Grate cleaning- How clean is clean?


 
Marcus Brannon

Marcus Brannon

TVWBB Fan
I have a kettle I purchased this year, and I've struggled with keeping the grate clean. I use the scrub pad before I heat the grill up, and then the wire brush after the grill is preheated. No matter how much I scrub, the grate is dark and dingy with only the top most part of the metal showing through. Is this to be expected? I miss my shiny new grill look!
 
Marcus Brannon said:
I have a kettle I purchased this year, and I've struggled with keeping the grate clean. I use the scrub pad before I heat the grill up, and then the wire brush after the grill is preheated. No matter how much I scrub, the grate is dark and dingy with only the top most part of the metal showing through. Is this to be expected? I miss my shiny new grill look!
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Yep, to be expected.
And I'm pretty anal about keeping my grates clean...
http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52121-Soaking-Grates

Many will say, "just heat that grate up, brush it and be done with it", but I do low and slow cooking most of the time and the soaking method works best for me.
It has achieved the goal of keep the rust away as well.
Just be sure to spray it with a cooking oil spray be before putting it away.

Also, if you want to throw down the coin, there are some nice stainless steel grates available.
 
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Wow, that pan looks great (grate?)! Thanks for the suggestion. I'm also a believer in the cooking spray before storage. I usually leave my grate dirty in between cooks because of rust but I think the occasional deep scrub in that pan would be just what I'm looking for. Stopping by Home Depot on the way home from work today!
 
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I have the same pan as Joe and it's the best thing I've ever used for cleaning the grates. I soak them overnight and clean up is super easy.
 
Rich Dahl said:
I have the same pan as Joe and it's the best thing I've ever used for cleaning the grates. I soak them overnight and clean up is super easy.
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So.. back to my original question: How clean do they really get? Are they shiny again or does this just get the big chunks of crud off?
 
I just get the chunks off and I'm fine with it. I've got the gourmet grate which are plated and they have some corrosion and discoloration. Some places smoke has just deposited. I wouldn't worry about that. The surface is the main thing to get clean. I wouldn't worry so much about sides and bottom. You'll drive yourself crazy being too anal about grates.
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
You'll drive yourself crazy being too anal about grates.
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This is what I'm trying to avoid, LOL. I posted some pictures of what I was grilling last night to Facebook, and although cleanliness of the grate is important to me, after I posted them it just looked so dirty to me still which prompted the question. I was just curious what level of cleanliness others obtained. I'm satisfied I'm doing enough now :)
 
Marcus Brannon said:
So.. back to my original question: How clean do they really get? Are they shiny again or does this just get the big chunks of crud off?
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Once they've been subjected to high heat, they will never truly be "shiny" again. What you'll end up with is grates that are shiny around the edges, or anywhere else not subjected to direct heat, and discolored where they have been subjected to the heat.
 
Marcus Brannon said:
So.. back to my original question: How clean do they really get? Are they shiny again or does this just get the big chunks of crud off?
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They will never be super-shiny like new once you start cooking on them.
I run mostly 300° and lower and my grate still looks very good after two years.
It's a flip-up and the middle cooking area is quite clean ("straw" color) and the flip-up areas I leave "smoke-stained" (dark color).

I cook with the flip-ups in the up position so they don't get unnecessarily torched by direct heat from the baskets.
They get smoke-stained and I don't care about that....seems like it's a rust inhibitor as well.

Stands to reason that if you do hot 'n fast, high heat type cooking, your grate will wear faster.
 
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I got a replacement for my wsm when I bought it used... but I am going to char off the old one (I tried cleaning/scrubbing/soaking) on my summit gasser to see if I can basically burn off the crud. whoever owned the wsm before myself didn't do a great job of cleaning. the bottom cooking rack wasn't bad though, and its good to go after soaking/cleaning/scrubbing.
 
Joe F said:
They will never be super-shiny like new once you start cooking on them.
I run mostly 300° and lower and my grate still looks very good after two years.
It's a flip-up and the middle cooking area is quite clean ("straw" color) and the flip-up areas I leave "smoke-stained" (dark color).

I cook with the flip-ups in the up position so they don't get unnecessarily torched by direct heat from the baskets.
They get smoke-stained and I don't care about that....seems like it's a rust inhibitor as well.

Stands to reason that if you do hot 'n fast, high heat type cooking, your grate will wear faster.
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How do you grill at 300 or lower?
 
Dustin Dorsey said:
I just get the chunks off and I'm fine with it. You'll drive yourself crazy being too anal about grates.
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My method/thoughts exactly.
Next time you see a tv show featuring a well known, highly regarded bbq joint, take a good look at their grates.
Point being, if they serve the public and folks aren't dying off like flies, then all is well.
 
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Bob Correll said:
My method/thoughts exactly.
Next time you see a tv show featuring a well known, highly regarded bbq joint, take a good look at their grates.
Point being, if they serve the public and folks aren't dying off like flies, then all is well.
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A cement finisher's tools are "clean enough".
An occasional cement finisher's tools are sometimes spotless.
When you are a heavy user of a grill, clean enough works.
 
I don't consider a dirty grate a health issue. But I also don't like my meat sticking to the old stuff. Thus I clean my grates after every cook. It's easy when done this way.
for bad grates I use oven cleaner, ss wool, copper wool and small ss brushes. Are they perfect ? No but I like to cook on clean grates.
 
George Curtis said:
I don't consider a dirty grate a health issue. But I also don't like my meat sticking to the old stuff. Thus I clean my grates after every cook. It's easy when done this way.
for bad grates I use oven cleaner, ss wool, copper wool and small ss brushes. Are they perfect ? No but I like to cook on clean grates.
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I think we all like to cook on clean grates, but we have different ideas about what is clean and how much effort we should apply.

My lovely wife has a different idea about what is clean as well.
Not that there is anything wrong with that.


:)
 
I went to HD and got the pan and cap for the drain. Very easy, about $12 total after tax.

O4EeuK4.jpg


I've got the grate soaking right now, I'll post a photo of the results later.
 
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Marcus Brannon said:
I went to HD and got the pan and cap for the drain. Very easy, about $12 total after tax.

O4EeuK4.jpg


I've got the grate soaking right now, I'll post a photo of the results later.
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Don't try to dump the full pan without a piece of plywood under it or it may crack.
Lift the plywood.
You can also let most of the water out through the plug before lifting.
 
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