Grate cleaning- How clean is clean?


 
can one use those pumice stone cleaner things on these nickel plated grates or not? pretty darn abrasive though they work well on heavy stainless grates.
 
From what I can tell so far, soaking it and using a sponge seems like it'll get most of the nastiness off. I think those pumice stones would be overkill.
 
I'm a soaker as well, at least for my WSM grates. The grills not so much.
I use a cheap plastic kiddie pool from Wally world, soak for a couple hours then brush the food particles off. The grates stay brown, but they are clean.
If you want really shiny again, the oven cleaner/trash bag trick might work?
 
i have a couple grates and rotate them, i also have one one these pans only mine is aluminum and anyway when the grate or grates from the WSM get nasty i just put them in and soak over night and use a pad to scrub off the the grime and rinse hang till next needed. i do this a couple times a summer. and i use a ball foil to scrub the lid when i scrape down the sides of the lower bowl.
 
For our basic grilling for fast cooks like burgers, we use the Genesis and at the end of the cook clean it with a brush. That gets the upper crud of but can't always get the stuff on the bottom off. However, at the end of the cook the grate is getting 550* from the burners so that helps. Also when we start the gasser, we run for 15+ min. to heat it up and it hits 550* there. That should kill anything that could be a problem. Never had a problem. Occasionally use my metal water heater pan and soak and scrub.

We do the same thing for the Performer and again, never a problem. Also for the WSM same thing. At least once a year we do the oven cleaner in trash bag thing and they get really clean.

As long as you are careful, all should be fine.
 
I've been throwing my WSM grates onto my genesis for about 15 minutes @ high then hitting them with a brush, letting them cool and putting them back on the WSM.
 
I forgot to post my after-cleaning picture. This is after 24 hours of soaking, which I do not recommend! Rust definitely had started at that point. I cleaned the grate about 5 hours after soaking with a sponge and got most of the crud I wanted off and they were actually very shiny. After 24 hours, I scrubbed the just-forming rust off and I didn't really notice a difference in overall cleanliness.

After cleaning I sprayed it with clean water, lit a small fire in the kettle to dry it and then sprayed with pam.

xiPpblF.jpg
 
Marcus Brannon said:
I forgot to post my after-cleaning picture. This is after 24 hours of soaking, which I do not recommend! Rust definitely had started at that point. I cleaned the grate about 5 hours after soaking with a sponge and got most of the crud I wanted off and they were actually very shiny. After 24 hours, I scrubbed the just-forming rust off and I didn't really notice a difference in overall cleanliness.

After cleaning I sprayed it with clean water, lit a small fire in the kettle to dry it and then sprayed with pam.

xiPpblF.jpg
Click to expand...

My typical soak time is about an hour.
Then a quick scrub with my grill brush.
Rinse.
Shake off and spray with Canola cooking spray.
I don't bother completely drying the grate.

The Weber grates have a thin plating.
Retaining that plating takes work, unfortunately.
 
For sure those pumice stones are the worst things to use on any grate. As to soaking, it really doesnt work. Use easy off and then put that in a bag to soak overnight and then scrub with ss wool and wire brush. Then repeat till clean. A little rust is not a problem. I have rusty looking grates giving me years of service but they are clean. I used to nit care about the grates but now I'm near anal about them being clean.
 
George Curtis said:
For sure those pumice stones are the worst things to use on any grate. As to soaking, it really doesnt work. Use easy off and then put that in a bag to soak overnight and then scrub with ss wool and wire brush. Then repeat till clean. A little rust is not a problem. I have rusty looking grates giving me years of service but they are clean. I used to nit care about the grates but now I'm near anal about them being clean.
Click to expand...

This is quite the opinion thread !

;)
 
Joe- I misunderstood or didn't remember a poster earlier saying they soaked overnight and I turned it into 24 hours. I'll just do an hour next time.

George- odd that you say soaking doesnt work. I think my photos are proof that it does.
 
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