Keep your gas grill clean...you've been warned!


 
Funny. I just did a quick gas bbq cook with pork chops just last week and had a pretty raging grease fire going on too just as the chops were finishing up.

Other than a few leaves on a bush that keeps growing behind it there were no casualties in this fire, but it was raging proper.🔥🔥🔥
 
I use my Weber Genesis Silver Series B all year. A couple of times a year I slide the bottom tray out and scrape everything into the drip tray with a putty knife. I have a wooden scraper for the cooking grates I use each time using the grill.
 
I have one that is in the pantry. 10 feet from the kitchen and 5 feet from the garage entry door. It would be nice to have one in the garage out by the big garage door as well though since that is where I do all of my Genesis grill cooking.
 
I was overue for semi-annual putty knife scrape out of the firebox and the slide out tray. Did some bacon on the S-330 the other day and that touched off a grease fire.

Seems like the Genesis heat deflectors (being kind of flat) tend to accumulate a lot of crud. I try to remember to scrape those down each time I scrape off the flavo bars.

10 minutes of putty knifing the firebox and slide out pan twice a year and I never get a grease fire.
 
Yah, you can cook all the high fat stuff you want in these grills as long as you keep the cook box and other parts fairly clean. Once you build up all the crud and it bakes on, it just soaks up and prevents the grease from running off and down into the grease tray.
 
Jim C in Denver said:
Seems like the Genesis heat deflectors (being kind of flat) tend to accumulate a lot of crud. I try to remember to scrape those down each time I scrape off the flavo bars.
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Yes, this is a key difference starting in 2011.

I often remove the slide out bottom pan and scrape it off, and with a Silver or Genesis x000 that has always been sufficient.

The newer grills with heat deflectors are gunk catchers and that is what caught fire last night. A contributing factor is I almost always cook on the side with the sear burner so I'm focusing all my drippings on half the grill.

Edit: pics showing the crud collectorsl

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The non sear side collects crud too.
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I have a Silver B and a 2016-ish Genesis too.

The 2016 overall has much better flare-up performance and evener heat than the Silver B ... when clean.

When dirty, the 2016 is worse for grease fires. I think because the deflectors catch/hold a lot of stuff closer to where the burners are. And my recent grease fire was also on the sear burner side -- I tend to cook a lot more on that side.

On the Silver B, stuff more easily falls all the way down into the slide out pan which is further away from the flames.
 
One thing about the heat shields on the newer grills is that it limits the heat that gets down to the grease pan below. When that catches fire, watch out because it is no longer contained in the cook box.

I am guilty of letting my grills get way too dirty, but in reality, it doesn't really take all that long to do a quick scrape down and then empty and scrape drip pan and change out the drip pan. A pair of rubber kitchen gloves helps immensely to keep from getting your hands and arms all dirty too.
 
Rich Dahl said:
After the monster grease fire I had with the gen 2000 under the covered patio I installed a fire extinguisher on the patio and one in the shed were all the other grills are lined up. I also have one by the door coming in from the garage to the house and one by my work bench next to the big garage door.
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That reminds me I really need to pick up a couple more fire extinguishers. I'm down to one and won't bore anyone with the story of why that is.
 
John J Jagt said:
Funny. I just did a quick gas bbq cook with pork chops just last week and had a pretty raging grease fire going on too just as the chops were finishing up.

Other than a few leaves on a bush that keeps growing behind it there were no casualties in this fire, but it was raging proper.🔥🔥🔥
Click to expand...
This is the way it works for me every time. If I put something on the grill and walk from it then something bad happens, which is part of the reason I don't use the grill when it's winter here anymore. I like to sit outside with the grill and enjoy the nice weather and keep an eye out for any problems. Grease fires and temperature fluctuations are exactly why I like to babysit my cooks. You just never know when these problems are going to pop up. You wouldn't think pork chops would cause a fire, but they do sometimes. In any case, I try to relax and enjoy cooking on my grill
 
Steve Hoch said:
This is the way it works for me every time. If I put something on the grill and walk from it then something bad happens, which is part of the reason I don't use the grill when it's winter here anymore. I like to sit outside with the grill and enjoy the nice weather and keep an eye out for any problems. Grease fires and temperature fluctuations are exactly why I like to babysit my cooks. You just never know when these problems are going to pop up. You wouldn't think pork chops would cause a fire, but they do sometimes. In any case, I try to relax and enjoy cooking on my grill
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Steve, that's exactly why none of my grills have remote access. Even my Camp Chef is a basic controller. I monitor with a TW Smoke and any changes to settings I do manually. I'm not going to the store while I have a live fire in my backyard.
Same scenario for me, don't do a lot of winter cooks because I like to be outside when cooking and I don't do cold well.
Yes, the odds of something going south are fairly remote but I'm a firm believer in Murphy's law.
 
Seems I ghrill just about every day of the week except when I'm working nights. I have started the habit of doing the scrap out once a month.
 
I think you mean "scrape" not "scrap" :D unless you're buying a new grill that often LOL
Honestly I can see why some of you are so cautious. I just really am very careful about letting my grill(s) get to a condition where runaway combustion is an issue. I do know on some proteins no matter what you do it is a possibility. But, I do far more often scrape downs that many of you. So even on hard to cook proteins (chicken thighs skin on, burgers and what not) I just don't have an issue walking away. I have more issues with my traveling sprinkler's front wheel jumping the hose and becoming a "runaway" :D
 
Ok to use a metal putty knife for scraping the cookbox and the slide out bottom tray on a Genesis Silver B or should I use plastic on the tray (which I think is porcelain coated) so not to scratch it?
 
I use a metal putty knife on everything -- flav bars, heat deflectors, cook box, slide out tray.

Slide out tray is porcelain (i.e. glass) so it should be fine unless you go crazy. My tray usually doesn't have stuff caked/baked on. So the crud pretty much slides out with no elbow grease. You probably could get it clean using a paper towel.

Definitely need elbow grease on the other parts.
 
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