BBQ cleaning

Useful tips to improve your BBQ cleaning skills

One of the greatest pleasures of the long summer days is standing over a scalding barbecue grill in your backyard blackening a row of your favorite sausages.

When daylight saving starts, barbecues across the country will be wakened from their winter hibernation and prepared for the summer season. That is the time to do a few routine checks and preparations which will keep your barbecue operating safely for the season.

Types of grill

Stainless

Ceramic

Vitreous enamel

Cast iron

Methods of BBQ cleaning

Coat Your Grill with Oil

A good way to reduce the pain of cleaning a barbeque is to prevent the nastiest of the gunk from sticking to the grill in the first place. To do this, coat your rack with a good layer of oil before you start to cook. This will help you to keep your food from burning and sticking to the grill, while making cleanup much easier.

The Wire brush Method

A stiff wire brush is a huge help in cleaning your grill. Simply give your rack a thorough scrubbing before and after each use. If you have used oil to coat your rack, getting the grill clean should be easy with a brush alone.

The Grill Stone Method

Grill stones are specially designed to help get grease and stuck-on food off of your grill. They look similar to a large pumice stone with a handle to help make scrubbing easier.

The Baking Method

Grills can sometimes be cleaned in a similar manner as self-cleaning ovens: close the hood, turn up the heat, and let the baked-on food burn off. Once grease and grime is transformed into ashes, it’s easy to remove with a brush or grill stone. However, you should be careful that this method is not prohibited by the grill manufacturer in order that you don’t void the warranty.

The Soaking Method

If all else fails, letting your grill racks soak in warm water will help loosen stubborn dirt and food remains. This can be good for getting the edges of your racks, which are often difficult to scrub properly, really clean.

Grill stone

These man-made stone blocks are soft enough to grind to the shape of the grill as you use them, removing grease and burnt-on food as you go. This is a great tool as it customises to your grill shape.

Steam clean

your dirty barbecue grill while you relax. Here’s how. When you’re finished grilling, soak yesterday’s newspaper in water and leave it on top of your warm grill rack with the lid closed. After about 45 minutes, open the lid and wipe off the greasy grime. Just remember —don’t let the newspaper sit on the grill rack too long, or it will dry out and become a bigger mess.

Mini BBQ cleaning tips

Another tip you can try, is to pour leftover coffee on the grill. Clean off with a dry cloth. For a really good clean, spray the grill with your regular oven cleaner and leave it in a plastic garbage bag overnight. Hose it down the next day, and you should have a gleaming grill.

You can add vinegar or dishwashing lotion to the water for additional cleaning power,

For a quick way to clean your barbecue grill, simply rub the grill in the sand. This will remove most of the grease, etc. All you then have to do is hose it down.

To avoid the base of your charcoal barbecue wearing through, pour an inch of sand over the bottom of the barbeque for the coals to sit on.

Gas taps can become stiff over winter, causing plastic controls to break. Remove the plastic knobs and spray the mechanisms with a lubricant like WD-40 to free them up. Apply a drop of sewing machine oil to each tap and then cover them with Vaseline to keep the oil in.

If one or more of your burners doesn't seem to generate a flame then it may be because a gas jet has become clogged.

If you lift the burner out of the barbecue you will see the small brass jets - these are like a small covered nut with a tiny hole through them. They can be simply removed with a small spanner. If you can't clear the blockage, buy new ones from a barbecue shop.

Reconnect the gas and check all the connections by coating them with a mix of 50/50 dishwasher liquid and water. If gas is leaking you will detect bubbles forming in the mixture. Try tightening the connections or replacing the seals.

Timber trolleys

 kept in good order by re-oiling them once a year. Give the trolley a light sanding then use outdoor furniture oil or a specially formulated barbecue trolley oil. This will not only soak through oil stains on the top of your trolley but help protect against new ones.

Volcanic BBQ rocks

Renew each year as they become clogged with grease and oil. Empty the old sand from the drip tray, clean the tray and give it a spray of vegetable oil before lining it with aluminium foil. Place new washed sand on top of the foil.