Hello,

I finally made my grill decision. I picked up a Weber Genesis Gold B. Price utimately became the deciding factor for me - a deal too good to pass up. Those stainless steel grates and flavoizer bars look so good when they are new -- but heat the grill up the first time and cook something and all the shine is gone. Granted I knew this -- it just difficult to see the "flashy" stainless become discolored. I am please with the performance thus far -- the sear marks from the grates even look good --

Anyway to my question - proper car of the stainless grates -- brush off the food when the grill is still warm just after cooking, or wait until I fire it up the next time - high heat for 10 minutes and then brush off? What to use to remove the residue -- a scrubber or a brass brush. Or does this even matter -- they are stainless and do what ever you want?

Also,

The weber heats up quickly and fast -- it does not take long for the temp gage to go beyone the 550 degress it shows on the temp gauge. But is seem that as I turn the heat down, the temp gage does not go down too much -- it still seems to be in the 500-550 range? Is this just a case of the grill not being broken in yet? I have cooked on it at least five times -- but these were not long grill times just burgers, pork chops, french toast, etc. I will say that the temp gauge works -- because when I open that hood the needle quickly moves down to a lesser temperature.
any thoughts?

thanks
Ed

I don't know what's best to clean the SS grates, but I wait until I fire it up the next time to use a brass brush on my porcelin coated grates. This is mostly because when things are done cooking, I have my hands full carrying and serving things.

As far as the temp not dropping when you turn the heat down, this simply means that this new outdoor oven you bought retains heat well. This is a good thing - and having the temp fall when you open the hood shows this as well.

-Benji.

E-Man,

Congratulations on getting your new grill. You really can't go wrong with a Weber. I too had the same feeling about the stainless steel on my grill the first time I used it. I hated to see all that pretty stainless steel loose it's luster and now have assumed that it is stainless so as you stated "...do what ever you want". I always wait till the next time is fired up to clean the grating.

oillogger

To clean the graets just hit them with a brass brush while you are pre-heating the next time you cook. You also want to keep an eye on you drip pan to make sure it does not get clogged...and change out that little grease catch pan as needed.

The rest is pretty much common sense. Clean up any big spills and dont let large food particles collect. SS will turn color when heat is applied, there is nothing you can do about that so just accept it. This is one of the reasons Weber was reluctant to manufacture a SS grill for so long. They will, however, weather the elements for a very long time.

I'd like to revive the discussion about cleaning stainless steel grates (and cleaning a grill in general).

I've been through a number of cheap grills in the past, and I've *really* been enjoying my new Jenn-Air / Nexgrill for the past few weeks and finally doing a bit more serious grilling than I ever did before. Now that I've actually finally learned to pre-heat the grill properly and wait for the meat to sear and release from the hot grill before I move it, I want to keep the whole thing working this nicely.

I've read in a couple of places that the key to a grill that actually continues to "release" food as it cooks is keeping the grill clean.

I've also read that most people seem to do little more (if any more) than use a brass brush or stainless steel brush to scrape the grill after cranking it up hot enough to toast whatever might be left on the grill. I can do this of course, but I've found that the brush tends to still leave a bunch of discolored streaks behind on the grill, and I'm wondering if allowing that to build up will compromise the grill.

The first few times I used the grill, I actually brought the grates into the kitchen after they cooled down and finished scrubbing them in the sink. I can see doing this occasionally, but it seems like overkill (especially considering how heavy and clumsy the thick SS grates are, and their tendency to scratch my porcelain sink!).

So - I want to find the right balance between keeping the grill clean enough to keeping performing like new, and not having to clean it so much & thoroughly that it becomes a major inconvenience.

This is pretty basic, I guess - but I'd love to hear from some others. What's your actual routine with your grill, and what does it take to keep it clean enough to continue cooking/releasing like new?

Of course you could always just say, "Last year's ashes, this year's flavor" then your grill cleaning will be very minimal at best. My approach is close to that since I do not desire to be a slave to my own grill. Right before cooking, I usually just brush brush them heavy duty stainless steel grates with a very stiff wire brush since almost nothing will hurt them. The grease tray gets emptied and wiped only when a fair amount of grease collects in it. I will also quickly wipe down some of the outside of the grill while heating it up just to freshen up it's appearance. About every 2 or 3 months I will Shelia Shine the grill to shine/clean it up a bit. You can go overboard with cleaning and maintenance if you enjoy that but never forget who bought who.

Jon, here are a couple tricks you can try. I agree with Oillogger as his approach is similar to what I do as well. I usually don't touch the ouside unless we are getting ready for a cookout and guests are coming over. As for the inside, you really don't want it totally free of grease, char, etc.. as this will add flavor to your foods. The last thing you want is some left over Simple Green flavorizing your food!! Anyway, I simple pull the grates, remove the tamers, burners and use the scraper on my brush to remove any heavy residue. I then just brush out the debris into the drip pan, remove, dump and give it a quick rinse. That's about it for the inside. I then brush off the tamers and replace everything.

As for the grates, here is a trick that is quite slick. (sorry for the rhyme ) Let the grill heat up as usual. When you hit around 500 or so go out with your brass bristle brush and a little container of water. Dip the brush in the water and brush away. Continue dipping and brushing until the entire surface is clean. You will be amazed how much crap comes off of the grates!!!! I do this before I grill every time and the grates look great. Periodically you can bring them out and use easy off or similar to get them looking close to new again. Personally, I've not done this yet in the 1yr + that I've been using my JA. Food releases as well as day one. Also remember to add a little cooking oil to the grates prior to adding the food, this also helps tremendously. I use the pam grilling spray and give the grates a good dose right before I add the meat. Be sure you don't let the flame back into the can or else BANG!!! Let me know how this works out for you.

Don

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I just tried the "heat the grill and use a wire brush dipped in water" technique. Worked just fine, as predicted - thanks! I made some teriyaki chicken kabobs for my wife and myself, and my kids and their friends opted for hotdogs, so it was a quick & easy night for all of us, and the cleanup took all of 10 minutes!

As long as it works this easily, I'll probably stick with the hot grill/wet brush technique with a more thorough cleaning once a month.

Thanks!

BTW - re: PAM - spraying anything near an open flame freaks me out a bit, so I've gotten into the habit of spraying Pam (actually, there's a generic brand of olive oil spray at a local store that's even cheaper than Pam and has a nice flavor) directly on the food before putting it on the grill. Works great, and there's less chance of becoming a charred jon-kabob that way!

Hey guys,
On the grill cleaning. I found this really neat thing at Lowes. It is a small white brick type of tool that will form to your grates after a few uses. I am not sure what the name of it is but its in the grilling section of Lowes. The only bad thing about it is when you first get it, it leaves a little residue (of the material) for the first few times, I brush it off, but after it gets broken in a few times it works great.
As I preheat the grill, a few swips and its clean... Preheat as usuall, shut down and spray with Pam.
BTW. You can't miss the tool it is a small 4" x 3" x 2" white brick. I am going to try the brush and dipping suggestion also, thats a good idea.

Hey gents,

I've got a New Braunfels combo smoker/grill that has stainless grates that, according to the manual, are "porcelain-ized". Found that typical brushes made of wire have sharp tips that score the metal, helping food to stick no matter how clean the grates seem. Found a different type of grill brush (wife found it actually, can't tell ya where, she doesn't remember) that works great, good scraping, no scoring. It looks like a capital letter "y" and the handle is the bottom of the "y". The two top "arms" have loops of stiff non-corrosive wire coiled through them - kinda like if you took a coiled spring and secured all the coils on one side of the spring to metal bar, and spiral the spring around the bar 360 degrees as you secure it. Its so different that I'm pretty sure I've completely confused anyone reading this with my pathetic description. The point is - sharp wire tips never touch the grate, so you are scraping using the rounded sides of the wire, rather than thousands of sharp spikes. Combine that tool, with the technique that you don't try to move the meat until the outer surface is cooked, and I rarely have sticking problems any more. I used to spend motions oiling the grates, oiling the food, I never bother with that any more.

If anybody has a burning curiousity, I'll get off my duff and post a photo of the thing. Hope it helps!

I'm assuming from your description these are a stainless core grate that has a porcelain coating on them. All of the JA models and many of the other mfg are now using solid SS for all their grates. I used one of those coiled "Y" brushes on my old grill that had porcelain grates. I agree it was "easier" on the metal but honestly, you'll be there for a week trying to clean off a large grill. It went right in the trash after one use. You have to do each rail individually as the "Y" fits around each rail. I understand the logic on using coiled soft wire on porcelain grates, however, for solid SS go with a brass bristle brush and water. I've had 0 issues with sticking and i've been using this method for over a year on my 61. We grill at least 3-4 nights a week year round and I've not suffered any ill effects from the brush.

Hi all hope everyone had a great 4th. How can i get rid of a surface scratch on the outside of my JA 5 burner grill? thanks

Call Nexgrill and utilize the lifetime warranty!!! ........... get a replacement panel for free

That would be great if they would replace the panels when they get scratched! Do you really think they will? (if anyone tries this, please report back here and let us know!).

Also - minor scratches can be fixed pretty well. I don't have the manual in front of me, but I believe the JA book discusses the use of super-fine abrasives to rub out scratches, although I imagine it would be nearly impossible to get a uniform finish to blend really well...

You can use an auto buffer with different grit levels (heavy, medium, fine, etc...) Similar to what you can do with a car finish. You could also try and wet sand it working from a 1000 grit up to a 6000 grit paper. Unfortunately, you may be creating more work for yourself but you will eventually get it looking like new.

One part Jenn-Air grill, plus One part pressure washer = Clean grill in about 20 minutes!
I pressure wash my grill about 4-5 times a year, depending on how much grease I accumulate, or if I have a big shindig where we cook alot on it.
I plop my grates, tamers and grease tray on the ground, and pressure wash the heck out of them, and then pressure wash the interior of the grill and hood.
The nice thing about the Jenn-Air is, not much in terms of loose wiring or delicate items that might get damaged by a pressure washer. I don't use any soap or solution, just plain old water, and it seems to do the trick.
Usually once in the spring/end of winter, I'll go and run the grill hot and clean the grates up nice with a brass brush & water...

This past 4th, the grill was 'iffy' in terms greasyness, so after a bunch of flareups in the afternoon, I unhooked it, took it to my cleaning spot, pressure washe dit clean, and had it hooked back up in about a half hour.

You still get dirty doing it, as all the crud blows back out at you, but it's much quicker and less labor overall.

-r

A note on stainless and scratches... Even good quality stainless steel can show rust, particularly on scratched areas. There is a process called passivation that eliminates this problem. The link here is what I've found on the internet. I work in the biotech industry and we have a lot of 316 stainless steel. All of our stainless is passivated when scratched. Usually it is buffed, electropolished or passivated. Anyhow, I think we usually use a citric acid. I am sure there is a way to do this at home as long as care is taken when working with strong acid.

I used Barkeepers friend to clean the outside of my grill and it looked great, but the next day I forgot to cover it and it got wet. Well the grill had rust colored haze on a lot of the surface. It cleaned up okay, but I suspect the grit in the barkeepers friend along with the rain produced the potential for rust. Anyhow, here is the link about stainless and passivation...

http://www.corrosion-doctors.org/MatSelect/passivation.htm

Frayed, that is great information, thanks for the link as it makes for some very interesting reading. Anyone else experience this issue??

The oxalic acid in Barkeeper's Friend is essentially there as a gentle, home-version of the stronger acids (such as nitric) that are generally used to clean up SS and promote oxidation for passivation. The goal is to remove contaminants such as carbon steel and iron that may be on the surface of the SS -- you'll note that Barkeeper's Friend and Zud (very similar) are widely used to remove rust stains from sinks & toilets when there's a high iron content in the water.

Barkeeper's Friend and Zud can do a really credible job cleaning up SS -- but you have to be carefully COMPLETELY rinse off all remaining residue. If you don't the cholorides that are left behind can actually cause rouging pretty quickly (as you experienced).

Between the oxalic acid and mild abrasives in Barkeeper's Friend, it's likely that you removed the old passive film layer -- then if there was *any* Barkeeper's left over (with a chloride residue), you're actually inviting new corrosion. I use Barkeeper's a lot in the kitchen (for stainless pots, pans, etc), and I've found that after the initial rinse-off, it's easiest to get the remaining residue off by re-washing the whole thing with a plain liquid detergent and then rinsing thoroughly. 100% clean, no residue, no subsequent rouging or corrosion.

From what I understand, if you remove the passive film and COMPLETELY clean SS, leaving it dry in a clean environment, it will spontaneously develop a new passivation layer very quickly as long as oxygen is present. The passive layer is a super thin film (mono-molecular I believe) of chromium-rich oxide (chromium is the main additive that makes stainless steel what it is). Acid treatment like citric acid (4 to 10 pct usually) or nitric (20 pct typically) promotes both cleaning and oxidation.

One of the other processes for passivation is "bright annealing" - the SS is heated to something like 1900 degrees (Don - you're almost there!). Organic contaminants pretty much vaporize, and if it's done in the right kind of "reducing" atmosphere, most metal oxides that are on the SS will be "reduced". The SS is then cooled down quickly -- again, as long as it's in an uncontaminated environment and oxygen is present, it will quickly develop a new passive film layer spontaneously.

Things to watch out for:
- leaving ANY residues behind after cleaning SS, even with Barkeeper's or Zud
- calcium and/or sodium chloride de-icers that may splash up on your grill in winter (from your patio, etc) - make sure you rinse these off quickly and well
- using iron-steel (non-SS) on your grill: while cast-iron retains heat nicely for things like a griddle, if it rubs on your SS, it can leave iron traces behind on the SS that can promote rouging & pitting. Keep this in mind with *anything* that comes in contact with your grill -- in general, non-SS can contaminate SS if you're not careful.

I believe that Barkeepers and other oxalic acid home products should be fine to use -- just make sure you rinse VERY thorougly, or use the liquid-soap second wash/rinse technique to make sure there's no residue left behind.

Thanks for all the info. I must not have rinsed it thoroughly. Do you think it will be okay if I clean it again and make sure I rinse it well enough? I wiped it off and it does look okay, but I can still see a bit of rouging. By the way, the comment about Jon being almost at 1900 is hilarious. At what temp will he start to melt the stainless, I wonder???

Thanks again,

Jim

WOW we have a scientists on our hands folks, thats great !!! That is a fantastic description of how SS oxidizes, thanks for that input. Yeah, I'm felling a bit soft right now there is a chance I could liquify!!!! LOL

I think Jon is the actual scientist here. You'd think that since I work in biotech and with a ton of stainless that I wouldn't have had rouging on my grill but at least I got even more info here.

While I'm here, how do you guys think aluminum will hold up outdoors. I'm pretty sure it doesn't rust and since it is used in engine blocks I assume it can take the heat. I bought a 3 foot piece of aluminum that will just about cover the big opening in the back of the grill. It won't totally cover it, but from what I can tell the hood will still open no problem. I plan on adding this over the weekend and doing a heat comparison. I'm sure it won't do a whole lot, but may keep some heat and smoke in.

Jim

I'm not really a scientist - I just play one on TV...

Actually I'm just a scientist wannabe -- it's in my background, but I've spent most of the last couple of decades on software. I just can't help dabbling in the fields of whatever clients I work for, so I tend to have a smattering of info on a few dozen fields (jack of all trades - hopefully master of at least one or two...).

Don't know what to think about the aluminum. My aluminum omelet pans have held up incredibly well over the last 15 years. But I've also seen gray/white aluminum oxide accumulate on parts left outdoors, and when that happens, you can get some nasty pitting. I don't know what the difference is - when it will work, and when it will corrode.

Something else to remember is the difference in the rate of expansion when SS and aluminum get hot respectively. Remember - those big outdoor thermometers that are made of coiled bi-metallic strips - they're made of two different metals with different coefficients of expansion - as the strip heats up, one side expands faster than the other, forcing the metal strip to bend. You DO NOT want this to happen to your grill (I'm assuming, of course!). My concern would be if you bolt a length of aluminum to a piece of stainless and then heat them both to 600 degrees -- one will certainly expand more than the other... I don't know how pronounced the effect will be. Maybe just a bit of tension, but if it's significant, it could warp the grill.

Well I think that well thought out analysis certainly qualifies you as a scientist. I hadn't thought at all about expansion. I will re-evaluate my plan. Perhaps I will attach it loosely with extra large bolt holes and smaller bolts so that there is room for expansion. I may lose a little more smoke, but it should work okay. At the very most I'll have to replace it with stainless.

Following in that vein, I did a bit more homework:

The thermal coefficient of expansion for 304 stainless steel is 0.0172 mm/m degrees C. So you'd calculate the actual expansion in mm as the [coefficient of expansion] x [initial length] x [temperature variation]. One example I found is a 304 stainless steel panel 2500 mm X 1300 mm at 20 degrees C. If it reaches 90 degrees C in sunlight, the long dimension will actually expand 3.01 mm, and the short dimension will expand 1.56 mm. These are significant amounts, and definitely call for design that allows for expansion, even if the design is all stainless steel.

Adding aluminum to the picture makes it more interesting -- turns out that aluminum's thermal coefficient of expansion is roughly double that of 304 stainless steel, so it will expand twice as much as the steel will when they're heated the same amount.

Back to your proposed solution: oversized mounting holes should do the trick I imagine. Just remember that the aluminum will expand more than the SS, and drill your holes accordingly. I guess whatever arrangement you use with nuts/bolts/washers will also have to hold the aluminum in place but allow it to expand and contract without pulling the steel along with it.

Fun stuff! I'm deep in the midst of some paperwork that is probably going to keep me occupied for the next week. After that, though, I really want to start trying some of these mods myself!

Your friend,
Mr. Science

Jon.............you have officially outdone yourself. .............scary thing is, I actually understand your analysis!!!

Yup, I am amazed. This is way more in depth than I ever would have gotten. You are Mr. Science. Maybe we could get you on Food TV with a new show...Grilling Science. It would be just right for summer. My newest thought is to simply attach it using silicone cauliking. I think that silicone can handle high temps, and should be flexible enough for the expansion. I would also be able to visually observe the expansion, perhaps seeing if the silicone comes off of one surface. I'm not really sure I'll do anything at this point but look at my nice piece of aluminum.

Jim

100% silicone is usually good for 400 deg F continuous operation. slightly higher temps short term. I haven't read all the posts on this topic but adhesion to the stainless steel might be an issue. Abrade the aluminum slightly for better adhesion. In the industry there are primers for aluminum and SS.
(I was employed by one of the major silicone producers before I took early out!)

Okay, I think I'm just gonna stick some reynolds wrap in the holes. I'm starting to get a brain cramp

LOL! I still think the aluminum idea could work just fine mechanically -- you'd just need to use holes large enough to allow it to expand relatively to the SS. On the other hand, if the aluminum was inexpensive, I think you'd probably be better off getting a piece of 304 SS fabricated to size -- no rust, no oxidation, same thermal expansion coefficient, etc...

So I have a new idea that I think will be the most versatile. I am going to put hooks on the back of the hood and drill fairly large holes in the aluminum. I will place this over the hole when I want to smoke, and remove when I grill. I know this will still allow smoke to escape, but it should reduce the escape significantly. Then, once the aluminum is past its usable life I can cut some stainless. I did a thorough cleaning last night and removed the rouging that I caused. After a thorough rinse I wiped it down with WD40 and it looks great. I also added the utensil hooks and cleaned up my cast iron skillet by basically burning cooking oil on it to the point where it has a hard black shell that won't come off. My wife woke up about 1 AM and wondered what the hell I was cooking and why

try soaking it in dish soap that is what I use and it seems to come off in the water mabe over night so you and the wife can sleep.

Oh No, I rather enjoy messing with the grill late at night. And my wife, oh well...

I learned a hard lesson today about cleaning grates prior to using my Jenn Air grill. I had grilled a few chicken thighs a couple of days ago. Didn't clean the grates or the pans underneath that cover the flame. I grilled with skin on. It was quite a mess. THe fat from the chicken seems to cause flare-ups. Today, I attempted to clean the grates with the grill celaning bar from Lowes. Not too impressed. I could still see dark areas on the grates on the side.

But, I went ahead and tried grilling anyway. The black smoke was eveywhere. The thighs had black residue on them. Threw them out. I suppose the lesson I learned is that I need to clean the entire grill (grates, pans under them and the space below the burners) prior to reuse. And I should stop grilling chicken with fat and skin on. I didn't realize grilling is this much work.

No - not as bleak as it seems! When I first got my Jenn-Air, although I had "grilled" for countless years in the past, I really never knew what I was doing before. Once I got the Jenn-Air, I got a bit more serious about the whole thing, spent some time here, read some of the excellent posts, and also read a couple of books about grilling. Still not an "Expert" by any means, but I've learned a bit that makes me embarassed to remember what I *used* to consider "grilling"...

Anyway - when I first got my Jenn-Air and grilled on it, I was dismayed to see my pretty grill getting all gunked up with grease, carbon, etc. Like a total beginner, I brought the grid into my kitchen and tried to scrub it in the sink. Naturally, when I chipped the porcelain in the sink, I started to realize that something here didn't make sense...(doh!).

Anyway - when you're done cooking, you can treat these grills much like a "self-cleaning oven", cranking them up all the way, keeping the top down, and roasting off all traces of meat, skin, fat, oil and grease. All that will be left will generally be carbon. I've gotten into the habit of running through this "burn off" cycle, and then, while the grill is still hot, I use a stainless steel or brass grill brush -- dipping it in a bowl of water frequently and scrubbing down the superheated grill with the dripping brush. There's a lot of steam and hissing...and the grill comes incredibly clean, still sitting where it should be -- in my Jenn-Air instead of in my kitchen sink!

A by product of this cleaning cycle is that there will be NO remaining oil, grease, meat or skin on your grill, or any part of the grill below it, such as the flame deflector, just a bit of carbon. The only other grease you may have to deal with will be in the drip pan, which you should check and clean periodically, however the grease in there will NOT have any effect on your cooking.

Like you, I had a fairly upsetting period shortly after my first use of the grill, thinking that I had just locked myself into a high-maintenance way of cooking that was going to be more trouble than it was worth. However, once I realized that post-cooking cleanup is really just a matter of a burn-off and a "steam scrub" with a long-handled stainless steel or brass brush (about a minute or less), it became a pleasure. I also periodically clean down the outside to remove any spatters or streaks, but that's quick and easy and more a matter of cosmetics than anything else.

Grilling - really excellent grilling - does NOT have to mean a load of work. In general, as you get used to handling the grill and the tools, you'll find that it's SO quick and easy, and far easier to clean up after than if you had cooked indoors. Sometimes it feels like cheating -- You create a big luscious meal with, perhaps, grilled shrimp soaked in a rosemary & garlic basting oil and dusted with searing flour, a perfect marinated steak, seared asparagus in garlic & olive oil, and maybe some zuchinni that you've grilled while drizzling in a fruit-teriyaki sauce; you transfer it all to a serving platter, crank the heat up to high on all burners, close the lid while you eat and come back a bit later to scrub it down for a minute with a wet wire brush...and you're done. Try THAT indoors.

Really -- it's that easy.

Your grill is there for you to enjoy. Search around and read a bit - both online and in books. You'll find that you don't have to suffer to enjoy your grill. It's an incredibly efficient, flexible and easy way to cook, and prep and cleanup need NOT be an ordeal.


Enjoy!

- Jon

Jon,

Excellent reply! I would only add, putting a light coat of high temperature vegetable oil on the grates prior to cooking, will reduce or eliminate sticking.

In started brushing on a little canola oil but found it a little messy and one more thing to clean up. I then tied the spray on grilling oil and found it to be too wasteful and messy. I now use Grate Chef "Disposable Grill Wipes". I have found them at Lowes, Home Depot, and the local grocery store.

These are like small thick hand-i-wipes you wipe across the hot grates with your grill brush. They put a nice thin coat of high temperature vegetable oil on the grates. Doing this really cuts down on any food sticking. By putting them in a ziplock bag I have found I can use one wipe several times. I highly recommend them.

Max

Max - great - I hadn't seen those - sounds like a great idea. I have to head over to Lowe's anyway in the next day or so to pick up materials for various repairs and touch up on the exterior of the house now that it's suddenly Spring. Will definitely pick up some grill wipes to try. Thanks for the tip!

Max, thanks for posting that, I too will be giving them a try. Jon, great to hear from you, how's the grill working out!!

Hey Don - good to see you here as well! I've been away from the forum for a bit. Just was running WAY low on discretionary time, and what little I had was being eaten up on another forum (HowardForums) as I was obsessing over cellphones, firmware, etc -- almost the same kind of obsessive fun as grills, except that you can't make yummy food on your phone.

I only used the grill a few times over the winter, but now that it's spring in a big way (in NJ), I've just about got our property back up to snuff, and I'm about to attack the grill. It's in great shape, of course -- but I'd like to give it an inaugural cleaning for start of Spring. Then it will be back to grilling in a big way.

Looking forward to visiting back here, following up on some of the mods you shared with us last year, and improving my grill chops (skills, that is, not thick cuts of meat hacked by a cleaver!)...

I'll be seeing you guys around here again soon...take care - Jon

wow....I was googling grill cleanup on the web and bumped into this site...and I have to say....this website and in particular this thread really put this "grill virgin" at ease...I am about to invest in a SS Grill and was worried about the cleanup...and I was actually going to bail on the grill due to the thought of removing the grates and scrubbing...

THANK YOU for this site and the thread...thanks everyone!!!!

Hi OCGrill and welcome to this great forum.

I've only been a member a few months and am still amazed at all the knowledgable and helpful people here. It's because of this forum that I bought my Jenn Air 75K grill. It's also because of them, I've learned so much more about both my grill and about grilling and BBQing in general. Let us know what grill you end up with and what you're cooking on it.

Bill B

I'm still having a blast with my Jenn Air...and the SS grates continue to clean up perfectly using the wetted-down wire brush technique. The blast of steam when the wet brush hits the grid seems to really help getting the gunk off the grid as the wire brush loosens it. Come up nice and clean. In general, I'm really pleased with the grill. First time I've owned one that didn't start to disintegrate after one winter!

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