Summer is all about the grill! There’s nothing like standing at your barbecue, drink in hand and preparing a home-grilled meal for your family.
Of course, all of those grilled meat and vegetables leave their mark on your barbecue. After a beautiful summer of enjoying it, now you may be thinking about what you need to do before putting it away.
How often should I clean my grill?
You should clean your grates after each time that you use it. Additionally, you should do two deep cleans over the course of the year.
It’s vital that you clean your barbecue at the end of the season. It’s also important that you also clean your grill in the spring before the season begins.
Why bother cleaning it?
Cleaning your grill is not nearly as much fun as cooking on it. However, it needs to be done to extend the lifespan of your barbecue.
Over time, you will have rust on your barbecue and components will break down if you do not properly clean and maintain it. That will leave you with the expense of buying a new grill – it’s much better to properly take care of it in the first place.
5 Easy Steps to a Clean Grill
What You Will Need
- 5 gallon bucket
- dish soap
- gloves
- aluminum foil
- microfibre cloths
- hose
- broom
- stainless steel cleaner (optional)
- metail bristled scrub brush
How to Do It
1. SAFETY FIRST! Make sure that all dials are turned off BEFORE you begin and, if it’s a propane barbecue, that the tank is completely disconnected.
2. Now it is time to clean your grates. Put on some gloves to protect your hands against metal splinters.
Remove the grates, grill, grease pans and any other metal parts. Fill up a 5 gallon bucket with water and dish soap and put all of your metal parts into that bucket.
Let them soak while you take care of the rest of the barbecue. You want to make sure that they soak for at least 10 minutes
3. Cover the heating elements with aluminum foil to protect the grill’s heating elements from falling debris (like old grease).
4. Take your metal bristled scrubbing brush and scrub under the hood and on the sides. These areas will be dirty from all of the smoke that has blow through them.
5. Now you can grab your microfibre cloths and wipe away all of the grime and dirt that has come loose from scrubbing.
6. Let’s go back to our grates and grill. Take them out of the soapy water and lean them against a wall.
7. You’ll want to get your scrub brush and give them a good scrubbing. You shouldn’t have to put too much elbow grease into it, as soaking them should have loosened up a lot of the dirt.
8. Get your hose and rinse off your grills and grates. Dry them completely with towels before returning them to your barbecue so that you do not develop any rust.
9. Sweep under your stand – a lot of leaves and debris build up there over the year.
10. Wipe down the exterior of your barbecue to give it a nice shine. If it’s stainless steel, it might help to use a stainless steel cleaner for the best look.
That is all there is to it! In about half an hour, you can give your barbecue a deep clean so that it is clean and ready to use nexy year!