Don't EVER clean your BBQ with a wire brush

[LONDONER]

And here's the reason why:

http://www.lifebuzz.com/bristles/

Pass the message on

[InbetweenDreams]

That's got to be a rare occurrence.... I would think the wire bristles would just fall down into the grill, must have been one messy grill. So my advice is to keep your grill clean and you won't have to use a wire brush or waste vinegar and an onion.

The other thing some people do is use tin foil on the grill, keeps the food from sticking and less mess to deal with.... Although not a fan of Aluminium on my food it does work.

[jimcrackcorn]

One way to clean your outdoor barbecue grill is to close the lid and put all the burners on their highest setting and let it cook off all the oily debris (takes about 30 minutes)...

I would suggest that prior to doing this,,, you should clean out any heavy grease build-up to keep your grill from catching on fire..

My grill looks like new after cleaning it this way..

Sin-cerely,
Jimerooo

[LJay]

What's this about vinegar and an onion, [MENTION=23180]axle2152[/MENTION]?

And [MENTION=11919]jimcrackcorn[/MENTION], what makes you think I have a gas grill? Up here in the South we just have to settle for using old shingles that fall off the roof. They light pretty good and we were getting blackened steak a long time before it was fashionable.

[InbetweenDreams]

[MENTION=20933]LJay[/MENTION] From the article...towards the bottom

1. Warm up the bbq to loosen all the grime. Use tin foil crumpled into a ball and using tongs to hold it, wipe the grill up and down.
2. Take half an onion and dip it in olive oil. Using tongs, wipe the grill down.
3. Use a steam brush or wooden brush.

[InbetweenDreams]

I thought I seen something about vinegar, been a long day...

[LJay]

AH! Yeah, I know about the long day part. I was skimming the article too quickly.

I don't have occasion to deal with cleaning a grill often but with all this worry I would be tempted to get the grill very warm and then rub it down with kosher salt using a clean rag. The problem is that there are several different kind of grills. The kosher salt thing with a little bit of any edible oil is good for cast iron. It would be a good idea to clean the grates away from the grill itself and spread some newspapers around to catch the mess. This is essentially what I do to clean my cast iron pans after use. A good scouring with the salt and a few drops of oil leaves them slick and shiny. Then I take a clean rag and dust out any salt that may be left. That is important because salt will attract moisture and cause rust.

As for brushes, it is a good idea to have some natural bristle brushes around for cleaning jobs. The difficulty can be that a lot of brushes are made of plastic these days. The plastic looks a little like natural bristles at first glance. Beware.