How to Clean your Grill

Grill Cleaning 101

The delicious food you can create on your Louisiana Grill can be hard to resist, but don’t let that temptation distract you from an integral step. Before you fire it up, you’ve got to take care of business first and get the machine nice and clean.

We know, we know. Taking the time clean your grill doesn’t sound all that fun, but it’s necessary to get the best, most flavorful food. Trust us. You don’t want accumulated grease, rust, or debris to stand in the way of your dinner plans.

If you carve out some time for maintenance, the process won’t take as long as it would if you put off cleaning. Plus, we’ve got some tips and tricks to help you out.

The Basics

First, let’s run through the basics. These instructions can be applied to clean any type of grill, from pellet to kamado.

CLEAN YOUR GRATES

Before removing your grates from the grill, give them a hard scrub with your grill brush. After brushing the grates, take them off the grill and lay them on a towel or cardboard box that is placed on the ground. While wearing protective gloves, spray your grates with a cleaner/degreaser. Let it soak for about a minute, and then wipe and rinse with water. Be sure to scrub your grates with a mild detergent and water to remove the residual cleaner. Then rinse again and set aside to let your grates dry.

VACUUM ANY LOOSE DEBRIS

After you remove your grill grates and any heat deflector plates, it’s important to first use a wet/dry shop vac to remove any loose debris or ash before using cleaner or spraying it down with a hose. This can help prevent the dry debris from caking after being exposed to moisture.

CLEAN THE INTERIOR

Using a cleaner/degreaser, spray the entire interior surface of the grill and repeat the same steps used to clean your grates.

CLEAN THE EXTERIOR AND RINSE THOROUGHLY

Once again using a cleaner degreaser, spray the entire exterior surface of the grill including the hood and shelves, and let it soak in for about a minute. Then wipe it down, rinse with water, and dry with a towel.

CLEAN THE RUST OFF YOUR GRILL

If you have rust on your grill or on your grates, the Louisiana Grills Cleaner/Degreaser can help. After thoroughly spraying the affected area, let it sit and soak in for 20 to 30 minutes. You will need a Brillo pad or scrubber with a porous and rough texture to scrub away the rust that has built up. If you are cleaning rust off the grill hood, you might want to paint the affected area with high temperature paint after you have removed the rust, rinsed off the cleaner, and let it dry.

Pellet Grill Cleaning

Before cleaning your pellet grill, it is important to remove your pellets from the hopper and burn off any pellets that are left over in the auger. Wet pellets can cause an auger jam, so doing this step is crucial. Simply remove the pellets from your hopper, turn on the grill to 400°F and the remaining pellets should burn off in about 15 minutes. Shut down the grill and let it cool down before starting your clean. To aid in keeping up your cleanup efforts, the Louisiana Grills Grease Bucket is a must-have.

Post-Cleaning, Re-Season

This step is important because it will help protect your grates and heat shields from rust as well as prevent your food from sticking. After cleaning, rinsing, and drying your grill put the heat shields and grates back on the grill. Next you will want to perform a burn off. This is the same process as when you first received your grill. You will want to fire your grill up at 350°F and let it run for 15 to 20 minutes.

Then, with a tong or oven mitts, Place one of your grates on top of the other and brush or spray the exposed heat shield with a high temperature oil like canola or avocado oil. As the surface cools, it will seal the oil. Then put the grate back on the grill and stack the other grate on top of it so you can spray the other heat shields or end of the heat shield. Finally, with all grates on the grill in their proper place, spray or brush the oil onto the grates. Your grill should be ready to use after it cools down completely.