How to Clean Grill Grates...I Tested 10 Methods to Find the Best!

Recently I was cleaning the grill grates on my Weber Genesis gas grill. My goal was to find the lowest effort method for how to clean cooking grates on my bbq grill, however, that went out the window pretty quickly as I got obsessed with trying to find the best way to clean cooking grates on a grill...period.

What started out as soaking grill grates and brushing to clean the stainless steel grill grates, turned into power washing the bbq grates and even using a wire wheel to clean the grill grates. By the end, the grill grates were as clean as I could make them, but I'm not going to lie, it was a journey to get there. lol.

About half way through I realized you guys might be interested in what I ended up doing to clean my grill grates and make them as close to perfectly clean as when the grill was brand new and completely clean.

00:00 - Introduction on How to Clean Stainless Steel Grill Grates
00:39 - Clean Grill Grates without Harmful Chemicals or Excessive Scrubbing
01:41 - #1: Pre Soak your Gas Grill Grates in Dishwashing Detergents
03:20 - #2 - Clean you Grill Grates w/ Wire Brush (2 suggestions)
03:53 - #3 Use a Table Scraper to clean off Dirty Grill Grates
04:11 - #4 How to Clean Stainless Steel Grill Grates with a Wire Wheel
05:41 - #5 Cleaning Grill Grates w/ Simple Green
06:28 - #6 Why I Use Dawn Powerwash (homemade) on Grill Grates vs Simple Green
06:51 - #7 Soak Grill Grates in PBW Overnight
08:07 - #8 Clean your Grill Grates with a toothbrush?!?
08:33 - #9 Cleaning Gas Grill Grates with a Powerwasher!
08:53 - #10 Scrubbing Grill Grates w/ Bar Keeper’s Friend
09:25 - Perfectly Clean (but old) Gas Grill Grates
09:42 - Nice 304 Stainless Steel vs Cheap Stainless Steel
11:02 - The Best Method for Cleaning Stainless Steel Grill Grates (in my opinion)
12:35 - LOL

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#GrillCleaning

[BbqMikeG]

Everybody comes to the barbecue, but you're always alone when there's cleaning to be done. Right on Justin!

[FlagPole]

I have restored over 200 grills and I usually scrape, wash, wire wheel on a GRINDER! Then maybe sand with 120 if it is a high end grill. Great point that when buying grates take a magnet to them to make sure they are 304SS. Great video!

[BallisticBBQ]

Great video, Justin! Even my 304 griddle is developing permanent dark spots where most of the cooking occurs (I'm sure you noticed when you watched my last video, LOL). I've tried everything shy of power tools. I know it's clean, and that's all that really counts. Yeah, I've purchased "stainless" products that have rusted! Cheers, brother!

[Felipemcc]

Buddy, great job on your effort to clean the grill the best you could.
First, remember that corrosion eats everything (yes, including stainless steel).
There is one kind of corrosion that is called pit corrosion. This happens happens mostly when you have dirt concentrated.
My suggestion: just clean it everytime to use it. That's what I've been doing.
It's easier to clean and you will prevent from building up that cooked hard dirt that is a focal point to pit corrosion.

Cheers!

[mkfurr]

I have a Weber Smoker 18”. After cooking a Boston Butt, which was delicious, I thought omg look at the grates! I put them in my dishwasher and they were like brand new!

[rickyl]

Great video! The PBW works better with hot water up to boiling. I used it when I used to home brew. I still use it for tough stains on pots and pans and my grates.

[philliphumble]

Innovative, eclectic, & enjoyable excursion on an obsessive cleaning mission. Well done & creative opening!

[gnnadi]

Justin 😂, the caption got me dying before I watched it. Your videos are so easy to watch and very informative. More please, yes anything.

[truthmatters]

You're a funny man - a little OCD, but a funny man! And creative - never thought I'd see a BBQ feature in a YouTube drama: so much emotion. But useful content. Thanks for the effort in posting. Keep the flame alive :-) 👍👍🏆🏆

[patrickr]

Great video. Informing and entertaining! Thanks for spending time and effort with all the cleaning methods, some I've never thought of myself. Thanks for sharing!

[lexwaldez]

Loved the video and you showing the work involved and the results from the different methods. I have to say though, just sandblast the grates clean. Throw them on an old pallet, hit them with a sand/media-blaster and you have spotless grill grates in a couple minutes. The equipment isn't expensive. No nasty chemicals. No residue. No scrubbing or intense physical labor.

[Incubyss]

haha great video - even as a charcoal and stick burner guy myself, ain't nothing wrong with a gas or pellet grill. Sometimes I just want a quick cook without worry about fire management.

[Mhosborn]

I went thru almost the same process last year. And I brush my stainless steel (Weber) grates after every cook. (Although, not the back side...may start doing that). I soaked the grates, scraped the grates, scrubbed them with steel wool, and ended up using a wire brush attachment to my power drill just as you did. I did get them back to "sort of" silver...but nothing like they looked when new. And the flavorizer bars are even worse...no way those will scrub back to anything looking like stainless steel. The heat deflectors and drip tray were relatively easy to clean.

So my solution? I took the lazy man's way out and purchased replacement grates and flavorizer bars. 😄 Much faster than any other method!

[Tworescue]

I too have not been able to find a hands free way to clean my grills. However, I do swear by EZ Off oven cleaner. I can clean my entire Weber grill, bowl and lid and get the really clean. The chemicals do require the use of a mask, and gloves. Just spraying, letting it set for about 10 minutes rinsing off with a garden hose. I usually apply a 2nd coat of EZ Off and scrub with a heavy duty steel scour scrubber everywhere for a deep cleaning. I've thought of using the wire wheel on a drill but I was afraid to damage the stainless steel. Afterwards, I rinse everything and scrub with Dawn dish soap and green scour pads. I'd imagine adding a pressure washer to this method would work even better!

Thanks for the video! Let me know if you try my method!
👍🙂👍

[jamesdjbrown]

I have the same Weber, with the same upgraded stainless grates and I power wash the entire BBQ 2 x a year. Works the best and least amount of time and manual scrubbing.

[Starjumper]

Believe it, or not, sandpaper (coarse to start) works great as well, just manually intensive, but still a relatively cheap and simple option. I enjoyed the levity!

[phredbird]

Grate video, Justin (see what I did there?), and I hope you don't have to go through this after every cook!! I read a lot of comments (not all) but was surprised not to see this suggestion: Wrap your grates in HD aluminum foil, then heat the grill as high as it will go for 30min. All the crud will burn off and then you can easily brush the grates clean (or use the power washer)

Two other things:
1) Once your grates are clean, season them properly with a high-temp oil (like grapeseed). You should not have to spray the seasoned grates with oil before cooking, but if you think you must, give the food a light spray (instead of the grates) before throwing it on the grill

2) NEVER, NEVER, NEVER UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE apologize for the kind of grill you own--especially if you are taking the time to make videos about how to maintain your grills, or if you are one of the thousands of people who have watched your videos to learn something! Most of the grilling experts I follow, such as yourself, have multiple cookers: charcoal, propane, LP gas, pellets... the most important thing is that folks use them and enjoy them. Outdoor cooking is so much fun, and I refuse to be judged by someone who spent too much money on a grill, just to show it off and tell you how great it is!!

[dixter]

couple of things... get a set of Grillgrates... they are nice... also when you start the cook just before you put the meat on then take a square of paper towel and spray the square with tallo... then rub the grillgrate with the tallo, it will keep the meat from sticking and protect the grate.... after the cook while the grate is still warm then use the grillgrate brush to push the big chunks off of the grates.... if you do it right the grates will look and work like new

[kauerpc]

Nice video! Grates material is probably some series 400 stainless steel, which would explain the magnetism and pitting corrosion.
Another method of cleaning is using a power steamer. Still difficult to compete with the high pressure power washer, most of the cleaning is mechanical removal, anyway. Thanks for the content!

[waterguy]

I have an older CharmGlow....(1998) that has Stainless Steel grates...real SS, no magnetism...I did exactly what you did but 10 fold...I tried every thing to get the smallest areas spotless about 15 years ago, I decided to clean them again, after I thoroughly DE Greased them, I took them to a media blaster...that stoner kid had hours of fun concentrating on every single sq inch of those grates and they they look spotless till this day