Had a situation yesterday evening at my wife's parents for Memorial Day. I get there and expect to just be drinking a Yuengling or four and watching my kids play and give the obligatory "anything I can help with?", my FIL turns on his one year old Weber Spirit II to HIGH and proceeds to load up the COLD grates with burgers and walks away and says "go for it".

Well, it turns out he hadn't cleaned the grill out in over a year and it was full of grease buildup and the cold start rendered out all the grease from the burgers on top of that and before long I had a raging grease fire. At one point I started looking for a fire extinguisher, that's how intense and large it was. I managed to get the burgers and hot dogs off before they got completely incinerated and to top it off the FIL acts annoyed with ME like I messed up! I told him he needs to be taking grates and flavorizer bars out and scraping that thing out periodically and emptying his grease tray, which was on fire too. "But I just bought it last year!" he keeps going on.

So: clean your grills! All that buildup of grease and carbon is just a fire waiting to happen like what happened to me.

quote:

and give the obligatory "anything I can help with?"

Never, ever volunteer LOL.....

... Your FIL sounds like a grilling idiot.


And while we're on the topic of cleaning grills, ditch your wire brush. They deteriorate after a few years and start shedding sharp metal bristles on your grill that get in your food, which lead to serious medical problems like punctured intestines and sepsis.

Instead, use either a metal scraper, or one of the stone/ceramic ones.

I like this style: https://www.amazon.com/CharGon...Grills/dp/B00UI1X0L2

A quick swipe on each grate slat before a grilling session and you're good to go.

Is it possible the burgers where a bit fatty?

When I smoke on my BGE, I put some foil down on the plate setter to collect drippings. Makes it easy to clean up so I have zero grease buildup.
But when I do burgers of a certain grade (do they make burger that's 20%+ fat ?) that are premade, cooking directly over coals, I need my long handle spatula or my arm hair is gone. Juicy.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:


And while we're on the topic of cleaning grills, ditch your wire brush. They deteriorate after a few years

I use the high quality official Weber triangle shaped brushes and have never had an issue and I only keep them for one year or less:





I'd never use a cheapy grill brush, that is asking for trouble

quote:

Originally posted by dsiets:
(do they make burger that's 20%+ fat ?)

Yes. You can commonly get ground beef in several different ratios, with the higher the fat content the cheaper it is (generally):

93% beef/7% fat
90/10
85/15
80/20
73/27

73/27 is the highest fat content I've normally seen on ground beef or premade burger patties in a grocery store, but there might be some even fattier hamburger meat available out there.

I have a pretty nice brush but it's shed a few bristles so I only use the scraper.
I also have a mesh one but I think those can start to break apart too.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
73/27 is the highest fat content I've normally seen on ground beef or premade burger patties in a grocery store, but there might be some even fattier hamburger meat available out there.

That could be what I've been buying in large "puck" form, already seasoned, at the meat counter. I really have to flatten them beforehand and they come back nicely.

Rule #1


I just recently cleaned my Genesis and changed the
rusted out flavorizer bars with stainless ones. Must have been five pounds of grease and crap in there

I clean the grates and grill while they're still warm at the end of each use with a wet scouring type sponge and then before each use I stick a lemon on a grilling fork and go over the grill and the grates before each use. Works perfect and keeps everything sanitary and non-stick too!

Yeah...

I had one of those fires from shitty cheap boxed burgers once. Was one of the old school grills with the cast aluminum bottom section.

Still have the scars from reaching under it to turn it off when a quantity of molten shit from inside the grill landed on the back of my hand.

I'll add that for a gas grill you should periodically clean up the burners. I was having an issue with really low flames (even with a full tank). I pulled out every part of the burner that was easily removed, threw all the parts in the dishwasher, ran it on heavy duty, and now I'm good to go. I know you can buy new burner parts, but cleaning it was way cheaper and will get me another few years of use.

Meanwhile, I went to grill steaks on mine on Sunday & the floor had rusted out

Couple strips of heavy foil got us through, but now I get to grill shop.
Should've followed the buy once, cry once mantra when I got this one. But, I liked that it has a flat griddle on the side, instead of a stovetop burner.

Prepped my Napolean inside & out before the weekend - took a wire wheel to all the grates - a lil oil rubdown - the sear was wonderful!

My wife hates anything that remotely tastes like smoke, so I quite grilling. Problem solved!

Seriously, though, good on you for recovering a touch-and-go situation like that. Grease fires are no joke. Houses and kitchens catch fire all the time, and a good percentage of that is just accumulated greases that finally manages to burn. Work in a kitchen long enough and you'll hopefully have had to do the monthly deep cleaning a place should be doing to see it with your own eyes how fast and how much of it accumulates, or you worked in a place that didn't and you saw how fast that stuff touches off. I've got plenty of experience with the former and enough of the latter. It really is no joke.

While we're at it, take a good look at the hood over your stove. If you don't clean it at least yearly, you might be amazed and horrified at what's going on up there.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
Yeah...

I had one of those fires from shitty cheap boxed burgers once. Was one of the old school grills with the cast aluminum bottom section.

Still have the scars from reaching under it to turn it off when a quantity of molten shit from inside the grill landed on the back of my hand.

Which brings up another safety tip I witnessed.
On the gassers, you only have to open the propane tank w/ half a turn or so.
My friend's grill had the fire go to the supply line and it was quite hot underneath by then but he had to keep cranking to close it.
1/2 to one turn is all it takes to open and/or then close it if things go bad.

So what’s the best way to clean your grill?

My friend said “I always have a fire”. I asked when did you last clean it? He said never.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
So what’s the best way to clean your grill?

I remove my grates and the heat tents/flavorizer bars and use a 1 inch metal paint scraper to scrape all the carbon and grease buildup down into the hole in the bottom. A small amount of grease will burn off, but a large amount will catch on fire, you don’t really have to go crazy scrubbing, but if you want to use Simple Green, or just dish soap and a hose once a season too.

I also take a wire brush and brush my burner tubes really well.

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
So what’s the best way to clean your grill?

Trick your son in law into grilling on it