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


 
Chris Allingham

Chris Allingham

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I was out of town this past weekend at a family reunion. The house we rented included a Genesis II E-325 that was filthy inside and out. We didn't have any tools to clean it out, but I did have the foresight to bring along a grill brush--theirs was completely shot. We ran the grill with all burners on high for 30 minutes to get the grates clean--it belched out a lot of smoke--then scrubbed the grates clean and shut it down.

Two days later, we fired it up to cook four tri-tips. As they started dripping fat into the bottom of the cooker, all of the carbonized junk caught fire and I got to witness first-hand just how scary a blazing fire in a gas grill can be. This was happening on a Trex deck next to a house with wood shingle siding, wooden gutters, and wood shingle roof...in a forest! At least I also had the foresight to position the grill away from the house before lighting it.

My brother got the meat off the grill in time to save it, and it took some time before the conflagration was brought under control. We were able to spatula-out some of the smoldering gunk, got the grill going again, and got the tri-tips back into the cooker to finish. Dinner was saved!

It's something I've never experienced before and never want to experience again, and it's something you never want to experience, either.

Bottom line: Keep your grills clean to avoid a grill fire!

virtualwebergasgrill.com

How To Avoid A Grease Fire In Your Weber Gas Grill - The Virtual Weber Gas Grill

Grease Fires Can Be Scary! This is NOT a photo of the actual grease fire I experienced recently, but it might as well be. In early March 2022, I was vacationing with my extended family, staying in a rented house in a state park that included a Weber Genesis II E-325 gas grill. My brother …...
virtualwebergasgrill.com virtualwebergasgrill.com
 
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I spent a few hours Sat (60 in Chicago) working on my rehabs, and also took an hour with a 2" scraper to scrape down greasy drip trays, grates, FBs and change out fresh drip pans on my fleet. Then, later Sat night I put on two small "prime" cut ribeyes on my G1000, and BOOM in mid cook I had some serious conflagration! Drip tray was afire. Easy to correct bc I was on top of it, but it could have been a meltdown if I was preoccupied with company, or "a game," or whatever.

Lesson for all you newbies: A-B-C! "Always Be Cleaning!" Never go to bed with a greasy drip tray. lol. And NEVER walk away from a ribeye on high heat! hahaha
 
Carolyn Edelstein said:
I cleaned my grill Saturday and the heat deflectors were so bad, I ordered new ones today. I may have to try your method to see if I can save the originals.
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It was easy. I pulled the grates and Flav bars set the deflectors across 3 burners left, sear, center and cooked them on high for about 10 mins.

Turned them off and scraped them clean.
 
Seen it happen. All the drip tray stuff can heat the grill up to the point I seriously would be worried about an even worse issue.
 
DanHoo said:
It was easy. I pulled the grates and Flav bars set the deflectors across 3 burners left, sear, center and cooked them on high for about 10 mins.

Turned them off and scraped them clean.
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Awesome, will do that. Rain starting tonight and all this week. I will clean them though as I'm not sure the new ones are going to be as sturdy as the originals. Thank you, Dan!
 
I use a paint scraper after every 5-7 grillings to scrape away everything in my G2 300 box, deflectors, bars, and the bottom tray. Even when I skip one too many grillings and have a grease fire, it's not a disaster. First shut off the gas. Then I VERY CAREFULLY * slowly pour some water in the affected areas and that douses the fire, allowing me to continue grilling (unless it's very fatty meat that I'm putting up).

* Pouring water on a massive grease fire can cause a flashback or worse, leading to serious injury. Use a hose and keep very distant with the grill hood open, if you need to do this, and do it slowly.
 
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Chris Allingham said:
I was out of town this past weekend at a family reunion. The house we rented included a Genesis II E-325 that was filthy inside and out. We didn't have any tools to clean it out, but I did have the foresight to bring along a grill brush--theirs was completely shot. We ran the grill with all burners on high for 30 minutes to get the grates clean--it belched out a lot of smoke--then scrubbed the grates clean and shut it down.

Two days later, we fired it up to cook four tri-tips. As they started dripping fat into the bottom of the cooker, all of the carbonized junk caught fire and I got to witness first-hand just how scary a blazing fire in a gas grill can be. This was happening on a Trex deck next to a house with wood shingle siding, wooden gutters, and wood shingle roof...in a forest! At least I also had the foresight to position the grill away from the house before lighting it.

My brother got the meat off the grill in time to save it, and it took some time before the conflagration was brought under control. We were able to spatula-out some of the smoldering gunk, got the grill going again, and got the tri-tips back into the cooker to finish. Dinner was saved!

It's something I've never experienced before and never want to experience again, and it's something you never want to experience, either.

Bottom line: Keep your grills clean to avoid a grill fire!
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Good information. It really doesn't take much time or effort to clean any gas grill to avoid what you've experienced. Also, you don't even have to do it that often. I think I give mine a fairly thorough cleaning 3-4/year.
I have chosen to ignore Weber's advice about not doing a "burn off" or high temperature cleaning. I do cover the grates with foil and close the lid and let do it's thing but only after I scrape down the sides, lid, flavorizers and brush the burner tubes. 15-20 minutes all in. Oh...and a pair of gloves is quite helpful 👌
 
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Barb and I clean every grill we used the previous month on the first of the next month. I 've only had a major grill fire once and that made me a believer in keeping my grills clean. It was my gen 2000 that is under the covered patio the flames reached up to the ceiling of the patio. I was able to drag it out to the open back yard, we were lucky just some smoke smudge on the ceiling and some burnt arm hairs.
I also have two fire extinguishers now out by the grills also one in the garage and kitchen.
 
Yep, learned my lesson on this VERY early with my Genesis (original). Sadly though I occasionally forget and have had a few small small grease conflagrations. But, bottom line I never let them get bad enough to fuel a large fire. The carbon on the bottom pull out drawer will fuel a really good fire though if allowed to build up. And not only that it smells nasty as well
 
Didn't I see here posted in one of the original Weber ads that the Genesis was supposed to be "flare up proof" or something like that;-)
 
I too had a grease fire early on with a gas grill. When I am going to do a cook big or small i always look at the condition of the fire box,and grease tray. If I need to scrap and clean out the fire box will do the same for the tray.
Then I will use water to spray out all the small stuff.
Fire up the grill on high for 15 to 20 minutes cool and inspect to see how well it looks. Since starting this I have never had a fire since.
Thus no excitement during the cook for our guests.
 
Tony-Chicago said:
Seen it happen. All the drip tray stuff can heat the grill up to the point I seriously would be worried about an even worse issue.
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I have had my large drip tray and smaller grease tray all catch fire. luckily I was close by. But I have picked up a few grills that had gone nuclear. I already told the story of the guy with the 2005 Genesis that had his catch fire and had three foot flames out the top. He had it just inside his garage and nearly caught his garage on fire. As I was leaving I noticed his truck had Fireman logo plates on it. I asked him if he was a fireman and he simply replied "Yes". I didn't take it any further and simply thanked him for his service and jumped in my truck. I am sure he saw the huge grin on my face as I drove off.
 
Great comments from everyone. Yes, the fire was especially concentrated in the grease pan at the very bottom. There was talk of using water to douse the flames, but we chose not to do that. Looking back on it now, I should have done a thorough inspection of the insides and made a trip to the hardware store down the street for a putty knife to do some cleaning. But we were on vacation, I was not feeling motivated to have to clean a grill that should have been cleaned and prepped for me by the house staff, etc. Lesson learned...don't cook on a filthy grill and assume it's all going to be OK.
 
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