How to Clean Your Charcoal Grill

Personal Advice from a Grilling Fanatic

Yea, yea, I know all about the new fangled propane grills, and the electric type too. But if you're like me, you favor using a good old-fashioned charcoal grill when you cook up barbecues at home. When my family and I get together at my parents' house for summertime cook outs- and there are a lot of us to feed, trust me- we always use three or four charcoal grills. What can we say? We just like the taste that a charcoal grill gives to our barbecued chicken, hamburger patties, steaks, and hot dogs.

I've used the same Weber charcoal grill for several years now. There are secrets to keeping it in good shape. Plus, by keeping it clean and in good shape, the flavor of the food I barbecue on it tastes as delicious as ever.

The first thing I do after I use my grill, (and it has cooled down enough so the grate is just warm), is to remove both the top and bottom grates. Since I clean the grates after each and every use, they don't get an accumulation of grease and goop on them. Therefore, cleaning them is a breeze.

If you run a metal brush over the top grate to remove the worst of the burnt on food, you can then use a soap-filled steel wool pad to finish the job. If the steel wool pad doesn't cut the grease and grime, put a few drops of Dawn™ Dishwashing Detergent on the pad and scrub the grill again. Rinse the entire grate, (a garden hose works great), with plenty of clean water to remove the soap, food particles, and dissolved grease. Those soapy pads might smell good, but you sure don't want that smell clinging to your next batch of grilled meat.

The bottom grate, which holds the charcoal briquettes, can be cleaned in the same manner. They don't normally get a lot of food and grease on them. So, they're easier yet to keep clean.

Next, I clean the inside and the outside of the lid on my charcoal grill. The inside of the lid tends to get greasy and black like the top grate. The outside basically gets dirty from smoke. Again, you can use a soap-filled steel wool pad to clean the outside. However, don't scrub too hard or you'll scratch the paint. I sometimes use a nylon scratcher in place of the steel wool if the lid isn't too dirty.