Cleaning a Grill

[southernsausage]

Is there a product/degreaser thats food safe that I can use to clean the interior of my dads grill? I was thinking about getting it hot and spraying it down with water and scrubbing everything real good.

 

[s2k9k]

Why do you want to clean it?

 

[plj]

I know a lot of people say you should never clean a coffee cup or a grill... that makes no sense at all to me. I clean pots & pans, the oven, the microwave, etc, why is the grill any different?

No offense intended s2k9k, I just genuinely dont understand.

I clean my grill & smoker with the same things we use to clean in the kitchen - dish soap, all those spray bottles my wife buys, oven cleaner...  Depends how bad it is and how clean I want to get it.  It does get a thorough spic&span cleaning at least every spring.

Yes a hose & scrub brush works too, but I wouldnt heat it up first, I'd be concerned about thermal shock, plus I dont know that heating it would help if you're just going to cool it off by spraying water on it anyway.  I use dish soap for the grease when I need to get the hose out.

 

[s2k9k]

No offense taken! I was just asking to see if he thought something might be wrong, like it had been sitting and mold or something was growing. I was just fishing for more info.

I clean anything food will be touching very well. On my smoker I wipe out any grease with paper towels after any long smokes and give it a good heat up on high every once in awhile. My gas grill gets a work out at 500*-600* pretty often searing steaks  so it stays pretty well burned out.

 

[southernsausage]

Paul...I guess I was thinking that the steam created from the hot steel would do most of the dirty work. It's 1/4" thick and I wouldn't spray it with water if it was above say 300 or 325... May just do it without heating it up though. I found a degreaser product on a website that sounds good.

 

[plj]

No offense taken! I was just asking to see if he thought something might be wrong, like it had been sitting and mold or something was growing. I was just fishing for more info.

Doh! I sure did misinterpret your question, sorry bout that!

Paul...I guess I was thinking that the steam created from the hot steel would do most of the dirty work. It's 1/4" thick and I wouldn't spray it with water if it was above say 300 or 325... May just do it without heating it up though. I found a degreaser product on a website that sounds good.

Yeah, steam would be great but I dont think that would generate enough steam to make any difference.

Sounds like you have some heavy grease buildup?  If so I'd just scrape most of it off, then use a kitchen degreaser product and a lot of paper towels.

Regardless what you use, be sure to crank up the heat afterwards to burn off any residual chems or soap. :)

 

[jllbms]

I accidentally cleaned my BGE last weekend by opening up the vents to get it up to temp and not monitoring it closely. It developed temp to ~1200 and finished melting the gasket. Clean as a whistle, though, just like the clean cycle on your oven. New high temp Nomex gasket installed and ready to go.

 

[venture]

For indirect grilling and smoking, I use disposable drip pans.  Heat and a wire brush will do the rest. Maybe a little oil on a paper towel for the cast iron grates after burning and brushing them.

Good luck and good smoking.