It’s Almost Summer – Let’s Power Wash Your Grill

The Joy Of Grilling

Barbecue grilling can be the source of great memories and – of course – great food. Friends, family, and food – that’s a winning combination! The whole process is a gratifying experience: from selecting the raw food to cook, prepping and spicing the ingredients, and firing up the grill – to the primal joy of roasting your own meal on an open flame, serving it to your guests, and enjoying the flavors yourself.

Now that modern conveniences mean we don’t need to cook on an open fire anymore, many of us still get great satisfaction from doing so on occasion. Whatever your chosen fuel – wood, charcoal briquettes, propane, or something a little more exotic – grilling our food has become a dining and entertainment focal point for many people. Yes, grilling is great – but there is a downside. You can not forget to power wash your grill.

Barbecue Grills: The Source Of Great Food

Backyard barbecue grills can give your food an unmistakable aroma and taste dimension. It doesn’t seem to matter what it is that you’re cooking, either. Meats? Oh, yeah: beef, pork, chicken, goat, or lamb. They’re all wonderful. Peppers, corn, onions, or potatoes… an almost endless list of vegetables can be grilled with that wonderful taste sensation.

Most of that flavor is created as drippings from the food being cooked lands on the burning fuel below. The drippings cook off on the hot coals (or cooking element), creating that dense barbecue smoke and the flavor that we all seem to enjoy. You’re going to love your dinner and, if you have people over, your guests will be clamoring to return for more. But it seems that everything you cook on the grill leaves a “little something” behind.

Barbecue Grills: The Backyard Grease And Gunk Magnet

It turns out that all those wonderful, dense clouds of BBQ smoke swirling around the chef – you know, the stuff that delivers all of that great flavor to the food – also contain tiny little bits of cooked food, fat, and grease splatter. Those carbon bits are what registers on your taste buds to deliver the sensational flavor that we call Barbecue. Well, some of those tiny particles of food also cling to all the interior surfaces of your grill. Every surface, from the cooking grates, of course, and the fuel below, but also the entire inside of the firebox, including the thermostat sensor and gas feeder tubes (on a gas grill).

It’s the same issue whether we’re talking about charcoal, gas, orwood-fired grills – except that gas grills have more interior partsthat will collect cooking residue. Over time, that built-up food residue will turn from a magical source of enhanced food flavor into something very different. Something more ominous.

Besides being rather unsightly, the crusty carbon buildup can be the source of bacteria that can transfer to your food. Left unchecked, the grill’s performance can even be impacted, with residue build-up limiting the grill’s ability to provide even cooking temperatures, as well as clogging the gas feeder tubes. These are all problems that can easily be avoided.

OK, I’m Convinced. Now, How Do I Clean My Grill?

When the day comes that you realize that your barbecue is like every other good thing in life: maintenance is required if you are to obtain the same desirable results. Once you come to that unavoidable conclusion, there are really only two methods available for cleaning your grill:

​Clean It Yourself

The Popular Mechanics website has a feature blog on this very subject “Power Wash Your Grill.” It is an extensive article detailing the six-, yes, six-, step process that they recommend for cleaning your backyard barbecue grill. The six step PM method for cleaning your own grill requires 786 words to detail it. The Popular Mechanics method seems to be complete and effective. But, the biggest single ingredient, after the steel scraper, wire-brush, portable vacuum, bottle-brush, 5-gallon bucket, heavy-duty sponges, a garden hose, and Dawn dish soap – is elbow grease. And time. The process is not an easy one if you undertake to perform it yourself, but it can be very effective.

Call All Clean Exteriors

If that doesn’t seem like the right answer for you, there is a much more simple solution. All Clean Exteriors has refined our own process for cleaning backyard barbecue grills, without using any corrosive cleansers or aggressive chemicals. Our fully-trained Power Wash Technicians will perform the task for you – without any elbow grease!

Now that you’ve realized the importance of keeping the barbecue grill in top grillin’ shape, there’s one more thing to remember to make your grilling a success, year after year and season after season.

Power Wash Your Grill: Keeping It Clean

Keeping your barbecue grill clean and ready to go is a simple process once the built-up gunk has been removed. There are two things to remember:

First, use a wire brush to scrape off the grilling grates either after each use, or just before cooking but after the grill has pre-heated. Softening up any residue by heating before brushing is a simple approach that, over time, will keep the surface particulates to a minimum.

Second, use a grill cover to protect it when you aren’t cooking. The primary enemy for your grill is the grease and gunk buildup we’ve discussed but, almost as important, is to minimize the moisture your grill is exposed to. Moisture leads to rust and rust leads to damaged equipment. The elements are very harsh, and a weather-resistant grill cover will extend the useful life of your grill for many years to come.

There’s still plenty of “runway” remaining in this summer along with many occasions to fire up that grill. Keeping it clean will keep it fun. Enjoy!

Make the Summer Fun Last!

Call Us at All Clean Exteriors now to schedule your New Jersey grill cleaning!