Gas Grills – Safety and Maintenance

You may open your grill in the spring and fine remnants of the meal you cooked on it last season. Don’t worry. According to Howtocleananything.com, cleaning the grill is actually easier than most people realize, and you can usually forego the brushes, dirty sink and elbow grease if you start the day before you need the grill. However, use the following method only after checking with your owner’s manual. Some manufacturers warn against using oven cleaner on any part of their grill.
Lay a plastic bag on the ground, followed by a newspaper, then lay your grill on top of the newspaper. Spray liberally with an oven cleaner, and cover with another layer of moist newspaper. Follow this with another plastic bag and weigh down the edges so the mess doesn’t end up in your neighbor’s yard. Now instead of scrubbing and scouring, just let the oven cleaner do the work for you overnight. The next day, remove the grill and place all the saturated newspaper into one of the garbage bags. Wear gloves and follow all the manufacturers safety precautions when working with caustic cleaners, such as oven cleaner. Rinse the grill thoroughly, and then wash off any remaining oven cleaner residue with some soapy water. Rinse again, coat with a light brushing of vegetable oil, and you’re ready to go! 
It is a good plan to fire up your barbecue for 30 to 45 minutes on High temperature to sanitize everything before the first use of the season.

How do I season the cooking grids for the first time?

For a new grill, you need to burn off the protective oils that applied by the manufacturer by running the grill on high for about 30 minutes. After the grill cools, coat the grids with a vegetable oil spray and run for 30-45 minutes on high. This will draw the oil into the grids and prevent foods from sticking.

How do I clean the cooking grids?

As soon as the food removed from the grill, brush the grills with a grill brush for about 10 seconds. If you have porcelain-coated grills make sure you only use a brass bristle brush, never scraping the grill with the scraper that is usually attached to most brushes.

Then turn off the grill immediately. After the grill has cooled down spray vegetable oil, such as Pam, liberally on the grill (this should also be done before you light the grill each time as well). What this does is loosen whatever food  stuck to the grill, knocking it into the bottom of the grill where it will  incinerated the next time the grill is pre-heated.

Turning the grill on high for ten minutes will emulate a self-cleaning oven, but that is like using your grill twice. Of course you may forget you are burning off your grill, and it can easily be left on for 30 minutes or more. This puts your grill through the same stress as using it 3 or 4 times, meaning you will need to buy new parts, or even a new grill, sooner than you should have to.

If you feel you just must burn off your grill, once a month won’t really hurt anything, but religiously brushing for 10 seconds as soon as you’re done cooking and keeping the grills well oiled is all anyone should have to do.

To help make the grill easier to keep clean, don’t apply tomato based sauces until the last few minutes before the food removed from the grill. Marinade and baste the food with vinegar, citrus or soy-based mixtures to help make clean up easier.

How do I clean the burner?

You will from time to time have to clean the burner to keep the burner holes clean. The flame coming from the burner should blue, if the flame is orange or red you may need to replace or clean the burner. At this time you should also check the gas supply (venture) tubes  be sure that there are no obstructions. If you use your barbeques heavily you may want to spray a food safe organic cleaner or degreaser and let it sit for a while and hose the entire barbecue off. And for safety sake on your BBQ, you should only open the propane tank valve half a turn. It will work just as well and if there is ever an emergency, you can shut off the gas in an instant!

How do I clean the inside of my grill?

Remove the cooking grids. Using a soft brass wire brush, clean loose debris from casting sides and insides of the lid. Scrape sear plates with a putty knife or scraper, and use a wire brush to remove ash. Remove sear plates and brush debris from burners with a brass wire brush. Brush all debris from inside the grill into the drip pan. Accumulated grease can cause a fire hazard. Do not line the drip pan with aluminum foil, as it can prevent the grease from flowing properly. The pan scraped out with a putty knife or scraper, and all the debris  scraped into the disposable grease tray. This tray   replaced every two to four weeks, depending on gas grill usage. For supplies, see your dealer.