Cleaning My Stainless Steel Grates

[SlowmotionQue]

I got the idea to post this up after a fellow forum member mentioned that the need for a complex shutdown procedure, involving turning the grill up to 350° as per the manufacturer of his grill, is in part due to the need to burn off grate and residue left behind following a cook.

Many people do this, manufacturer's instruction's or not, as a matter or routine and then wire brush or scrape down their grates, and in the case of pellet grills, if they are using no foil on the drip tray, to burn off the grease from it.

Personally, I don't go about it this way and for a couple of reasons.

First off, you have to get it pretty hot in order to burn off some of these sauces and grease or get them hard enough to scrape off or brush off. If it's not hot enough, well then you'll clog a grill brush with grease and crud.

Secondly, it wastes fuel.

Thirdly, some of these grill brushes can lose bristles and leave them behind on grates where they can come into contact with food and be accidentally swallowed.

There are a number of different ways to clean your grates, but these two have worked well for me and they do not involve the use of caustic chemicals like easy off, though I have used it before too.

I use foil in the drip pan of my pellet grill. I change it after each cook. This eliminates the need to make an attempt to burn off any residual grease left on it.

That leaves grate maintenance.

When I first got these top grates for my Rec Tec Stampede, they were of course pristine.

Ah, but alas, they, along with my lower grates, get nasty. Below was my last cook with them before cleaning them again. They are folded down in this pic. And so what is the most efficient way for me to clean these top grates?

I put them into my oven and turned my oven onto it's self cleaning mode. This, in my opinion, is a lot more effective than attempting to burn them off in the cooker.

This leaves the lower grates to deal with. The pic also shows how nasty they were.

Cleaning them is a little more involved. Because they are 304 stainless, I fill a large plastic storage bin with soapy water, mild dish detergent works, and let them sit submerged in it overnight if the deposits are really caked on. I don't worry about them rusting.

I use this same method with my Kamado Joe and WSM stainless steel grates, neither of which I can put into my oven because of their size. Soapy water, in a tub large enough to contain them, and let them soak.

Then the next day, I work at it with a pack of these. Going horizontal against the grain first to loosen things up, and then vertical along the length of the grate wire to finish them off. Most except for the most stubborn deposits come off right away. Harder stuff requires a bit more effort, but the deposits are at least softened.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Scotch-Brite-Stainless-Steel-Scrubbing-Pad-3-Pack-214C-CC/202511523

The end result in my Rec Tec Stampede is below.

And at this point it is ready for a slab of St Louis cut ribs. Look closely, they're under there somewhere.

Anyway, for those of you with stainless steel grates, the scrubbing pads may work well. I have no experience using them on porcelain coated grates. If anyone does, well then fell free to add.

Anyway, no need, if you have stainless steel grates, to attempt to burn crud off and end up wasting fuel in the process.

Steel diamond mesh grates are nice, but can be difficult to clean. I'm lucky here in that these are the only ones that I own, and they are just small enough to fit into my oven, making cleaning them in my oven a snap.

But soaking them in a soapy solution and scrubbing them should work as well too for caked on deposits.

 

[mike243]

I only leave in enuff grates to cook my food, xtra ones are left out and stay clean, no need to dirty dishes up for no reason, the clean cycle will strip the finish on your oven grates and per the instructions most say to leave out or tarnishing may occur

 

[SlowmotionQue]

I only leave in enuff grates to cook my food, xtra ones are left out and stay clean, no need to dirty dishes up for no reason, the clean cycle will strip the finish on your oven grates and per the instructions most say to leave out or tarnishing may occur

I hear you on the leaving out grates not in use.

But put the top ones in for the pics. I’m not too worried about dirtying them up with just one rack of ribs sitting beneath them.

Furthermore, I’m not too worried about tarnishing.

I have to get them clean. They get a lot more debris on them, sauce, sugar, rubs, fat, than do my oven grates, and they are a lot heavier gauge steel than my oven grates, and I doubt my oven grates are 304 stainless steel.

As such, a little discoloration, I can live with.

Aside from that, I've taken my original stainless steel grates in my Kamado Joe up to well beyond 800° F as measured at it's dome.

The original stainless steel grates in it, are in excellent shape after years of use.

Besides, I don't mind the clean up if the food turned out good.

It's a simple matter when you get into the habit of it and do it soon after a cook, instead of doing as some of us sometimes do, myself included, letting them go until the deposits have become worse than they need to be. I don't clean my grates as often as I perhaps should, but I do clean the grill after every cook.

The grates though, I've been known to go a few cooks before cleaning them using this method. A pattern that I'm trying to break as it only takes a few minutes to clean them. Using these pads, and soon after a cook, say no more than 24-48hrs, has made a difference for me.

And it's back. The diamond grates, I just soaked, and wiped off as they had no food on them as seen in the pics with the ribs beneath them.

I hope that these pads can help someone else in this grate cleaning job. A job that nobody likes. I've been using them and they've certainly helped me.

 

[2008RN]

I clean my racks after every smoke. All of my racks are perferated 1/8 SS. I haven't tried the chemical oven cleaner. I Hhave power washed them, not bad durin summer months. Washed in my wife's sink, lots of elbow grease and I leave a mess that the wife doesn't complain about, but she is not thrilled with it. I have turned the old weber gennisis grill on high and clean 2 racks at a time.
The one that got the wife going, was after doing 40 lbs of pork ribs and tender loins. I had 5 18"x18" racks that were greasy and had sause on them, I put them in the self cleaning oven. It stunk up the whole house for 2 days. Needless to say, mama loved the pork and was not happy with the burnt smell in the house from the cleaning.

 

[SlowmotionQue]

I clean my racks after every smoke. All of my racks are perferated 1/8 SS. I haven't tried the chemical oven cleaner. I Hhave power washed them, not bad durin summer months. Washed in my wife's sink, lots of elbow grease and I leave a mess that the wife doesn't complain about, but she is not thrilled with it. I have turned the old weber gennisis grill on high and clean 2 racks at a time.
The one that got the wife going, was after doing 40 lbs of pork ribs and tender loins. I had 5 18"x18" racks that were greasy and had sause on them, I put them in the self cleaning oven. It stunk up the whole house for 2 days. Needless to say, mama loved the pork and was not happy with the burnt smell in the house from the cleaning.

I would have done the same thing, and would have wound up in the same trouble that you did.

There was no way that you could have predicted a stench that would last for 2 days.

But I know the stench that you describe, and it's the reason why I no longer tear apart pork shoulders and pull pork inside my house.

 

[nchapelheel]

I clean my grates after each cook. The GMG grates are stainless so there will
not be any rust. I bought a large plastic bin to store them and I also use it to
clean them. I put enough water in the bin to cover the grates and add about
3 tB of dishwasher detergent and 2 or 3 squeezes of Dawn detergent. I scrub
with a brush the next day and most deposits are gone but some remain. If
necessary, another night in the soapy bin. After the brush, I might use an old
"Scotch Brite" pad cleaner. Really hard stains get introduced to steel wool.

 

[SlowmotionQue]

Another reason why I put this up here is so that people would be encouraged to use these pads as opposed to steel wool and certain types of Scotch Brite pads.

Some Scotch brite type pads can leave a residue on your grates, which if you should swallow it, will give you the worst pharyngitis you can imagine.

Ask me how I know. I made the mistake years ago of cleaning my grates once with wet 3M Scotch Brite 7447 pads, soaking the grates and then rinsing them off, and then later, cooking on them.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/3M-3-7-...-Fine-Hand-Sanding-Pads-2-Pack-7447/301117170

Thought that by soaking and rinsing them good after using these, that I'd be OK.

Wound up with a complete inability to swallow the next day, because the throat pain was so severe. The absolute worse sore throat I've ever had in my life. Could not even handle my own secretions/spit, let alone eat or drink, and so there was the threat of dehydration.

I sensed no grit, no nothing while eating food that I had prepared on them. Thank goodness that I was the only one who had eaten off of them.

Almost landed me in the hospital, and I had to use a Choloreseptic spray almost all day just to make it over the next day.

Only thing that I can figure, is that a very fine residue had been left behind on the grates, had adhered to the grates even after soaking and rinsing, got deposited onto food cooked on those grates, and that I must have swallowed it when I ate the food that I cooked.

I used the pads, thinking that I'd be safe instead of using steel wool, which IMO carries an even worse risk, in that fine strands of the steel wool, difficult, if not impossible to see right away, can deposit onto the grates and also make it onto food. Thus I avoid steel wool on grates at all costs, as I don't want either myself, nor family or guest, swallowing a strand of steel wool and getting it stuck in their throats.

This is the same reason why I avoid using wire brushes on grates. If the brush should shed a piece of the wire, well then a fine piece of the wire can get lodged on the grate and get into food and potentially swallowed.

 

[S-met]

I do a hot soak in my brew wash. My mix is a little more complex since I use it for a wide variety, but the simple grill cleaning version is a 3:1 ratio of oxiclean and TSP (or TSP-90). Cover with 160° water, add cleaner and let it soak until its cool enough to handle. I don't have before&after grill shots, but my moka-pot gets black. This mix maes it shine with minimal effort.

 

[nchapelheel]

What good ideas!! I never thought about using TSP to clean the grates.
As for the Scotch Brite pads, I only use those after they are "worn out".
Having said that, I will be very careful in the future.