Tips on Properly Cleaning and Maintaining Your Built-in Gas Grills

Last Updated on October 29, 2021

You must make an effort to properly clean and maintain your built-in gas grill to reduce the risk of grease fires and flare ups. If you don’t scrub down your grill’s racks regularly, clumps of congealed fat, dried food, and hardened grease will build-up, encouraging the growth of potentially harmful microbes and molds. 

You may think that cleaning your gas grill will take lots of time and effort, but several scrubbing methods are easy and quick to implement. Take a look at 7 of the best and most actionable tips for properly cleaning and maintaining your high-quality gas grill unit. 

7 Useful Tips on Cleaning and Maintaining Your Built-in Gas Grill 

Here are some of the most valuable tips when it comes to cleaning and maintaining your built-in gas grill properly. 

Use a vinegar and water solution for a quick fix 

If you’re looking for a swift and cost-effective way to clean your gas grill after a cooking session, you can mix a couple of cups of vinegar with 2 cups of warm water to make a simple equal-parts cleaning solution. Pour this mixture into a cheap spray bottle and spray the liquid onto your grill’s rack, letting the grate soak for 20 to 30 minutes. 

After this time, pour a dash of undiluted vinegar on a cotton cloth or towel, and scour the metal grill with it for a few minutes. Most racks have a nonstick enamel coating, so you’ll find that you can wipe fat and congealed oil off the metal pretty easily. Remember to turn off your grill and wait until it’s completely cold before you begin this cleaning process. You don’t want to burn yourself accidentally when you scrub the grate. 

Add oil to your meat and veggies before cooking 

One of the simplest ways to make the grill cleaning process easier for yourself is to add a squirt of cooking oil to your vegetables or meat before cooking. 

This oil helps to flavor and moisten your corn, steak, or ribs during the grilling process. More importantly, it helps prevent any parts of the food from sticking to the racks and forming congealed, hard clumps of fat around these metal grates. This means you’ll find it relatively easy to wipe down the racks after use. 

If you want to add a touch of oil to your food before grilling, remember to use a refined option like vegetable, canola, corn, or sunflower oil. These fat types are resistant to high heats, and they allow you to caramelize your vegetables on the grill grates lightly. 

Use stainless polish for the grill’s external surfaces 

When it comes to cleaning the exterior of your built-in gas grill, you should use a polish that’s designed for removing blemishes and marks from stainless steel surfaces. These polishes effectively remove food, dust, and fingerprints from any smooth metallic material. Many of the best-quality stainless cleaners also coat the steel surface with a protective layer that helps prevent future corrosion or damage. 

You’ll also find that applying a stainless polish or cleaner to your gas grill’s exterior casing will create a glossy, aesthetically pleasing surface that glints and sparkles, elevating the overall look of your outdoor kitchen area or entertainment space.

Scrub the grates with a premium-grade wire brush 

Another effective way to clean your grill’s grates is to wash the metal down when the unit’s still hot. If you’ve finished cooking for the evening, switch the burners off, turn the gas tank knob to the closed position, then rinse a premium-grade wire brush in a diluted detergent mix and scrub the metal rack with this tool. 

When the water from your coarse brush comes into direct contact with the hot metal grates, it will vaporize and turn into steam. This rising steam helps remove smaller, lighter bits of food and congealed fat from the racks. If you don’t have detergent, you can clean the grates pretty effectively with undiluted water, a high-quality, heavy-duty brush, and plenty of elbow grease.

Clean the grates after each use

This might seem like an obvious tip, but many people don’t take the time to clean their gas grill racks after each cooking session. You should try to clean these grates every time you use them, even if it’s just a quick wipe down that removes any large clumps of fat or dried food from the enamel-coated surface. 

You can make this cleaning process very simple by investing in some grill-cleaning wipes. Every time you want to scrub the racks, wrap one of these wipes around your grill brush and use the brush to put more force into the scouring. It should only take you a few minutes to clean these grates effectively when you use this hack. 

Invest in an effective steam-powered brush 

People who don’t want to scrub their grill racks manually should invest in a high-quality steam-powered brush. These innovative brushes emit a constant supply of steam onto your grill through a special nozzle. This steam works to remove grease stains and grime marks, while the integrated brush at the head of the unit automatically scrubs the metal surface for you. 

When you buy one of these units, you won’t have to put in any effort to clean your grill ever again. Just make sure you keep the handle section of the brush topped up with water so that it can produce a constant jet of steam whenever you’re using it, and the tool will do the rest of the work for you. 

Deep clean your grill every 2 to 3 months

A lot of grill owners go to great lengths to avoid deep cleaning their built-in gas units, but it’s something everyone should try to do at least twice during the grilling season. If you let the food and congealed fat build up around the burners and on the underside of the grill racks for too long, you’ll increase the possibility of flare ups and grease fires. The longer you put off the deep clean, the more challenging it is to get rid of these clumps of dried, charred meat when you do get around to it. 

Turn off the gas tank and take the burners and grates out of the grill, using a pressure-sensitive material like painter’s tape to cover the gas openings while scrubbing the grill down. You should put the burners and grates in a warm, soapy solution and scour them with a cotton cloth or a metal mesh pad. If there’s lots of dried food on the grates, let them soak in a diluted vinegar mixture overnight before wiping them down. 

Clean Your Built-in Gas Grill Quickly and Seamlessly With These 7 Tips 

High-quality built-in gas grills can be quite an investment, so you must clean them effectively after every use. If you don’t, you may find that there’s a build-up of fat and dried food around the gas burners or under the racks. Unhygienic buildup can cause your food to taste off and lead to the growth of dangerous molds and bacteria around the unit. That’s why diligence is essential to safe and successful gas grilling.