How to Clean a Grill
We’re going over the quick tips on how to clean your grill for the upcoming grilling season. We want to keep you safe; we want to keep you grilling, and we want to keep you eating. We’re going to show you how to make your grill look brand new again. After each season you might notice if you’re using your grill a lot there will be a lot of dirt and grease build up on the inside. If you don’t clean that grease up, your grill will be more likely to have flare ups or even catch on fire.
You want to work from the top-down when cleaning, so you don’t have to clean everything twice. You’ll want to use a new metal brush. If you use an older one with fraying bristles, these are more likely to flake off into your grill. Since you cook off of this you don’t want that. A new brush will also be much more effective in cleaning your grill. 
Follow the length of the grates by going left and right. Don’t add any chemicals or cleaning products because again, this is a cooking surface, and we want our food to be safe to eat. If you notice you need at least something to help, get the build-up off, try mixing together baking soda and vinegar into a paste.
That will help lift the grease up as you scrub everything down. The brush might not be able to scrap away at everything, so you can also use a metal scrapper to pick away at any grease or build-up. Every part of the grill matters when cleaning this. Make sure to get the backs of the flat grates in the interior because there will be grease on these as well. Sometimes when cooking you might find your food isn’t quite tasting the same, or it might be burning. This might be an indication that it’s time to clean your grill.
At the bottom of the most grills, there are flavor tension bars. This is an area that gets a lot of heat and where a lot of grease will drip down. When you’re cleaning these make sure to check for any holes, as this could be a safety hazard. If you notice there are holes, you can purchase a replacement just for this piece; it’s probably one of the most important pieces in your grill.
Keeping this clean or replacing this if needed will increase the longevity of your grill. After you remove and clean everything on the inside, you can get to the walls of the grill. This is where your metal scraper will come in handy. You can just scrape everything off the walls and it will fall down into the grease tray. You can also go in here with a shop vac and vacuum out any excess or scrapped away debris.
Be careful when doing this not to puncture the gas lines. When you get close to where they are, it’s recommended to use a sponge, wire pad, or anything soft so you don’t damage anything. You’ll want to also check your gas lines to make sure you don’t see any holes. Leaking gas is never good. Another safety point, we want to make sure this gas is off. Especially before we got to remove the propane tank. After removing the tank, you’ll be able to check and see if the gas connectors are still in good condition. You don’t want any cracks on these.
On the bottom is where you’ll be able to find most grease trays. This is the most likely part to cause grease fires, so you want to clean this thoroughly. If you find even after cleaning that there is still a lot of buildup, it might be a good idea to get a new one.
Now that you’ve cleaned the inside, you can piece it back together and move onto the outside. A lot of people think their grill is developing rust spots, but actually this is just oxidation. It’s nothing a little bit of Sidol cleaner and a towel can’t fix.
Certain spots will have heavier oxidation. You just want a small amount of this because it will go a long way, and you’ll want to take your towel and rub it in the direction of the stainless steel. On this grill it’s going from left to right, so you’ll want to rub this in in that direction. Be careful not to get any of this on the plastic pieces of the grill, because it will cause spots.
Anywhere you see stainless, you can do this on it to clean it. You can also do this once or twice for the best results. For additional shine, we used the Don’s stainless-steel cleaner to ensure everything is clean. You want to use a water based stainless steel cleaner and not an oil-based cleaner because cleaners with oil can leave streaks.
Before you grill again, make sure to check all of your connections to the gas to ensure everything is tightly secured. All we have to do now is start grilling. Hopefully this makes your grill look brand new.
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Founded in 1971, Don’s Appliances is a family-owned, independent appliance retailer based out of Pittsburgh, PA. Don’s has since expanded to 10 locations selling, delivering, installing, and servicing all major appliance brands. Large enough to offer competitive pricing yet small enough to continue offering the “white glove” service we pride ourselves on, our focus is always on the customer experience — from the first step into a showroom to the purchase transaction to well after your new appliance has been installed. When our customers are remodeling or building a new house, Don’s has all the expertise, product knowledge, inventory, brands, displays, and services to meet and exceed your needs. And in the event an appliance breaks, we are there, right on time and with the right product, delivery, installation, and service.
Shop Grills at Don’s Appliances
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, and shop grills at Don’s Appliances. Our friendly experts are always happy to help you discover why Don’s Appliances is one of the best appliance stores in the area — whether you call us at 866-544-1711, email us, or use our online chat feature. Better yet, stop by any of our Don’s Appliances Pittsburgh, PA warehouse locations. Visit us today!
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