. put it on the grill. rub it over the grates to get the ashes off,
then lower the temp and spray with wesson calola oil.
 
Originally Posted by WagonWheel
From a sanitary perspective, the heat from the grill should be sufficient assuming you preheat for 10-15 min.

I stopped using metal brushes to clean the grates after hearing about the tines breaking off and ending up in the food and body. I use nylon scotch pads and a wood scraper on the grates.

A few times a year I clean the burners / flame spreaders with a wire brush and degrease the catch pan. I have a built in Lion grill (NG).
I grill a lot and this is what I do also.
 
Originally Posted by billt460
Originally Posted by WagonWheel
From a sanitary perspective, the heat from the grill should be sufficient assuming you preheat for 10-15 min.

This ^^^^^^^^^^^

I never clean the grilling surface with soap and water. Or anything else. I light the charcoal, then place the grilling surface on to the grill. During the light up process the grill gets to almost cherry red. Nothing living could survive. Right before we add the food, I'll hit it lightly with a wire brush. It takes very little effort at that point to clean it to the bare metal.

That's the way I've always cleaned a grill. Make a nice roaring charcoal fire and let the flames sanitize it. The crud just flakes off with the brush. Then for a non-stick coating hit it with a oiled up paper towel. It would also clean any brush fragments.
 
I bring the grate indoors, dump some soapy dishwater on it and let it sit 10+ minutes. Next a wire brush, then a steel wool pad with straight detergent on it.

There are never any wire brush or wool pad fibers left behind, all rinse away.

One or more times a season (as needed) I do the bottom/interior of the grill. I put degreaser on, let that soak a few minutes, and use a putty knife to scrape before rinsing that down the drain hole into an empty container (milk or juice jug, etc with a funnel in it). I dump the catch tray into the jug and let some of the degreaser run down into it to sit and soak before dumping that in the jug too. I use water conservatively so I need only a gallon or so jug capacity before the runoff is clean enough that I can let it go into the yard without killing the grass.

The heat spreader plates above the burners are just covered in ash and are cleaned dry with the putty knife, mostly to reduce flare-ups.

So far, so good. I've gotten over 20 years out of my current propane grill, mostly thanks to a cover that keeps rain and snow off so it hasn't rusted away. I've had to replace the cover at least twice.

You guys are grossing me out talking about heat as a cleansing agent. My grate is clean enough to eat off of before I fire the grill up.
 
I clean my grill with a wire brush immediately when I'm done cooking while it's still hot 🔥. Then the next time before I turn the grill on, I clean the grill with a black scrub pad. Every so often, I will use a cup brush on my hand 4 1/2" grinder.
 
Originally Posted by Reddy45
Originally Posted by BobsArmory
You know many people in other parts of the world eat bugs......


USDA guidelines for processed food actually permits a certain percentage of bugs too. LOL

https://www.fda.gov/food/ingredient...-information/food-defect-levels-handbook




No bugs are not bad for you
you can actually feed the worlds population with bugs and lower the carbon foot print at the sametime
they would allow much much more if people were not too squeamish about them . being in food
 
No bugs are not bad for you
you can actually feed the worlds population with bugs and lower the carbon foot print at the sametime
they would allow much much more if people were not too squeamish about them . being in food[/quote]

I'm ready

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Get the grill good and hot for 10 mins or so, and brush it off thoroughly. Nothing stays on it at that point.
 
Just heat and brush it off. Bugs aren't disgusting anyway, it's not like you're eating grasshoppers whole.

All of this stuff really came into focus within the last century. Prior to that human beings have been eating through far more disgusting and "unsanitary" means yet here we are.
 
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