We’ve been conditioned to think the proper way to clean a grill is to “burn” it off. Somehow, using a wire brush and turning the grill on high for an extended period of time is considered “cleaning” the grill.
Like anything you do for the first time it can feel unnatural and awkward. Until you develop habits and a routine, cleaning grills can be hard work.
Cleaning grills can certainly be hard work due to not having the proper knowledge to effectively clean them but the brand of grill can also add to the difficulty in the cleaning.
There are literally hundreds of grill brands on the market. Most of them I would not consider to be your ideal grill to clean due to their price point in the market – what I consider cheap throw-away grills. Some brands you may never see as they are found in certain geographic areas more than others.
You can imagine with the vast number of grills on the market that the likely hood of each one being different is pretty high.
In fact, each grill presents it’s own challenge in cleaning due to many factors:
Let’s explore each of these.
The material the grill is made from plays a huge roll in determining the difficulty level of the cleaning. Let’s face it, grills were made to do one thing and one thing only – heat up. Grill manufacturers never intended grills to be professionally cleaned so at no point “How will this be cleaned” come into the manufacturing equation.
Materials like stainless steel tend to be the easiest to clean. Most mid to high end grill manufacturers use stainless steel. It’s easier to work with and retains the heat efficiently. Stainless steel comes in “grades” that determine it’s quality level. The higher the number, the better quality of steel. The better the grade tends to make the cleaning easier – not always though!
When you visit other grill cleaning websites and view their before and after pics. You see a stainless steel grill that is really black and disgusting. Then you see the after shot and it looks amazing! The grill practically looks brand new. This has a lot to do with the grill being made from a high quality grade stainless steel and not necessarily because they had a super special system to clean the grill.
Higher grade stainless steel is less likely to rust or develop heat staining. In most cases, not all, grills made from higher grade stainless steel look like they are almost brand new again after being cleaned. Doesn’t mean they were easy to clean, they just tend to look amazing afterwards.
Lower grades of stainless steel can still come pretty clean but they tend to be a little more difficult to clean. They tend to show rust, brown heat stains and scratch easier.
If you’re not familiar with metals, you may look at aluminum and think it’s stainless steel. They are very different but can look the same to someone who is not familiar with the differences.
Aluminum is a soft metal, it’s easily formed into shapes and retains heat. It’s also much cheaper than stainless steel so grill manufacturers who are trying to sell at a lower price point will use aluminum over stainless steel.
Aluminum tends to be more difficult to clean compared to stainless steel. Because it’s softer it scratches very easy, it’s harder to clean and is easily stained by harsh chemicals. Aluminum is used on the underside of some grill lids like in a Weber. When you view before and after pics on websites you don’t see a lot of after pics of Weber grills showing what the underside of the lid looks like. If you do see some, the underside of the lid looks discolored or not very clean. This is because they use aluminum and it’s not easy to clean.
Some manufacturers like Weber will use cast aluminum for their fire box (where the burners are located). Some lower end manufacturers will use cast iron for their fire box.
When you see in a video or on tv someone pouring hot molten liquid into a hole to create a mould, that essentially is what cast aluminum or cast iron is. It’s hot molten metal poured into a mould to form the fire box. Manufacturers use this type of material because it’s super cheap and retains heat very good.
The problem for us cleaning them is all the imperfections in the mould, making the metal porous. It’s impossible to get down to bare metal sometimes. It scratches easily. Because the grill heats up hotter, the cast iron/aluminum will bake the grease and carbon to a point you can spend all day trying to get it off and never will.
If you price your cleaning service to target the mid to high grill market you will rarely come across a grill with a cast iron fire box. You will be priced to avoid most grills in that price point. However, Weber grills as mentioned, have a cast aluminum fire box. If you didn’t know, Weber is the #1 grill brand sold in the world…the WORLD! You will clean a lot of Weber grills, there’s simply no getting around it.
Why would the age of the grill play a factor in determining the difficulty of cleaning? The older the grill is, the more likely the grill has been neglected in some way. Burners can be deteriorating, carbon has been baked on for years, little to no cleaning over the years, heat burning in the metal and/ or rust in areas, igniters haven’t worked in years.
Some older grills are well cared for. When someone has an older grill they’ve had for years they appreciate it and take care of it. They understand it’s older and have realistic expectations of what a cleaning might look like.
On the flip side, older grills that have been handed down, had multiple owners or sold with a home can be a challenge because you never know how or if it was maintained. Has it been cleaned before? Who knows how many years of grease and carbon you’re trying to remove?
How would the cost of the grill play a factor in determining the difficulty of cleaning? The price point the grill manufactured at determines the type off material used, it’s construction and quality.
Grills manufactured at a lower price point tend to use painted exterior finishes that not only scratch easily but can stain or be removed using the wrong chemicals. Grills at a lower price point tend to be bolted together and have a lot of holes allowing for liquids to drip onto the ground, down the exterior of the grill and inside the cabinet interior causing you additional time for clean-up or possibly staining or damaging the deck/patio.
While, cleaning grills that are at a lower price point aren’t always difficult to clean, another challenge can come from the homeowner themselves. If you price your service at the mid to high end and decide to clean a grill at a lower price point or equal to your cleaning rate you might find the homeowner can be a little more particular.
Let’s say they paid $200 for their grill. They love their grill and would prefer to keep it out of the junkyard. They decide to pay you to clean it at $250 to $300. In their mind they just spent more than the grill is worth and will need to justify spending that amount. It comes down to that ‘ol saying “it better be made of gold for that amount”.
Not to say someone with a lower end grill is going to complain or nit-pick more than someone with a high end grill. When a customer questions the cost of the cleaning compared to the cost of the grill, they tend to build up a vision of what they expect the cleaning to look like in their mind. If the cleaning wasn’t quite to their expectations they will question the smallest areas that might not have come clean.
The mindset of someone who has a lower end grill is “It cost me $$ to buy the grill and they want $$ to clean it” while someone with a mid to high end grill will think “I invested $$ on the grill, they want $$ to clean my investment”
The customer’s grilling habits can play a roll in the cleaning.
You can clean two of the same grill, both are the same age and have been grilled on the same amount of times. Both will clean differently because of the customer’s grilling habits.
One of the biggest challenges cleaning a grill has to be the owner’s decision, or, lack thereof, to maintain their grill.
It is not uncommon to walk up to a grill and see it covered in grease, dirt and dust. You open the lid and it’s black-on-black inside. The space between the grates is filled and packed with so much grease and carbon you can barely see down to the burners. You even see a moth stuck in the grease! There is so much loose debris that it has built-up over the burners and the customer is wondering why he has cold spots or his igniters don’t work?
He knows he’s neglected the grill and doesn’t want to clean it himself. He looks at you and says “I love this grill! I use it every day.” Pats you on the back and gives you a nod of the head and a “good luck” as he walks back inside. He knows he left you with a heaping pile of crap to clean up. The wife will come out at some point, ask how you’re doing and say “He loves this grill, he tries to keep up on it but it’s hard to keep clean.” knowing it’s been neglected but trying to justify to you why it’s in such a disgusting shape.
I always say you can tell a lot about people by the way they maintain their grill.
Everyone has different opinions and views when it comes to the “cleanliness” of their grill. As mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, we have been conditioned to think using a wire brush that sits dangling from the the side shelf of our grill and “burning it off” is a sufficient way to clean the grill. Sometimes I find myself wanting to ask the customer “Do you really feed your family off this thing?”
