How To Clean Your Grill

There is nothing like grilling out on a beautiful Saturday night in the Lowcountry with family and friends. The smell and sound of sizzling burgers combined with good company (and an ice-cold beer) is unbeatable. When you have a grill that can perfectly cook your steak to just the right tenderness and char your burgers just the way you like them, summer cookouts are a dream. So how do you keep your grill working like new?

There is nothing more frustrating than a grill that heats unreliably and cooks unevenly. Well, one simple way to improve your grill’s performance is to establish a regular cleaning schedule. Fortunately, cleaning your grill is a simple process. If you have soap and a brush, you are well on your way to making your grill shine like new. It’s that easy!

Regular maintenance

good shape. Although it may seem like a hassle, regularly doing these easy cleaning steps will extend the life of your grill significantly and make deep cleaning easier. A good grill is worth the extra attention. 

The first step in the regular maintenance of your grill is giving the grates a good scrub down with a long-handled wire brush. You should clean your grill when it is still warm, but not hot enough to burn you. The heat makes it easier to remove caked-on food. Be sure to inspect the grates after cleaning because wire brushes occasionally shed a few of their bristles during use. If you don’t have a wire brush, you can use a balled-up piece of aluminum foil on the end of a grill fork to scrape off residue. An easy way to simplify future maintenance is to wipe the grill grate down with vegetable oil after cleaning. The oil makes it harder for gunk to stick to the grate and will make scraping down your grill after your next cooking job easier. 

If you’re using a gas grill, like the Bull Angus, you’ll need to empty out the grease tray after every use. The easy access grease trap on this grill makes removal simple and fast. To make clean-up even easier and to lower the risk of grease fires, you can use removable grease tray liners.

For charcoal grill like the Bison Premium Grill, be sure to remove leftover ash from the charcoal bed. Charcoal buildup will eventually block the grill vents and make temperature control more difficult. 

These easy maintenance steps take less than 15 minutes and will save you both time and money by keeping your grill in good working order. Periodically, you will need to give your grill a full cleaning, which we will cover in the next section. 

Deep Cleaning

For best results, heat up the grill before cleaning to loosen any caked-on debris. If you have a gas grill, remove the propane tank after heating and place a bucket under the cook box to catch any water or debris that may fall through during cleaning. Once the grill is cool enough to touch, scrub the grate down with a wire brush soaked in soapy water.

Mild dish soap will help dissolve grease without being too harsh on your grill surface. For better penetration of grease deposits, use a specially formulated grill cleaner like Bull’s Grill Grate Cleaner. The solution is designed specially by the manufacturer for cleaning both the interior and exterior of your grill and will make scrubbing off excess grease that much easier.

Once the grill grates are clean, remove them to access the rest of the grill parts. If you have a gas grill, remove the heat deflectors and burners, and clean them using a wire brush with soapy water. Run water through the burner tubes to make sure the burner ports are not blocked by any debris. Blocked burner ports will cause uneven cooking in the future. If you have a charcoal grill, be sure to remove any excess ash before cleaning the charcoal bed and other internal components. 

Now that you’ve cleared out the grill box, you’re ready to clean the interior. Scrub the inside surfaces of the grill with a brush and your cleaning solution of choice to remove caked on grease. Rinse out the debris with water. Reinstall the interior grill components after drying them with a towel. 

Clean the exterior of your grill with a mild cleaning solution recommended by the manufacturer and a microfiber cloth. The outside of your grill is a finished surface, so it’s important to follow manufacturer guidelines to avoid damaging it. Use a cover to protect your grill from the elements and preserve its shiny new look. 

Keeping your grill in good condition is surprisingly easy. With just a little extra time and effort, you can make your grill last longer, cook better, and look nicer. You don’t need to be an expert and you don’t need to buy a bunch of expensive cleaning equipment.

If your grill is high quality, like our lineup of Bull grills, a minimal amount of maintenance will keep your grill in top-notch shape for all your future cookouts in the Lowcountry.