Cleaning routine / how often..

[james1787]

Over the summer, I followed the online tutorials here to clean up my grill and it turned out great. I followed it step by step with the razor blades, steel wool, shining things up, etc.

So.. for those of you that have cleaned them up to this extent..

How often do you clean it to keep it looking great? Do you do the thorough cleaning just once in a while? Or do you spray it down after each use to keep it looking good?

I'm thinking after the thorough detailed cleaning that periodic lighter cleanings keep it looking great?

Any products that are recommended for the routine cleaning?

Or.. do you just keep grilling until it gets nasty again and repeat the deep cleaning process as described here?

Just curious to hear what some other members do..

[Darko]

I clean it when I get it sometimes... I just throw a crapload of charcoal and burn it.  Seems silly to me to spend a shitload of time cleaning a grill, just to get it dirty again.

[Travis]

Honestly, after the initial cleanup when I've bought the kettle, I don't bother unless I get  drippings from whatever I've cooking like chicken or such that don't land in the foil.


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[HoosierKettle]

Never. Except for the red. I do periodic dusting with a microfiber cloth. My modern kettles never get a cleaning.


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[Jason]

Some of my cookers had previous owners, so they got completely detailed, before I started cooking on them. Ya never know what other people think is OK to cook in there... 

After that, I just keep ash and grease build-up in check. Exterior gets wiped down frequently, nothing extreme.   

[MikeRocksTheRed]

I'm with Darko.  The occasional hot load of coals over the entire coal grate does the trick.  If I am using my vortex I will put it out when I am done cooking then move the coals the area outside where the vortex was to burn up and grease from that cook.  That trick works pretty good.  Other than that I just wipe the outsides down when they get dusty, which is a lot out here in AZ.  I'll knock off any carbon build up that is peeling off of the lid from time to time.  Leave clean the kettle lip or lid edge since the build up there helps it seal better.

Of course I do a full cleaning on any grills I pick up when I first get them....not even grossed out but the mystery of what is in the grill, its just fun to clean up a used grill to see it look brand new again!

[iCARRY]

2 full chimneys lit up, dump, close lid, open all vents, let them do their magic. Then the next day run a wire brush over everything.

I might do things different if I had some special kettles, but all of mine are modern OTG and OTS that are all black. Easily replaceable at this time.


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[swamprb]

harbor freight weed burner is your friend

[WNC]

I do exactly what Jason does for the exact same reasons.
Love Mike's idea about spreading the coals after a vortex cook, cuz wings leave a lot of drippings, I'm gonna start doing that now


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[mrgoodbar67]

I don't clean the interior.  Just get all the ash out. And clean the cooking grate, burner tube and exterior of my performer.

Don't see a reason to "polish" the interior only to grease up again.

Besides if you use your grill, no reason to clean it


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[captjoe06]

My daily workhorse is in need of a deep cleaning. There's wayyy too much chicken grease  on the insides of the bowl.  The bowl has a decent amount of charcoal dust/grease built up throughout. I usually do one deep clean per year on everything and everything but the daily driver gets wiped down often to keep pollen and dust off


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[wrehfield]

I'm with catjoe06. Once a year in the summer with Easy Off and scraper and steel wool.

[Jon]

I run a razor scraper in chicken cookers probably once every couple months. The others just when they need it. It takes maybe two, three minutes to clean a kettle out of the zone of a grease fire waiting to happen. I wipe the outsides all the time.

[Cellar2ful]

I use my 3 cooker kettles 7 days a week. Once a month I wipe the outside of the lid down with Windex and paper towels. In the summer, I drag them out on the lawn and scrub them with SOS pads, then hose them down. The soap in SOS pads is biodegradable and it is much faster than scraping with a razor blade. Plus, no steel wool dust to inhale and much quicker than razor scraping. For older kettle restorations or if the deposits are really baked on then I  revert to to razor scraping. Inside of the lids usually have to be scraped.

[TD]

Guess I am the sick one. I take out the charcoal grate before cleaning and just set it aside (it usually stays burnt clean), and brush all the loose ash out. I dispose most of dry ash separately to keep from building up in the yard. Then I use a grill scrub with soap on the cook grate, flip it and scrub bottom side right on the kettle. I can rinse it off with a squirt bottle filled with warm water or remove it and spray off with the water hose. I then use the grill scrub with soap and the squirt bottle with water to clean and rinse every thing out the bottom of the bowl. E Z P Z takes about 5 minutes (one of the things that makes a kettle so cool for heavy use). No mess with the premium ash catcher (the pan catches every thing). For in between cooks I will use a grill brush on the cook grate and wipe with oil to keep rust down, and then just brush the ash out (small paint brush) after kettle has cooled.