Disaster averted and egg on my face


 
Larry i do agree with you about the aluminum foil ball. I saw an article recently (can't remember where?) touting the effectiveness of a foil ball for cleaning grill grates. Didn't sound like a good idea to me for the reason you mentioned. It also seems incredibly wasteful to use a big war of aluminum each time you clean your grates.
 
Larry,

I can see your point regarding your care. Definitely everyone here should avoid old or cheap wire brushes altogether. I, too, have used decent ones for years. I have seen a splinter once or twice break off, but never left on my grates.

I am really surprised that you don't like the Chargon. I feel it does a better job on stainless rods than anything else I have used. At first, it does seem tedious, but when I really looked at how little time it actually took I got over that. I like it regardless of the metal splinter issue because, as others have said, you can clean all around a stainless rod without having to remove the grate. Works on my Rec Tec, "The Judge" and any other grill with stainless rods. No good for cast iron which I agree with you is the type of grate with the biggest issue. I might get that other scraper from the guy in TN. The "Type 2" looks like it might actually work if, like me, you are OK with the one rod/slat at a time method.
 
Jon what is the "metal splinter issue" ?? I've not ever heard of that.

I totally agree with you that at first cleaning each grill rod seems laborious but as you get used to it and get better at it you realize it just takes about a minute on a standard sized weber grill. Not a big deal at all.
 
The "metal splinter issue".... consider that a metal wire brush bristle gets broken out and stuck on/in a rough spot on the grate. When food gets placed on the grate, it pierces the food and gets picked up with the food, leading to ingestion at the table.
 
Greg,

I was just talking about the brush bristles breaking off. I was saying even if that problem didn't exist I still like the Chargon better than a brush for stainless rods.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Greg,

I was just talking about the brush bristles breaking off. I was saying even if that problem didn't exist I still like the Chargon better than a brush for stainless rods.
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Ok. I thought there was some concern out there that the metal from the grate itself would splinter off. LOL.
 
Larry, I think quality brushes and swapping them out regularly would be a prudent way to go.
 
Re the Chargone yes it does do a great job on rod type grates IF you have to patience to stand there scraping each rod. I'm very ADHD drives my wife nuts (probably why I always did so poorly in school and never went to college even though many people think I am very educated)
So the thought of standing over a grill the size of my Wolf scraping it bar by bar is not appealing :D I like to crush, wipe and cook. Also it's not a good solution for the Q which is where the issue came up. I think the design and material of Q grates lend themselves to disasters of this type unless extreme care is taken, plus (though I don't have the tool anymore) I don't think it would fit between the wires on the Wolf due to the custom nature of the grates
 
LMichaels said:
Re the Chargone yes it does do a great job on rod type grates IF you have to patience to stand there scraping each rod. I'm very ADHD drives my wife nuts (probably why I always did so poorly in school and never went to college even though many people think I am very educated)
So the thought of standing over a grill the size of my Wolf scraping it bar by bar is not appealing :D I like to crush, wipe and cook. Also it's not a good solution for the Q which is where the issue came up. I think the design and material of Q grates lend themselves to disasters of this type unless extreme care is taken, plus (though I don't have the tool anymore) I don't think it would fit between the wires on the Wolf due to the custom nature of the grates
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Yes the chargon would be near useless on a Q or really any cast iron grate. It's designed for round grates only. And I agree the tool would be tedious on a very large grill like your Wolf. It really does shine though for small to moderately sized grills with stainless rod grates.

I do think a tool similar to the chargon could be designed for cast iron grates. It would just have to be the right shape. And probably made of a softer metal like brass to minimize damage to the ceramic coating.
 
More and more points to that “GrillGadget” you posted about. I am getting closer to pulling the trigger on a No. 2 of that one to see how it does on cast iron. Has the brass you mentioned and at least one of those shapes should work. If I do get it, I will post my feedback here.
 
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That would be a welcome review Jon. I would like something that is better for my Q grills. Since I stopped letting the grill run after the cook to clean it up and waiting until after I burn up the gunk while warming it up for my next cook, I find that getting it clean and then reseasoned for the new meat to work as well. Maybe the grill gadget will help with that.
 
I have to agree with Larry on everything he has said about wire brushes just working better. But I do know a stray bristle may get overlooked. I would hate to be the one that caused an emergency to any of my family or friends. For the time being I'm going to keep using wire brushes because they work so good. But because Larry is also so adamant about wiping down the grates after cleaning and the one time he didn't domething bad happened should give us all a bit of concern. I guess it only takes once.


To put that into a little bit of perspective, millions of people BBQ everyday. Millions of people use wire brushes every day. Every year a handful of people have a problem with a wire brush. You have a better chance of winning the lottery then ingesting a stray bristle.

But,,, the one time the person who is adamant about wiping down and oiling doesn't do it we get this thread.

All that just to say I completely agree with Larry but, I'm now actively searching for a good alternative.
 
In light of this thread, I scrubbed my kettle grate with soap and water yesterday before grillin' some chicken.

I may look into a steam cleaner of sorts in the near future though.
 
Jay D in Jersey said:
The wooden paddle scrapers work just fine on Weber OEM CI grates. Likely user error if they don't.
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I tried them on Weber OEM CI grates on a Genesis, the Q and both Weber heavy rod SS grates along with the custom grates on my Wolf. Like I said a total waste of my time and $$$$
I will say though that I did not try milling out the cutouts to "fit" over the grates in any way. This was simply an OOB (out of box) experiment with 2 brand new ones I bought at Wally World. Honestly I wished they would work but they don't and I don't have to patience to deal with tools that don't work as they should.
 
It does take some time of use on hot grates for the grooves to "burn in." I found that easy on GrillGrates which are flat on top so the wood worked from the get go. Just got even better as the grooves got their shape. I have to admit when I tried on cast iron I wasn't as patient. I might try again, because I do really like how it works on my GrillGrates.
 
Jon Tofte said:
It does take some time of use on hot grates for the grooves to "burn in." I found that easy on GrillGrates which are flat on top so the wood worked from the get go. Just got even better as the grooves got their shape. I have to admit when I tried on cast iron I wasn't as patient. I might try again, because I do really like how it works on my GrillGrates.
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I agree. They don't work well initially but once they start conforming to the grill bars it starts improving greatly. The key is to be consistent with the placement to start it burning in.
 
I don't have the time or patience to deal with something that does not work as I bought it. If I pay $$$ for something it darn sure better work as advertised or it goes back or in the trash
 
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