Keeping Your Grill Clean

     Grilling season is upon us. Who doesn’t love charcoal smoke, standing on the patio grilling a burger in the sun, beer in hand? Even if you prefer propane, the rest of that sentence sounds pretty great right about now, doesn’t it? The worst thing about grilling season is the beginning, but cleaning up your grill after a long harsh winter doesn’t have to be the hardest thing you accomplish this week! Here’s a few tips and tricks to get that grill ready for your summer grill life!
    Gunk is a problem. If you’re inspecting your grill and it’s got black flakes on the underside of your hood, that’s not chipped paint; it’s burned-on residue. This presents a fire risk! The grates, burners, and inside surfaces should be thoroughly roughed up with a non-scratch sponge or nylon cleaning tool! If your grill is uncoated, you can use wire brushes, but make sure before using anything with a harsh surface! Scratching a treated surface can introduce rust. After you’ve removed any chunks, wash all your surfaces with soap and water, rinse, and dry. If your grates are rusty or chipping, you should consider replacing them, but if it’s minimal and they’re uncoated, you can use an SOS pad or steel wool to remove the rust. If your grill has cast-iron or metal accessories, you should season them similarly to a cast-iron pan to add a layer of oil between your food and the grates and to prevent future rust!
    Inspecting your tank is one of the most important first steps to take with your grill. It needs to be cleaned up, but it also needs to heat up! Running a leak test will help you know if you need to replace any parts on the grill. By coating the regulator, valves, hoses, and other items in soapy water, you can determine whether bubbles form which indicates leaking gas! Run this test a couple of times for good measure, make sure everything is tight before you go replace items with suspected holes.
    Check everything out for bugs. Some grills don’t come with guards to protect them from insects or spiders. Small insects often climb into your grill through the venturi tubes, which supplies gas to the burners. Once you’ve ensured there’s no bugs to cook up with dinner, make sure that you fire up the grill and see that it’s heating evenly. Even heat means your food is not only cooked properly, but tastes best! Any burners clogged by debris can be cleaned out with something as simple as a paperclip. Follow up this step with the white-bread test. One of the easiest ways to test how even your grill is heating is to throw a loaf of white bread on the grates and cook them on high for a few minutes. Each piece face down, flat across the grill to identify which parts of the grill toast the bread fastest. This will give you an idea of where in your grill is hottest, for items you need cooked in direct heat, and which areas are cooler for things that don’t need to cook as quickly.
    These are just a couple of our simple go-to steps to take for your grill. We take grilling very seriously here at Tony’s Plumbing & Heating. While we can’t necessarily fix your grill for you, be sure to know that when we’re out, we’ll be making mental notes of what kind of grill person you are. 😊

We hope we’re impressed with your grill skills as much as we are with our own! Call Tony’s for any of your plumbing needs!

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