Cleaning Your Gas Grill
Jul/090
While there is no substitute for having your gas grill professionally cleaned, it does pay to clean it at least once a season – twice is better – to prevent build up and it catching fire. I let my grill go uncleaned once, and I noticed that when I would let it burn hot after a session, in order to burn off much of the grease, fat, and meat particles from the grates, it would frequently “catch fire”. This means that it would flame up and burn even after I shut off the gas. One time I got scared because it looked like it would never settle down. The flames got higher and hotter, and I was worried that the grill itself would get so hot that it might melt some hoses or cause the propane tank to explode. If you are ever in this position, just get a small pot of water and gently sprinkle it towards the open grill. The water will put the fire out pretty quickly. Don’t dump all of the water. Kind of jiggle it on in small amounts, and stop as soon as the fire starts to go out. It will make lots of white smoke, but the fire won’t get bigger.
Some of this will depend on what type of grill that you have and how easy some parts can be removed. You need access to the inside of the grill well. I have a Weber grill. This is how I clean it. This is not a professional cleaning, but it gets most of the junk out.
First, make sure the that drip pan under the grill is not overfilled with grease. You don’t want the scrapings that will fall into the hole at the bottom of the grill to make that overflow. If it can take some scrapings without overflowing, then just leave it until the end. By the way, make sure that you have some more of the proper disposable drip pans for under the grill since you will need to replace it with a clean one in the end.
Okay, with a wire brush scrape the grating that holds the food. Get off what you can. Remove them and put them somewhere where yo don’t care if there is a grease stain. I just bring mine over to the hose in the yard. I simply put them on the grass and use a non toxic degreaser spray and spray them. I let them sit for however long the cleaner recommends. When the clearner does it’s job, I hose them off and repeat for the other side. You might have to get the grates ends where thicker buildup is. This is also the area where due to the proximity to the grill walls while installed you can just never quite brush off properly. let them dry on a drop cloth or on some ripped open paper bags.
On my Weber grill, there are angled pieces that come out and the burners come out easily. If you can’t remove what is in your grill, and if you can get your scraper and hand in there to do the job then great. Just be careful not to damage the burners or anytthing critical. Go slowly. This is not a race. You should have set aside enough time and have good weather. Get a paint scraper. I now simply scrape off the inside of the grill walls and bottom, removing all of the built up char and soot. Use the scraper like a shovel and haul out what you can and dump it into a garbage bag which you should have with you. When the bulk of it is out, you can push the smaller hard to remove powder through the hole into the greasy drip tray for disposal. Now, you can either reassemble, or if you are a clean freak you can use some oven cleaner and rags, but if you are unsure of the chemicals and perhaps their effect on things like the burners and such, just leave it be. The grill will never be as clean as it was when it was new, and it doesn’t ahve to be. Soot is soot, and as soon as you cook on it once there will be more soot. The object here is to remove the excess built up grease and soot to prevent blockages, airflow problems, and fires from having all of that excess fuel in the form of unburned grease and fat sitting there. Don’t worry about germs, because heat kills those. It’s just the gross factor of all of that dirty looking stuff which turns many people off, and having a well performing grill will be your true goal.
Once you are confident that you have cleaned it out enough, reassemble the burners and or angle pieces or whatever is in your grill. When the grating is dry, put those back on. You now have a grill that will perform much better than it did when it was dirty. Fire it up before cooking and turn it up high to burn off anything that might be on the grates, but you should have used a grate/oven cleaner that is non toxic or safe for ovens.
I didn’t do that at the beginning of this season, and I am paying the price. I will be sure to do this in the late Fall because I miss the performance of a clean grill.
