Grill Grate Bath

[Grill Billy]

Full disclosure: This hack was my crafty wife's idea.

We were unable to find anything large enough to fully submerge the grill grate for a good hot soak. (other than a garbage pail or giant tote, but that seemed like such a waste of water)

We made a 2 ft by 3 ft frame out of 2-inch PVC and velcroed a small bit of tarp to the tubing. The velcro is really just to hold the tarp in place while I fill it with hot soapy water. Without the velcro, the wind kept moving the tarp.

My grill was pretty crusty after today's cook of ribs and chicken thighs so it seemed like a good day to test this out.

Success! I let it soak in one-and-a-half pails of hot soapy water for only 10 minutes, gave it a very easy scrub with my grill brush and everything came off with very little effort.

When I was done, I dumped the water, rinsed off the tarp and tucked it away in the basement until next time.

 

[Linefinder]

That's going on my "trick list".

Thanks.

 

[Russells]

Very nice!

 

[Tim L.]

I have also heard of folks buying one of those small $4.99 pools at Wal-Mart.

 

[Grill Billy]

I have also heard of folks buying one of those small $4.99 pools at Wal-Mart.

Yeah, I considered that too, but I wanted it to be easy to store, and didn't want to use any more water than necessary to get the job done. The grate was actually fully submerged with one bucket of soapy water, but I added half a bucket more. (mainly to keep the water hotter a bit longer)

 

[SpartyBBQ]

Great idea. I like the way the grill grates grill/sear but not the mess left behind. Way more work to keep clean than traditional grilling surfaces as nothing really falls through and burns off as on traditional grill.

 

[Blip]

The benefit to the mess left on the grillgrates is I've not had any grease fires while searing at high temperatures. I've moved meat from the grillgrate to the regular grate and had almost instant flames when cooking at 500 degrees, which I do most often. I've found the left side of my IW650 more susceptible to flames than the right side. I've read complaints on this site of people not wanting to cook at high temperature but the grillgrates so far have alleviated that problem.

 

[Grill Billy]

The benefit to the mess left on the grillgrates is I've not had any grease fires while searing at high temperatures. I've moved meat from the grillgrate to the regular grate and had almost instant flames when cooking at 500 degrees, which I do most often. I've found the left side of my IW650 more susceptible to flames than the right side. I've read complaints on this site of people not wanting to cook at high temperature but the grillgrates so far have alleviated that problem.

GrillGrates look interesting, I just don't know a ton about them.

 

[davwhite]

GrillGrates look interesting, I just don't know a ton about them.

Once you try a reverse sear rib eye on the grill grates you will wonder why you didn't buy them earlier. I bought a temperature sensor to monitor my 'gates' temp and when they hit the right temp on goes the steak. I then cook to a temp.

 

[RemE]

I'm looking for suggestions. I made up this pan today and placed my lower and middle grates in, then sprayed Easy-Off Grill cleaner on them and let them sit for 40min. Next I filled the pan with hot water and dish soap and let them soak for 30min. Well, the middle grate just wiped clean for the most part, however, the bottom grate was carbon coated! These are heavy stainless grates, I used a putty knife and hours of scraping to get it clean.

What is the best way you have found to maintain these grates? Did I wait too long and let them go too far? I just know that this was a sucky job and I'd love to learn a better way!

 

[davwhite]

Once mine were seasoned all I do to clean them is to let them soak in hot water and a mild detergent fo about an hour. Then I just wipe off what is left. We are talking about GrillGates here aren't we?

 

[RemE]

Once mine were seasoned all I do to clean them is to let them soak in hot water and a mild detergent fo about an hour. Then I just wipe off what is left. We are talking about GrillGates here aren't we?

I was referring to my Timberline's stock stainless grates. What are GrillGrates?

Edit, just Googled them, interesting!

 

[Grill Billy]

In my experience, I'd say that stainless steel grates are more work to keep clean than porcelain coated grates. Yesterday, I decided to use my Vision Grills ceramic kamado for ribs, sausage and Texas Twinkies. The grill was pretty clean at the start, and pretty grimy afterwards. This morning, I soaked them in hot soapy water and took a grill stone and steel wool to them. This definitely took longer and was more work than cleaning my Pro 780 grates last weekend.

I think that Grill Stones are super useful for removing most of the gunk. Steel wool works better getting into tight places but tends to give me hand cramps. I'm not super fussy about the nooks and crannies anyway. I only use oven cleaner if I really need to.

I'd suggest the following:

1. Don't let the grate get ahead of you and get super nasty – that's just more work
2. Scrape the grill as best you can after a cook while the grill is still hot
3. For cleaning, let the grates soak fully submerged if possible in hot, soapy water
4. Invest in some Grill Stones and steel wool
5. I use rubber gloves as the Grill Stone removes my fingerprints and then Touch ID won't work on my iPad
6. Prior to cooking, I spray the grates with Grapeseed oil (it has a higher burn point)

I'm no expert, but this works reasonably well for me. Any way that you slice it, it is going to be some work, I just want the work to be as easy as possible. I tend to clean out the Traeger and Kamado after each cook. I only deep clean my gas grill in the spring, in mid-summer and again in the fall.

I'm curious about the cleaning tricks or techniques the rest of you use.

 

[traeger860]

I never heard of GrillGrates until reading this post either. Mine will be here Wednesday.

 

[Grill Billy]

When I began this thread, I was actually referring to cleaning the very large, standard Traeger grill grates. Somewhere along the way, things got shifted to "GrillGrates", which is something completely different. GrillGrates are a non-Traeger add-on grate, ideal for searing. A terrific product from what I understand.

All good though. We have a decent hack for cleaning the large, Traeger grill grates, and an introduction to the third-party product, "GrillGrates" for searing. It's a Two for one!