Who doesn’t love barbeques on a lazy Summer afternoon? The perfect weekend is when you are grilling and enjoying beautiful steaks, hot dogs, and burgers while sipping your favorite drink. Grilling and enjoying different kinds of meats on the barbeque is fun but cleaning and maintaining your grill, ahh, not so much. The cleaning job is tough and time-consuming, but you have to perform it once in a while to keep your grill functional and like new. But the issue is that most people don’t know how to clean grill burners, grates, etc., properly.
The proper maintenance of the grill requires proper cleaning of every part of the grill, and every individual must be aware of how to clean grill burners, grates, etc. As we all know, Summer is incomplete without barbeques. Hence, we must ensure our grills are in good health, as we all know precautions are better than cures.
Let’s check out some tips for tidying up every part of the grill as cleaning the grill as a whole might be a hustle, but scrubbing one part at a time makes the job much easier.
The grease and grime that collects on your burner from constant usage eventually corrode your burner over time. Your burner might work fine after a few usages, but if not cleaned and maintained properly, they will eventually become non-functional and will give you a very hard time restoring them. Hence, it’s better to clean your burner after every use, especially after you grill a rib that requires continuous burner usage for long hours. But before starting the cleaning process, make sure to properly go through your user manual and see if there are any specific ways or instructions for tidying up your burners.
Steps To Clean Your Burner To Get Rid Of Clogs
Before starting, perform simple inspections like are there any signs of cracking, tears, or holes. Ensure that all the hoses of the grill are connecting tightly and there are signs of any kinks or bends in the line. Check the exterior of the gas cylinders and ensure that they don’t have any bulges, dents, rust, corrosion, or punctures.
Step one is to reach your burner, burners are usually not exposed, and you must remove the outer parts to access them. Remove the grates and flame tamers and keep them aside for reassembling later. Also, ensure to have all the supplies like a drill bit, cleaning rags and towels, putty knife, and grill brush near you before getting started with the cleaning.
Take your burner from the grill and brush off any debris you find on them. Only use a brush to clean. Never use water or any water-based cleaner.
Examine and ensure that the ports of the burner are not clogged. If they are clogged, clean them with a toothpick or a drill bit.
Once you finish cleaning your burners, start focusing on your tubes. If your burner tubes are clogged, reopen them with a toothpick.
Shake out all the rubbish from your tube, and your tube is good to go.
Once you finish your cleaning, properly reassemble all parts of your grill. If you spot any cracks or damage on your burner, experts recommend replacing that burner to avoid any accidents that burner could cause in the future.
How To Clean Grill Grate
Now that we know how to clean grill burners, let’s shift our focus to an equally important part, grates. Like the burners, cleaning the grill grates is also essential as even the grease collected on the grates may cause blockage and restrict your grill from functioning properly. You can clean your grates in many ways, but you have to decide which one is most suitable for you. So, let’s check out a few ways to clean your grates.
Burn off
This is probably the best way to clean grill grates, and you can perform it every time you want to use your grill. To perform burn-off, you simply need to blast the burner to the maximum once you are done grilling. It will remove all the leftover food, grease from the steaks, and other barbecue foods stuck on the grate.
Once you have burned off all the grease and grime, wait for 15 minutes and after that, brush off the grime of your grates.
Vinegar or Grill Spray
A vinegar mixture or grill spray provides you with squeaky-clean grill grates every time, and here are the steps to properly clean your grates with vinegar or grill spray.
If you use vinegar, mix an equal amount of water and vinegar in a bottle. You do not need to mix grill spray with anything; use it directly.
Spray the liquid on grill grates and let it sit for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, brush your grates with a grill brush; after that, you will be left with a clean grill grate. Rinsing is neither required nor recommended.
Steam-Clean
To perform this method, you require a container with some water which you will place on the grill, and then follow the steps mentioned below:
Heat your grill to six-hundred-degree Fahrenheit
Turn off the heat and place a container with some water inside the grill onto the grates.
Close the lid and let the steam form for 30 minutes.
Scrub off your grates with a silicon sponge or paper towels, and your grates will be clean within no time.
How to Clean Outside Of Grill?
This might not sound as crucial but cleaning the outer parts of the grill is also important to prevent your grill from rusting. If you live in a harsh environment, the outside of your grill will require cleaning more often.
Cleaning the outside of the grill is not that tough; simply wipe your grill from the outside with soapy water; if the water is warm, it would be even better for cleaning. Next, rinse the grill properly, and after that, dry your grill with a cloth or paper towel. Individuals can perform this cleaning once in a while; apart from this, it is also good to apply a stainless steel cleaner weekly on your grill.
So, these were the tips for cleaning your grill, but individuals can only perform these cleanings once in a while. So, to properly maintain the functionality of your grill, follow the following tips regularly.
Tips For Proper Maintenance Of Your Grill
Every time you use your grill, we recommend you preheat it for at least 10-15 minutes at the maximum temperature. Preheating is very useful in removing the residue collected in your grill from prior usage. However, if you want to cook at a low temperature and for a longer time, don’t preheat your grill too much. Preheating for 10 minutes is good enough.
Wipe off the liquids that fall on the grill as quickly as possible, and don’t let them dry up. Once the sauces or gravy that fell on the grill dry up, it becomes difficult to clean them up.
Additionally, rodents and other creatures love barbeque as much as you do. Hence, if the liquid is lying on the BBQ grill for longer, it will invite disease-spreading guests.
Use good quality grill cover to cover your grill and keep it safe from the outside environment. The grill cover is one of the best ways to maintain the good health of your grill as it prevents it from rusting and the rain acidity and dust particles that can settle on its burner and tubes.
If you live in an area that experiences a lot of humidity, make sure that you remove the cover from the grill from time to time and let your grill breathe for some time.
This is probably the most important step you must take more often than any of the abovementioned steps. Ensure that your grill does not have any propane leaks, especially. You should perform this step before firing your grill up. It does not take a long period and is a very simple process.
Once you check your gas cylinders, run some soap water on the gas line and wherever the connections are. If you notice any bubbles forming, there’s a propane leak, and you have to change the line.
Conclusion
A BBQ grill often becomes a very crucial part of an individual as they not just grill food but are often part of hundreds of memories. Hence, always ensure that your grill is in brilliant health. That is the only way you can enjoy delicious BBQ food for a longer time. You don’t need to be an ex pert to take good care of your grill. If you just follow the steps mentioned above, it will be enough to maintain the good health of your grill.
Always use good quality tools to clean your grill and only use the best grill cleaners available on the market. Using low-quality cleaners can also damage the health of your grill. Cleaning the grill regularly ensures the proper functionality of your grill and keeps it fresh and new. So don’t be lazy; wear your gloves and tidy up your grill today itself. Just knowing how to clean your grill burners and grates is not useful until implemented.
Once you are finished with cleaning the grill, check out these 7 Tasty BBQ recipes 2022 and start cooking!
My name is John Rinder and I have spent the majority of my adult life grilling and learning about barbecues.
In fact, my grilling experience stems from even before that, when I used to watch my father grill outdoors. Some of my favorite memories growing up were surrounding the grill in the backyard, or a portable grill on the beach or in the park.
