The best part about throwing a barbecue party is the awesome food, coupled with excellent company. The worst part, of course, is cleaning up the greasy, burned up the grill that gave you all that sumptuous BBQ! It’s rather tedious and time-consuming to clean but it needs grill maintenance (and as soon as possible!) Leaving a freshly used grill to sit and dry up will only make your job ten times harder. So, as soon as it cools down, it’s time to get cleaning!
Our step-by-step guide for grill maintenance and cleaning is your best bet to make the cleaning a little quicker, a lot easier, and 100% efficient!
Grill Maintenance Guide and Cleaning
Step One: Bring the Heat Back!
Believe it or not, lighting up your grill again is a self-cleaning step. By turning up the heat to a high temperature and covering the grill firmly with the lid, the grease and food bits tend to get charred and come off with ease. Just about twenty minutes of high heat is enough to get the carbonization process going.
Step Two: Soak them!
After your grates/trays have cooled down completely, make a solution of warm water and liquid detergent in a basin (or anything wide enough to accommodate them) and stir it up well. Make the solution as sudsy as possible before leaving your removable grill components to soak. The idea here is to make scrubbing less strenuous and time-consuming which is exactly what fifteen-twenty minutes of soaking will do.
Step Three: Clean the Rest!
While the grates and other bits soak, use this time productively to clean the ‘non-soaked’ components of your barbecue unit. This includes the stand, lid, and grill. To begin, dispose of unusable charcoal bits and store the rest in a bag for next time. Apparently, the base of your grill will be blackened from the intense heat and burned coal, but that’s okay. Every grill ends up like that. For grill maintenance, cleaning with an old cloth to eliminate coal residue. Next up, the lid and stand will need a good scrubbing to remove greasiness and food spills. Make a paste of baking soda and water and use a clean, non-abrasive scrubber to clean these components. Rinse the baking soda off thoroughly with water.
Step Four: Back to the Grates!
By now, your grates/trays will have had more than enough time to soak; so, bring out your wire brush or metal scrubber and let’s begin! Your cleaning solution must consist of warm water and a generous amount of liquid detergent to get the job done efficiently. Dip your chosen cleaning tool into the soapy water and start scrubbing your grates and trays clean. After step one and two, we guarantee that this action will be quick and effortless!
Step Five: Dry and Store
Water can be damaging to the metal of your grill if left wet for too long; hence, we advise wiping each component thoroughly with a few kitchen towels or clean cloths. Once you’ve dried them up completely, put all the parts back in place and store the grill away properly until your next BBQ party!
