Grilled foods are among the most favorite dishes for special events as well as ordinary meals.
Like any other ordinary kitchen cooker, it is essential to keep your grill clean so as to enjoy its services at an optimum level and for an extensive period.
Furthermore, cleaning the grills kills bacteria and maintains the quality of your food.
For instance, poor cleaning may result to excessive smoking when grilling, which will affect the taste of your food.
There are different types of grills in the market. Each grill has a different but simple cleaning process.
This article features how to clean the three most common types of grills. These include gas, electric, and charcoal grills.
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Requirements:
- Sponge
- Microfiber cloth
- Dish soap
- Commercial cleaners
- Grill brush
- Paper towel
Gas grills
To be able to clean your grill well, you need to do so in a methodical manner. For this article to be a good guide, you need to have a basic idea of the various parts of your gas grill.
Cleaning the exterior of a gas grill
- Take out the foils or pans and cover the grill’s surface. Switch on the burners on the highest setting for a quarter-hour and allow the grill time to burn any food residue to make your cleaning process easier.
- After the 15 minutes elapses, close the valve to turn off the gas. Using a grill brush, vertically scrub the cooking grid area to get rid of the residue. Allow the grill to cool. Avoid direct contact with the grill until half an hour after cleaning.
- Raising your grill’s lid, brush off the residue from the grill’s roof with a plastic scraper. Scrub in a direction opposite from you to avoid injuries from the scraper slips. Allow all the dirt and debris to fall on the base of the lifted lid.
For the dirt that falls on the bottom of the lifted lid, remove using a vacuum. Set the vacuum to the highest suction setting and for larger pieces of debris, use a vacuum’s hose.
After that, wipe off the lid with a wet cloth. Vacuuming prevents the debris from dropping on the grill’s body when closing the lid.
When the grill is cool, remove the base, throw the ash residue into the trash and place it aside.
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Cleaning the interior of a gas grill
- Using a scraper, scrape the large, flat parts of the interior grill. For the burner, scrub using a nylon brush back and forth. Scrubbing the burner perpendicular to the slits will have the debris fall into the holes. For grills with burner covers, leave them covered as they protect the burners from damage and dirt; hence no need to scrub.
- Empty the grease pan dirt on the tray in a trash can, wipe it with a wet cloth, and air-dry it.
- The heat deflector is a feature in a number of the grills located at the base of the exhaust or burner that deflects heat from the grill. Take this piece out and soak in warm water, after which you scrub it with steel wool.
- Remove any left debris and residue that you may have scraped off with a vacuum hose. Once the interior is clean, wipe the outside with a microfiber cloth. Cover the grill with a grill cover to protect all its elements.
To ensure your grill stays in good working order, you’ll spend a bit of time maintaining it.
Cleaning it up is an important part of the maintenance process; you should maintain and protect your investment.
Each time:
- Remember to cover the grill immediately after it has cooled down.
- Turning the grill’s heat up to maximum after getting rid of the last meal will help burn off all the grease and drippings in the grill.
- Brush the grates to get rid of residue and provide yourself with a clean surface for cooking.
- Preheat the grill totally each time you switch it on. This will help clean and sanitize the gas grill.
Cleaning a Charcoal Grill
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Cleaning and maintenance of a Charcoal Grill requires some extra attention because of the extra dirt that the use of charcoal causes.
Follow the following simple steps to clean your charcoal grill.
- Light a fire and keep it burning for about 15 minutes to burn off any remaining residue. Allow the fire to burn and the grill cool before taking out the lid. It may take a few hours to cool, depending on the amount of charcoal used.
- Soap your sponge in warm soapy water and scrub the roof lid in a spherical manner for two rounds of cleaning. Use warm water to rinse the lid and dry it with a clean, dry cloth.
- Move further to the grids. With the grill brush, scrape vertically, moving parallel to the grid. Scrape each grid a minimum of 4 times to completely get rid of the remaining food particles and other residues.
- Scrub the bottom of the grates by flipping the grill grates over. After that, rinse with cold water. For stubborn residue, directly apply dish soap on the brush and scrub the grates several times. Rinse a number of times thoroughly to get rid of the soap residue completely.
- Throw out the charcoal ashes into a fireproof waste container. Scrape the interior of the charcoal grills bowl with steel wool thoroughly in a back-and-forth manner to get rid of the grease, ashes, and debris. Rinse with a wet sponge and dry with a paper towel.
- For the ashtray, wipe with a sponge and water.
Cleaning an Electric Grill
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The longevity of your electric grill not only depends on proper cleaning and maintenance, but also on whether you made the right choice of an electric grill in the first place.
To get a detailed buyers guide on electric grills to enable you make a good choice, review the various online resources on Best Electric Grills.
Before you embark on the task of cleaning your electric grill, familiarize yourself with the many useful resources out there on how to clean your electric grill.
Not all of us enjoy cleaning and some do it only because it has to be done. So if you like simple solutions, you will also find tips on how to clean your electric grills the easy way.
Step by Step Tips on Cleaning an Electric Grill
Like any other electric appliance, unplug the grill and allow it cool for 1-2 hrs. Take out the electronic thermostat and set it aside to cool. Wipe the thermostat with a dry cloth or a paper towel.
For the grills with an electrical heating plate, take out the heating plate and wash it with a dishwasher using an ordinary cleaner. Alternatively, manually scrub it with a sponge and dish soap. Rinse and leave it to air dry.
For grills with an intact heating surface, scrub the surface with a soapy sponge and warm water in a circular motion. Redo the procedure till the heating surface is clean.
Rinse in warm, clean water using a sponge repeatedly till there is no more soap.
Clean the grill’s body with a sponge and cloth with warm water in a circular motion and dry with a clean cloth. In case of discoloration, pre-heat the grill to 225 °F:
- Mix hot water and a commercial grill cleaner.
- Pour the mixture on the body and scrub the surface.
- Scrub thoroughly to get rid of the discoloration.
- Rinse the surface with warm water in a cloth and let it air dry.
Allow the grill to cool, and apply cooking oil using a paper towel on the surface of the grill to prevent discoloration in the future.
Grill Maintenance Tips
- Always place a grill mat beneath the grill to hold food residue, grease, and debris.
- Thoroughly rinse off commercial cleaners as they may alter the flavor of food.
- Thoroughly clean the grill twice a year and clean it after a maximum of 10 uses to keep its lifespan long.
- Keep children and pets away from a hot grill or when at work.
- When lighting the gas grill, ensure the lid is open.
- Do not place the grill close to any flammable substance. Place the grill at a distance of 10 feet from the house.
- Place the gas containers in an upright position away from human traffic.
Conclusion
And for an additional step, you can get a grill cover to protect it from the elements. You’ll find that the best grill maintenance will play a huge role in ensuring the grill works properly and looks great.
You should maintain it properly to avoid expensive repairs. The only thing you should do is ensure it stays clean.
To ensure your grill stays in good working order, you’ll spend a bit of time maintaining it. Cleaning it up is part of the process; you should maintain and protect your investment.
