Major cleaning for the grill – here's how to do it!

In the end, it doesn't matter whether you grill all year round or prefer to stay in the warm kitchen during the winter months - at some point the grill has to be cleaned properly. The warm days of the year are always a good time to do this, because who wants to brush, scratch and polish with cold fingers when the temperature is just below or above freezing? - By Markus Mizgalski

Control is good
Before you really get started, it is advisable to carry out a basic check on your gas grill. Those who have simply left the grill outside for several months with or without a hood should inspect a few places before turning on the gas. It is particularly useful to visually check the gas hose for leaks. You can do this with shaving foam or leak detection spray, which you can buy at hardware stores. If the hose is porous, it is best to replace it immediately.
The first thing to look at with a pellet grill is the pellet container. If you haven't emptied it before the wet days, you might be in for a surprise. The pellets are slightly hygroscopic and tend to lose their binding properties as soon as they get wet. In the best case scenario, everything will have turned into a relatively fluffy pile of sawdust that can be removed with a vacuum cleaner. If things have gone worse, the whole thing will have a much more doughy consistency and will have to be removed by hand. You should also visually inspect the cable. Brittle rubber insulation and exposed inner wires speak for themselves: the power cable must be replaced before the machine is connected to the mains. It is very important to look in the base cabinet and cooking chamber: don't expect any garden residents to have set up a winter quarters here. If they have, they should be relocated and their traces at least roughly removed.

The functional test
If the grill is basically operational, you should heat it up without looking at the inside. With gas grills in particular, you can then see very clearly whether the ignition electrodes or some of the holes in the burner tubes need to be cleaned or even whether parts need to be replaced. And the heating element in the combustion chamber of a pellet grill may no longer be able to do its job properly if it is covered by a thick layer of baked-on soot. A small wire brush can help here, and burners can be opened with a small drill. There are also special brushes for cleaning the inside of burner tubes after they have been removed.

Clean, but how?
After this initial inventory and any spare parts procurement, it's time to start cleaning. But how and with what do you start? Basically, it depends on the type of dirt you're dealing with. If you open the lid and find a coat of mold, the grill needs to be properly burned out for 30 to 60 minutes - the more heat, the better. Then you can use the brush, and the mold problem is usually solved. A little tip: If you leave your grill over the winter with food residue on the grate (a cause of mold), you should definitely take a look in the grease tray or the drip tray of the pellet grill before burning it out. If there's still a lot of grease there, there's a risk that the burnout will burn down the entire grill. By the way: What burnout means for the grate is boiling for the plancha or fire plate: A lot of encrustations come off if you pour a little hot water onto the hot plate several times and let it boil away.
The next step is to use the wire brush to remove coarse encrustations. In theory, you can also use an attachment for a cordless drill or grinder. But be careful: if you have coated cast iron grates, the coating may suffer. And if you accidentally slip from the grate onto the stainless steel chassis of your grill, you could end up with some really ugly scratches. Rust from cast iron or steel planchas can be removed very easily with the motorized wire brush. But first you need a rough cleaning with a spatula. You also need one when you need to remove thick layers of grease from grease trays.

If only it were that easy. Unfortunately, the cleaning performance of such “cleaning robots” is rather mediocre. In most cases, other devices have to be used.

Humidity and long periods of downtime can sometimes lead to mold growth. High heat solves the problem.

There are numerous cleaning and care products for the grate and chassis of a grill.

Why burnout is not pyrolysis
It is often claimed that the burning out or cleaning of a grill is equivalent to the pyrolysis function of an oven. However, this is not true. In a grill, all flammable residues are simply burned. The higher the heat, the more effective this process is. This is how you can clean a very dirty pizza stone, for example. However, proper pyrolysis takes place in the absence of oxygen. The dirt is not burned, but its molecules are broken down. It is essentially broken down by heat.

Cleaning equipment
There are grillers who swear by cleaning their devices with a high-pressure cleaner. However, this is not without its problems. At 100 or 150 bar, there is a significant risk that water will be forced into areas where it really shouldn't be. For example, into the burner tubes and ignition nozzles on a gas grill. Or into the hopper area on a pellet grill. This shouldn't be a problem for the electronics, as long as the device has protection class IP67 or IP65. But nobody needs water in the pellet feed. Cleaning the frame or undercarriage with a high-pressure cleaner is less of a problem. But you should also be careful here. If the grill is a bit older and has perhaps a few cracks in the paint, the sharp water jet can wear away even more paint. If you only want to work with water and no chemicals, a steam cleaner is more sensible, as it can also be used quite gently on grease deposits on the body.

Classic methods and home remedies
Not everyone has a steam cleaner. Especially since even this has its limits. Especially when it comes to fine details or the removal of shiny soot. Incidentally, this is smoke that condenses and later burns in. It is almost impossible to avoid it, especially in pellet grills or when smoking chips are used frequently, because the aim is to let the wood smolder rather than burn, especially at low BBQ temperatures. Sometimes this shiny soot flakes off on its own, which leads many grillers to believe that the paint on the inside of the lid is coming off. But that is almost never the case. In fact, you can try to remove the soot with a spatula. This is difficult, however, if the condensate has not completely burned off. A somewhat sticky, resinous layer then sticks to the lid and side walls, which is difficult to remove using mechanical methods alone. And this is where a very central problem with grill cleaning becomes apparent: the wide range of different types of dirt, all of which potentially require their own cleaning concepts if they cannot be removed using the methods already mentioned. Dealing with grease is the least of the problems. Washing-up liquid in combination with a sponge helps here. However, if you use these typical scouring pads, you should be careful with stainless steel surfaces: cleaning too vigorously can cause scratches. Grease-dissolving kitchen cleaners that can be sprayed on also usually do a good job, but are ideal for quick cleaning in between. Household remedies can also help with burnt-on food residue: baking powder or alternatively bicarbonate of soda. It is best to mix a paste that you apply to the encrustations and allow to work. Ideally, the dirt can then be easily removed. With baking powder, water is enough to mix, with bicarbonate of soda, you use vinegar. Enameled and stainless steel grates can be completely immersed in a light bicarbonate of soda or baking powder solution, but it is better to avoid cleaning agents for (coated) cast iron grates. If you don't get anywhere that way, you can try your luck with washing soda. You should test this carefully on one spot first. This is because sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) is much more basic than sodium carbonate (soda), and therefore has a much stronger leaching effect. On some grills, for example, the lettering cannot withstand this and simply disappears.

Especially when it comes to encrustations on smooth surfaces, good cleaners often do amazing things, as you can see in this case.

After thorough cleaning, the grill looks good again. However, it will never look like it did when it was new again.

Special care oils ensure that the stainless steel on a grill shines beautifully again.

Special cleaners
When it comes to shiny soot and very hard encrustations, typical household cleaners are overwhelmed. At least for stainless steel parts that are not permanently installed, the dishwasher can be an option. Some grills are even designed so that the entire tub can be dismantled and cleaned in exactly this way. Because although it may be hard to believe, a dishwasher is much more aggressive in cleaning than cloths and detergent. If you get stuck, the market offers a variety of special cleaners, often designed for both ovens and grills. They are available in the form of foam and gel or as a spray. There are some quite mild variants, but the majority fall into the "harsh" category, which means they are very alkaline and therefore irritating. Care must therefore be taken when handling these agents. It is therefore advisable to wear protective goggles and gloves. Work clothes or at least an apron are also useful, because some cleaners even discolor textiles without any problem. But you also have to be careful with the grill itself. While an oven with an enameled cooking chamber, enameled baking trays and various stainless steel parts is fairly robust, the same is not necessarily true for cast aluminum, zinc or plastic parts. Some cleaners can have a corrosive effect: they practically etch away the material. Therefore, it is essential to read the application and safety instructions. This is especially true for chemicals that are actually used in catering kitchens. On the one hand, they are extremely effective, but on the other hand they are intended for environments in which almost everything is made of high-quality stainless steel. No matter how intensive the cleaner is, you should let the grill run empty for 15 to 20 minutes at the end so that any residue evaporates. And very important: no type of chemical has any place on untreated cast iron and untreated steel. Water, wire brush, heat and oil are used here. That's it!

Untreated cast iron and untreated steel are only cleaned with water and mechanically. The only permitted cleaning agent is cooking oil.

You should be careful with cleaners used in the catering sector. They are, like the frying crust remover here, highly alkaline and therefore irritating.

Special case: stainless steel
When it comes to cleaning the outside of the grill, you can usually get the job done easily with enameled, painted or powder-coated parts using washing-up liquid, possibly a grease remover and a cloth. Stainless steel can be a bit more difficult. Although you can remove grease splashes and the like using the classic methods, the surface often remains streaky and matt. There are special oils that clean, maintain and even seal the surface to some extent. Alternatively, gun oil can do the job. As always, it is a good idea to do a test on an inconspicuous area before ruining the whole hood. By the way: The typical matt black that some smokers are made of can also be maintained with oil. Rubbing it in is particularly effective if you have heated up the grill properly beforehand and the metal is really hot.

For very special grills, manufacturers sometimes offer the appropriate cleaning device. Like Outdoorchef here for their funnel system.

The grill has spent the winter outside almost unused and without a cover. The good piece looks accordingly.

A steam cleaner works without chemicals. However, small devices in particular often have too little pressure for cleaning grills.

If you forget to remove the pellets from the pellet grill in damp weather, you can only dispose of them afterwards.

Many cleaners today do not require heat. You let them work and then you can rub or rinse the areas.

And what about plastic?
Many grills have larger plastic elements, for example at the end of the side panels. These can also be cleaned with washing-up liquid. If they fade over the years, they can be freshened up with cockpit spray from car accessories. If you want, you can of course dismantle them and repaint them with a spray can.

Conclusion
There is no single cleaner that will magically make the entire grill shine. Because of the mix of materials and the different types of dirt, it is best to use a mix of different cleaning products. And even then, it usually doesn't work without a bit of muscle power. But spring cleaning isn't something that has to be done every week. How often you do it depends on how often you use the grill and how much importance you and any guests place on the cleanliness of the device. It is clear, however, that no cleaning method can work miracles. The grill will never look the same as it did when it was new.


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