How often to clean the flavor bars?


 
J

JohnS NJ

TVWBB Fan
Over the last few months I’ve been using the grill more on my Gen 2 due to the pandemic. As a result, I decided to upgrade Bertha with a SS grate and Dave Santana bars. I've gotten flare ups before I just shrugged it off as extra flavor for my meat. But lately it's been getting worse. I've cleaned the bars before and I already rotated them. But last night it got bad - see pic. That was chicken thighs on them. Can anyone give some advice on how to solve this?

My typical routine is to bring the grill to max temp to burn off whatever was on there and then scrape off. I typically make my own seasoning so there wasn't a lot of sugar or oil on my meats.

It also occurs in the same spot. Mainly the center between the top and middle burner. Weber had told me that there are "dead spots" on the x000 lines but I shrugged it off as it helps me manage my meats when they are different sizes.
 

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Flare ups like that can come from 2 different sources. The flavo bars and or the collection of debris/grease in the pull out grease drawer. The cure of the latter is of course to clean it regularly. For me it's every 2 to 3 weeks depending on my use. As for the bars alone, if you're doing thighs or in my case last night a giant fatty cowboy ribeye for my bday dinner, it's best to go to indirect. Keeping the front and rear burners on only and leaving center off. Sadly I forgot to do just that last night and scorched my birthday dinner pretty badly. It was still decent though just not great. I simply had forgotten to turn off the center and even on low the center burner gives off enough heat to pretty quickly incinerate a fatty food.
 
Skin-on chicken is always going to have a chance for a flare up even if your grill is clean. Along with cleaning the flavorizer bars and grease pan, you need to clean the inside of the cook box as well. Wet greasy build up anywhere in the grill will contribute to flare ups.

I clean the cook box and flavorizer bars about 3 times per summer and dump the crud in the grease pan and clean that out at least that often. Basically, all I use is a 2" flat steel putty knife. After I run the grill on high and burn off as much grease as possible, I pull the flavo bars out and run the putty knife down each side of each of them, then I scrape the inside of the cook box down with the putty knife. Then I pull out the grease tray and do the same with that into a trash can. While I am at it, I take the opportunity to wire brush my burners as well.
 
Yes, I will bet you also had grease in the bottom of your cook box. It is important to clean them both.
 
LMichaels said:
Flare ups like that can come from 2 different sources. The flavo bars and or the collection of debris/grease in the pull out grease drawer. The cure of the latter is of course to clean it regularly. For me it's every 2 to 3 weeks depending on my use. As for the bars alone, if you're doing thighs or in my case last night a giant fatty cowboy ribeye for my bday dinner, it's best to go to indirect. Keeping the front and rear burners on only and leaving center off. Sadly I forgot to do just that last night and scorched my birthday dinner pretty badly. It was still decent though just not great. I simply had forgotten to turn off the center and even on low the center burner gives off enough heat to pretty quickly incinerate a fatty food.
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Larry, hated to hear your BD meal was not up to your usual high level of expertise so I hope the rest of your day was Super! 🎂🎉
 
Was it your Bday Larry. I am due for one too. I hadn't thought about it, but now I am thinking a nice fat Ribeye might be necessary.
 
Richard in NS said:
Larry, hated to hear your BD meal was not up to your usual high level of expertise so I hope the rest of your day was Super! 🎂
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Bruce said:
Was it your Bday Larry. I am due for one too. I hadn't thought about it, but now I am thinking a nice fat Ribeye might be necessary.
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Yeah it was a little heartbreaking. I was preoccupied with my crimini mushrooms on relatively high heat on the stove. Trying to strike just the right balance. On the plus side I hit them on the nose :D As for the rest of my day. I have the little guy with us for the weekend and any time my bestie is with me it's a good time

Yep Bruce, my 69th trip around the sun. They say age is just a number and up until 6 or 7 years ago I agreed. People half my age could not keep up with me. But OH BOY the number is sure taking it's toll now LOL. A wrong sneeze and I feel like I am in pain for a month and then I can't remember how the hell I hurt myself. :D
Yesterday was out with the tractor and the leaf sweeper. Now yeah my little Honda is not the machine that giant Simplicity was 1100 lbs vs 650 lbs but I got that Honda stuck and stuck good in a hole by my front culvert. It dropped the left rear wheel in, the mower deck was bottomed out and there was no way it was gonna move. So I did what any self respecting old fart would do. I put it in neutral, reached under the rear of the chassis, picked it up and pushed it forward. Damn the old guy can still "get er done" :D
 
It seems that the greatest people have October birthdays.

That is at least three October superstars from Illinois.

What you want for your birthday.

Shh.. Jon, Bruce, maybe we need to rehab a certain grill with reengineered parts, for you know who. Shhh.. keep it a secret.
 
Tony-Chicago said:
It seems that the greatest people have October birthdays.

That is at least three October superstars from Illinois.

What you want for your birthday.

Shh.. Jon, Bruce, maybe we need to rehab a certain grill with reengineered parts, for you know who. Shhh.. keep it a secret.
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You know who doesn't have that certain grill anymore LOL Jon has it now :D
 
Well we will see about that. Of course, I may have just inadvertantly spilled the beans or let the brisket out of the bag. Either way I would love to get the rehab/reengineering center off the ground.
B.Allingham holding company
Board LMichaels
Ceo Bruce
Coo jon
Consultant jk and dave etc
Outsource to foreign land Indiana south
 
For my bday I scraped, primed, then two coats on My mom's house/garage.
No worries her bday is coming up. Not sure what I can get her to do around my house.
 
Happy belated B-Day, Larry! 🎂 And thanks again for the generous deal on your Summit. It is beckoning me to get going on it so that it can become my daily driver. I think it has a unique classy look to it that says "WEBER" (in all caps!). I am honored that you would allow me to buy it from you.

p.s. I told Larry that his cool old Summit that he has held on to for years reminds me a little of the very old Midas commercial promoting their lifetime warranty. An old man with a Model A, I think, has it on the rack and the Midas guy asks him if he is EVER going to sell that car. The old man grins and says, "Never sell AnnaBelle!" It will be fun to do my best to find a cure for the front firebox issue and get this grill searing for another 15 years or more.
 
Bruce said:
Skin-on chicken is always going to have a chance for a flare up even if your grill is clean. Along with cleaning the flavorizer bars and grease pan, you need to clean the inside of the cook box as well. Wet greasy build up anywhere in the grill will contribute to flare ups.

I clean the cook box and flavorizer bars about 3 times per summer and dump the crud in the grease pan and clean that out at least that often. Basically, all I use is a 2" flat steel putty knife. After I run the grill on high and burn off as much grease as possible, I pull the flavo bars out and run the putty knife down each side of each of them, then I scrape the inside of the cook box down with the putty knife. Then I pull out the grease tray and do the same with that into a trash can. While I am at it, I take the opportunity to wire brush my burners as well.
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Very good advice. I hate to get "tagged" again as the "GrillGrates guy" but I would be withholding good information if I didn't say that cooking something like chicken with skin on is a good example of where their ability to control flare-ups and even out temperatures does really shine.

Grabbed this picture. NOT my grilling, but I wish I could say it was:

Chicken on GrillGrates.jpg

This is not skin on, but it IS my cooking:

IMG_4154(1).jpg
 
I used to before the fire restrictions with using charcoal do my skin on chicken on the performer and I had to do it indirect to avoid flareups. Same with the E320 it never flares up although it gets a workout now as it's the only thing we can use. I think part of it is we clean the tray and FBs at least once a month.
 
Jon Tofte said:
Happy belated B-Day, Larry! 🎂 And thanks again for the generous deal on your Summit. It is beckoning me to get going on it so that it can become my daily driver. I think it has a unique classy look to it that says "WEBER" (in all caps!). I am honored that you would allow me to buy it from you.

p.s. I told Larry that his cool old Summit that he has held on to for years reminds me a little of the very old Midas commercial promoting their lifetime warranty. An old man with a Model A, I think, has it on the rack and the Midas guy asks him if he is EVER going to sell that car. The old man grins and says, "Never sell AnnaBelle!" It will be fun to do my best to find a cure for the front firebox issue and get this grill searing for another 15 years or more.
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Truly my pleasure. It was one of those things that I hated to just discard it......................too many years of love in it and given the chaos most days in my life I could never get around to actually giving it a proper rebuild/remake. So I am happy to see it where it will live on
 
Very good advice. I hate to get "tagged" again as the "GrillGrates guy" but I would be withholding good information if I didn't say that cooking something like chicken with skin on is a good example of where their ability to control flare-ups and even out temperatures does really shine.

+1

Skin on chicken (and also bacon) is where the GGs really make a BIG difference for me. As Jon has pointed out before, on a gasser the GGs are basically like adding a second/extra layer of flame tamers/flav bars. Like the 90s Genesis grills had.

Because the GGs provide even heat and few flare-ups across the whole grate surface, there's no need for me to leave half the grill empty to cook indirect any more. So I can now cook (using the whole grill surface) on medium 8 pounds of wings instead of 4. And two pounds of bacon on low instead of 1.

I let the grill run by itself and go cut the grass with no fear of a bonfire. No spray bottle needed any more.
 
Late to the party also Larry happy belated, mine was early October. I totally get what you said about age I turned 67 a few weeks ago pulled something in my rib cage absolutely no idea how I did it.
 
Seems every problem I have had in the last ten years have been ones where I have no idea what caused it.
I am dealing with what feels like a bruise on the back of my heel. It started about a week ago and slowly is getting worse and worse. I don't ever remember hitting it on anything and it is starting to get to the point where wearing shoes and walking are getting painful. It is on the back and not bottom of my heel though. There is absolutely no marks or bruising, but it feel exactly like what a bruise would feel like.

And I am just one week from #59.
 
Brian B Atlanta said:
Late to the party also Larry happy belated, mine was early October. I totally get what you said about age I turned 67 a few weeks ago pulled something in my rib cage absolutely no idea how I did it.
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Thank you. Brian and Bruce, not long ago had to bend my big fine body over a lot to do a simple task trimming toe nails about a week later could not figure out why my lower rib cage was in so much pain. Then it hit me. Ugh. I think if I lost half a person life would improve. But oh boy that ain't easy.
 
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