To Clean or not to clean?


 
M

M.N.Tolmachoff

New member
New to the forum, but been grilling and such for years.
So, here's the question. I have a Performer that's been cooking some great food for over 7 years.
I've never cleaned the inside of the grill besides brushing the cooking grate before cooking.
It's got quite a layer of grease and such.
Should I clean it? Or, leave all that history intact.
Just curious of some opinions.
 
I do a scrape off of most of the built up grease and a burnoff a few times a year. If I let it get too gunked up, I get a grease fire like this.
IMAG0492.jpg


Tim
 
I've got a plastic putty knife that I'll use to scrape the sides when the buildup gets thick. That's the extent of my cleaning the insides of my charcoal grills.
 
I clean mine every couple of months, depending on use. Get out the hose, some mild dishwashing liquid and a Dobie or Scotchbrite pad (the gentler one of the two Costco sells). It never gets totally clean on the inside - I just get rid of the buildup as best I can. Then I go and dirty it up again!
 
I unfortunately, am one of those obsessive compulsive types who likes the grill pristine. I spray with oven cleaner and soak the Craycort grates in Dawn. Can't help myself; I like a really clean grill.
 
i would clean it till you could see yer face in it. i used to wait a while to clean mine and it was a hassle. now i clean rather regularly and its just sooooo much easier.
you gotta take care of yer equipement that you use. to me it also shows a bit of disrespect for the grill. but thats just me.
 
I would clean it. I don't clean mine at fixed intervals, when I've for instance smoked some fat fish or just feels like it is time. I might endorse that seasoning is a good thing in competitions, but I'm not convinced about its importance for backyard BBQ
 
First off, welcome to the Forum!

Second, I'll admit that I've never cleaned the inside of any of charcoal grills. I will also admit that I'm not the guy who uses his grill every single day (although I would love to become that guy, it's not practical for me right now). In fact, if I grill or smoke something more than two or three times a month I'm doing pretty good (sad I know, but true). I guess all that to say that my grills don't get caked up with grease etc.

Anyway, my normal routine is to simply scrape the cooking grate(s) clean and get all of the used charcoal and ash out after each cook. I also tend to take a paper towel (or wad of newspaper) and brush down any ash in the bowl before I start cooking. I figure the less ash before I start the less ash to swirl around and get on my food. I have recently started either wiping down and/or using a grill brush to get any grease flakes off of the OTG lid. But in my defense, it took a few years before the buildup started to flake. And even then, I've really only seen the flaking on my 22" OTG, which I suspect is because I basically never use a water pan in the 18" OTS so there isn't that much moisture to begin with.

To be honest, I've never really thought too much about cleaning anything but the cooking surface until I got my 18" WSM. I'm still trying to settle into a cleaning routine with it, but I'll probably start having a Weber Cleaning Day every year where I do a good cleaning of all of my Weber cookers. Well that's my goal anyway.

So, to sum it all up:
1 - Welcome.
2 - I haven't done much cleaning (other than the grates) in the past, but hope to do better.
3 - Unless you're starting to have lots of flaking issues, or are concerned about grease fires, I probably wouldn't worry too much about cleaning.
 
Mark Q said:
I've got a plastic putty knife that I'll use to scrape the sides when the buildup gets thick. That's the extent of my cleaning the insides of my charcoal grills.
Click to expand...

Same here. No worries about scratches with the plastic.....great minds.:cool:
 
Actually, you can use soap on cast iron IF you have properly seasoned it beforehand and you don't scrub it with a metal pad. I used to believe that you couldn't use soap until I read that Kevin Kruger gave it an OK.
 
I clean my OTS a cpl times a year because I use it as a grill. In other words I want it to get hot.

The WSM is another story. I wiped too much off last time I wiped it down and it ran a bit hotter than normal. It reminded me of when it was new.
 
I have never done what you would call a cleaning. If some built up grease catches fire when I dump the coals and wait for the grate to heat up, I just let it burn. Cleaning done for me.
 
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