Surface rust on grates


 
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Jim Babek

TVWBB Pro
I mistakenly left my cooking grates outside the last time it rained and by the time I noticed they have a bit of surface rust on them. Any easy way to get them clean? Think I read somewhere about Hot soapy water and ammonia.
 
Jim,
Try a brillo and scrub until all the surface rust is gone, rinse and rub a paper towel soaked in cooking oil. Or I guess you could spray with "Pam".
 
Don't use chemicals on you grate. If there is lots of cooking residue you can use hot water and soap but I don't--water just adds to the problem.
Use your grill brush to remove the rust. Spray or mop with veg oil.
For my WSM I use my kettle to do a burn-off just before my cook. I'll light a full chimney of coals and save the top 10-20 for firing the WSM. The rest I dump into my kettle and cook both my WSM grates for a few minutes while I get the WSM ready to go. I then scrape the grates well with my brush and oil them before putting them in the WSM.
If I'm lighting a full ring on the WSM (i.e. not using the Minion) I do a burn-off on it.

Regardless, I always oil the grates before I cook and I try to after I cook (it's the times I can't that I resort to the above), after they've cooled a bit. We have lots of humidity and rain here--particularly this hurricane season. Heavy wind and rain turned my last 12-hour cook into an 18-hour. Didn't feel like doing much after the meat came off hence rusted grates the next day. But I scraped, dried, and oiled and they're looking good now.
 
I use a brillo, soap and water before every cook. Never had a problem with rust. It could be the "salt air" in FL. I dunno!
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Larry, I do the same thing...never any rust! They look as good as they did when I got the WSM home for the first time!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Al Silverman:
Believe it or not, rust can be removed with Coca-Cola and aluminum foil. Really works!! <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I always understood that to be part of a Coca-Cola urban legend, propagated by email. Here's what Coke has to say.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> I always understood that to be part of a Coca-Cola urban legend, propagated by email. Here's what Coke has to say.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I Always thought that is was a myth until I tried it on several slightly rusty chrome bolts on my bike. Hey, maybe it was just the foil !!??
 
I just never really clean them to thouroughly, then they always have a good coating of grease on them to keep the rust off. the heat of the cook is more than enough to kill anything and a quick once over with the grill brush before I put on the food does the trick.
 
Sometimes, when my grates ger real dirty, I burn them clean in my Weber Silver B. About 10 minutes on high and those grates are clean as a whistle, just lightly brush of the ash, no elbow grease or abrasives required! Those grates are Hot Hot Hot though. I picked one up with a hotpad and it started burning the hotpad. I dropped the grate in the grass and let it cool for a bit. It left a burned in image of itself in the grass. Now I open the lid and let it cool off for a bit before I pick it up.
 
Jim,

Me...I take my grates off a few days after I cook....along with the water pan. Then I prop them against the tree and use the pressure washer to clean them. Gets them good and clean and hasn't hurt them a bit.
 
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