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Surgeons urge people to throw out bristle BBQ brushes (2016)
- lightedman 9y agoSilicone bristle BBQ basting brush from Williams-Sonoma has been the best thing ever for my grill and oven. Dishwasher safe, cleans easily, no cracks or small spots for pathogens to get easy shelter.
- discreditable 9y ago(2016)
- sctb 9y agoUpdated, thanks!
- adamnemecek 9y agoStop eating meat while at it.
- mieseratte 9y agoStop procreating while at it. /s
- taneq 9y agoI threw mine out after using it once, and seeing that the BBQ had quite a few bristles stuck on it. I can't believe people actually use those things, it seems horribly unsafe.
- orblivion 9y agoNo doubt. This advice seemed a long time coming.
- mr-roboto 9y agoSo what are some alternatives?
- matwood 9y ago1/2 an onion, potato, or lemon works. You can also take some tinfoil and wrap it around the end of your grill tongs to scrape the grates.
- bspn 9y agoI love using onion as I've found that it (subtly) helps season the food cooked on the grill.
- jlebrech 9y agoclearly the alternative is a startup for self cleaning grills.
- contingencies 9y agoWe have found at http://8-food.com/ http://8-food.com/ that sanitation systems are basically the core tech in robotic food prep.
- raverbashing 9y agoiCLaner (sic), bluetooth grill and scraper that lets you know when to clean, only 19.99 per month
- jlebrech 9y agoi'm not sure how it would need bluetooth, just a decent mechanical setup would work.
- pcunite 9y agocopper sponge
- germinalphrase 9y ago
- purple-again 9y agoWow what a nightmare, in the article that poor women couldn’t even get it taken out after dozens of x rays and attempted surgeries. I saw from another comment this is from 2016 but somehow I missed it and appreciate the link. Throwing mine out right now.
- cf498 9y agoI had the same problem. This is from 2016 and the issue was likely known a lot earlier, yet I never heard of it and most people I know with a bbq clean it that way. Which in itself references a huge problem. How do you combat conventional wisdom and traditions?
- pcunite 9y agoThese products need to be pulled from stores. Use a copper sponge with soap and water. Cleans the grill up great.
- grandpoobah 9y agoYeah soap isn't really an option if you have a real barbeque with a well seasoned cast iron grill.
- lr4444lr 9y agoI've read that's a common myth, that a little soapy water for a few minutes is going to do nothing to a polymerized fat coating that was seared into the pitted surface of cast iron under high heat, but even if you were concerned about it, a brief re-seasoning afterward would be more than enough to restore any stripping.
- KozmoNau7 9y agoThe whole "don't use soap on cast iron" thing is completely overblown, and comes from the old days of strong lye soap. It's perfectly ok to use modern soap on cast iron. If that washes off the seasoning, it didn't deserve to be on there anyway.
- dragonwriter 9y agoSo, use steel chainmail just like for a cast-iron pan.
- uptown 9y agoI'm not sure if it was exactly the same type of brush, but a number of years ago I found a wire from a grill brush in my mouth after taking a bit at an Outback Steakhouse. The restaurant was profusely apologetic and comped our meal without our asking them. I feel very fortunate to have felt it before I swallowed in light of this, and other articles I've read, since that meal, but unfortunately there's no way to control whether restaurants change the tools they use in-light of these warnings.
- maxerickson 9y ago"No way" short of sensible government regulation. Too bad regulation is bad for business or we could all enjoy our food without fear of wire bristles.
- hueving 9y agoBanning bristles is unnecessary as long as they are used correctly, which is only before further cleaning.
- maxerickson 9y agoThat's fine, my objection is to the framing of it being impossible to tell businesses that are already heavily regulated how they are to clean their grills.
- ams6110 9y agoI've worked in restaurants and we always used stiff plastic brushes and abrasive pads for cleaning the grills. Restaurant-grade grill cleaner (basically industrial-strength oven cleaner) is pretty effective. You don't need to do a lot of heavy scrubbing if you use it properly.
- davvolun 9y agoAs long as they are used correctly, which apparently they are not.
- culot 9y ago
- lr4444lr 9y agoSteel wool is safer, no doubt, but this shouldn't really be anything more than a freak occurrence if you clean a grill properly. The wire brush is just the first step to remove the coarse stuff. Soap, water, and some kind of fine abrasive pad or scrubbing cleaner should remove these barbs. I guess at some restaurants, they're more concerned about speed and don't take the care...
- tonypace 9y agoBut people use them to remove firey fat while grilling. I've done that. Obviously, bad idea.
- wyattpeak 9y agoI'd say products that are only safe if used properly are unsafe products. Being safe is a perfectly good strategy for an individual, but it's asking for trouble on a societal level.
- striking 9y agoSo do you think Home Depot should close down? They sell hammers.
- perfmode 9y agoYou’re attacking a straw man.
- umanwizard 9y agoHe’s doing “reductiō ad absurdum”, which is not the same thing.
- hnuser1234 9y agoI wonder if he was making the opposite point. That enforcing safety at a society level is not productive.
- nvusuvu 9y agoOnce, I got a bristle in a waffle cone from an ice cream parlor. Fortunately, I noticed it in my mouth before I swallowed. The parlor used a steel brush to scrub the griddles clean. Their policy is to bake a waffle cone after cleaning and immediately throw it away to catch stray bristles. One employee didn't follow the policy.
- giarc 9y agoThat's a terrible policy and doesn't get at the root cause of the problem.
- snissn 9y agoYes they should bake and throw away two waffles to be extra sure that they get all of the bristles
- davidsawyer 9y ago"Just another put another if statement in there, you know, just in case." -Anonymous
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- emaginniss 9y agoTest is failing... increase timeout
- cornholio 9y agoExcelent suggestion for process improvement, please submit a full TPS report by tomorrow EOB.
- fjsolwmv 9y agoYou should have sued the restaurant to force them to stop impaling their customers.
- josefresco 9y ago"Hospitals in the Halifax area are seeing at least one or two cases each week" Wow - that's an incredible rate - I wonder what the national statistics are like?
- Emma_Goldman 9y agoHow are these things not banned? If something is sold for casual private use that predictably leads to hundreds of people having metal barbs stuck in their throat every year, and if the procedure to extract those barbs is sufficiently difficult that it has become recognised as a national problem among surgeons, then there seems to be pretty good grounds for banning it. As this thread attests, there are plenty of alternatives.
- josefresco 9y agoThey've been selling these for years - if the rates of failure are so high I don't understand why we haven't heard more about it. Puzzling.
- ams6110 9y agoWhy do you clean a grill? Let the carbon build up. It's seasoning and food doesn't stick to it. Just preheat the grill to burn off any remains from the prior use. If there's really heavy buildup, use a straight edge scraper like a paint scraper or heavy spatula. Cleaning a grill down to shiny bare metal is a sure way to have all your food stick to it every time.
- dboreham 9y agoChicken sticks to it ime. Probably depends on "variables" such as ambient temp, grate diamater and flame height below the grate.
- emodendroket 9y agoI don't know about you, but after grilling I usually have hanging chunks of fat on the grill. Not exactly appetizing if that's been around for months.
- LeifCarrotson 9y agoI think that part of the disparity is in frequency of use: if you cook on a daily (restaurant) or even weekly (enthusiast) schedule, you won't have problems. If you only grill on major holidays, you won't be able to just use it without cleaning. Also, a grooved scraper with the right spacing for your grate does a great job of removing large chunks. You don't need to polish it to bare metal, just remove that excess. Scrape after grilling while it's hot, wait a week, wipe with a paper towel dipped in olive oil when it warms up, and it works well enough for me.
- woliveirajr 9y agoI think this exactly article was already discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12409425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12409425 There were some good tips on how to avoid the brushes for once.
- djsumdog 9y agoYea, I remember when it was posted last time on here. I think HN is the only place I've heard about this; have been using those things for most of my life without realizing this could be an issue.
- woliveirajr 9y agoThe easiest way to clean it is: 1. Let the grill get hot, simple by waiting some minutes with the charcoal on fire 2. Rub with something to clean old grit, with paper, half of an onion, piece of fat from some meat and any sponge slightly wet being good.
- nopacience 9y agococa cola works great to clean
- koolba 9y agoI think you mixed up the order of step 2. The piece of fat should be at the end to lubricate the cooking service. Wetting it again after would be counter productive. Also I don’t recommend a regular sponge for the water cleansing step due to the materials involved not necessarily be heat safe. Soaked paper towels work great.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoI would not use paper towels on the same basis you choose not to use a sponge.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- koolba 9y agoIt’s likely not ideal but I rather breathe and possibly consume trace amounts of burned paper than burned sponge. EDIT: ... and immediately after writing this I googled “paper towel carcinogens” and ruined my day.
- CodeWriter23 9y agoSorry to be the bearer of bad news.
- sandos 9y ago
- 23443463453 9y agoI wonder if it has something to do with Chineseum being used in Canada. I have not in my whole life ever heard of anyone getting a steel bristle stuck in their mouth in America, where people undoubtedly GRILL far more than they do in Canada. I wonder if it's also a regulatory thing with examples like the one in the comments about the waffle maker, because I cannot recall seeing anyone in a commercial venue using a steel bristle brush to clean their cooking equipment. I suspect it's just another one of those freedom for me, regulation for thee hipster things. All commercial operations I have seen in the USA where food service is highly regulated (arguably too much and stupidly), use scrapers of various kinds, for grills, grates, and griddles alike.
- awinter-py 9y agoIf the surgeon can't access the bristle w/out damaging surrounding tissue, they should use a strong electromagnet on the axis of the wire. (Don't try this at home). if the angle is bad (threatens other structures as it comes out), potentially clip the wire as it emerges.
- innocentoldguy 9y agoI use chainmail to clean my grill to avoid this very thing. I also use a power-washer occasionally.
- emodendroket 9y agoI read about this a couple years ago and now live in complete terror of bristles. Unfortunately the alternates are kind of a pain to use, but hey, it beats what these articles describe.
- PaulStatezny 9y agoI got freaked out when I learned about this a while back. It seems wire brushes for grill cleaning come in various levels of quality, and it’s the lower-quality ones that tend to have this issue. The problem is that you can’t truly know the quality of your brush until you use it. (And either find bristles in your good or not.)
- ams6110 9y agoIf you like a wire brush for the grill, go to a hardware store, and buy a wire brush with really coarse bristles. They are probably in the paint section, or with the welding supplies, not the BBQ grill section. The bristles are about an inch long and quite stiff.
- Covzire 9y agoMy brother got a bristle from a grill lodged in his throat, it took a couple trips to the surgeon to remove and was extremely painful. And I still have a bristle brush, but I always scrape with the straight edge a few times afterwords (ever since).
- simonbarker87 9y agoJust take the grill off the BBQ at the end once it has cooled and wrap it in wet newspaper, leave over night and wipe down the next day. Like new.
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoWhat is this "newspaper" of which you speak? Seriously though, i only buy newspapers now when i need the paper for table coverings for craft activities and such.
- kevinmchugh 9y agonewspaper is also very useful for chimney starters, the best way of starting a charcoal fire.
- windexh8er 9y agoTry a Looftlighter (or something similar) if you've never. You don't have to use paper/chimney anymore. I started smoking things about 10 years ago and have tried it all. With regard to speed, ease, and cleanup you can't beat electric. Wax starters are another good option if you're out of range of A/C. I'd put my old chimney in third at this point. I'd rather recycle the paper quite honestly. I don't cook meats anymore but still use my BGE quite a bit.
- monkeynotes 9y agoHow is it that the manufacturers haven't had a class action put their way? I mean, they are knowingly making a product that fails in regular usage in a way that is almost impossible to prevent or detect completely. I'd suggest these types of scrapers be legislated against since they are incapable of being used safely in reasonable intended usage.
- numbsafari 9y agoYeah, well, good thing we have OpenBazaar so that people like you won't be able to keep me from exercising my freedom to use a real manly brush to do a real manly job. I'm sure that really offends you, but I'm no snowflake. I can make my own bristle material decisions for my self and on behalf of everyone I cook for./s
- mrhappyunhappy 9y agoYou ruined it with /s
- gpvos 9y agoActually he saved it.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- firefistace77 9y agoI don't know, it's my opinion, but I feel like the /s trend/adaptation has ruined a lot of the jokes for me by being overly explicit and not leaving any ambiguity...where is the fun in that :P
- gpvos 9y ago
- bgribble 9y agoI have used a wadded-up piece of aluminum foil for this purpose for years. Works better than a bristle brush and no bristles!
- dmoy 9y agoThose shredded reconstituted blocks of glass that look vaguely sponge like work really well too, though you gotta rinse it down pretty aggressively afterwards and wipe with a cloth cus it gets powder all over the place.
- delecti 9y agoIf you mean the melamine foam blocks ("Magic Erasers"), then they're not actually glass. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam
- dmoy 9y agoAh no not those, I mean literally chunks of ground up bottle glass that just vaguely look like sponges. They're not at all actually sponge like in absorbance property.
- ravenstine 9y agoYeah same, this works just fine.
- intrasight 9y agoI went to buy a BBQ brush last year and all they had were metal bristle brushes. I was surprised given all the bad publicity about this. Needless to say, I didn't buy a brush that day. Any recommendations for a good non-metal brush?
- luckydude 9y agoJust a chunk of wood works quite well. If you want to get fancy you can use a file to round out some grooves but that will happen naturally. https://www.amazon.com/Scraper-Natural-Barbecue-Non-bristles-Cleaning/dp/B074CW69L1/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1522333911&sr=8-9&keywords=wood+bbq+scraper https://www.amazon.com/Scraper-Natural-Barbecue-Non-bristles...
- intrasight 9y agoYou reminded me that last year I used a brick and a piece of wood - combination did take off some crud. Also tried some of that chemical spray - which didn't seem to do a thin.
- codereflection 9y agoWeber and other companies make stone and nylon scrubbers, Home Depot sells them. You can find wood / bamboo ones online too.
- slantyyz 9y agoI've tried the stone scrubbers, they work at least as well as a metal bristled brush, but they leave stone crumbs stuck all over the grill and require additional work to clean them off. Not a huge deal, but could be a dealbreaker for some.
- danjc 9y agoI use a steel brush intended for cleaning off welding residue. It has much thicker, longer steel wires that would be difficult to miss if they came out of the brush head (which hasn't ever happened yet).
- 9y ago
- wemdyjreichert 9y agoI just never clean my grill... problem solved.
- John_KZ 9y agoFreaky. Are iron wool scrapers safe? Or do the fibers affect you too?
- xkcd-sucks 9y agoIron rusts, so it breaks down in your body pretty quickly. Brass doesn't rust, so brass wires stick around forever.
- Dowwie 9y agoWhat are people using as an alternative to a bristle brush?
- checker 9y agoI was told to try cutting an onion in half and dragging it up and down the grates (after warming up for a bit). After trying it I would say that it’s not perfect but does a decent job of removing the big stuff. I’m still looking for a more reusable solution since I like to grill a lot. Maybe just a wet rag would work? I’ve seen hibachi chefs use them on a flat grill along with a scraper.
- codereflection 9y agoStone or nylon scrubbers. There's also wood and bamboo ones.
- jcims 9y agoI use a scraper shaped for the bars on my grill. Works much better in my experience.
- Mikeb85 9y agoI got a grill brush with bamboo bristles. Works great. Metal wire brushes are terrifying.
- VectorLock 9y agoI've been using a small square of chainmail to clean my grill (and occasionally my cast iron pans) and follow it up with a damp paper towel It works well but is kind of a PITA compared to a wire brush.
- kevinmchugh 9y agothose chainmail squares are often marketed for cleaning cast iron based on the canard that soap is bad for cast iron. I'd much rather use soap than steel. Steel's certainly gonna dig into the seasoning.
- seymour333 9y agoseriously though, don't use soap. Just get a nylon scrubber or stiff bristled nylon(or whatever) brush and use salt. Soap is going to remove the seasoning and probably leave a soapy flavor behind
- kevinmchugh 9y agoThis is incorrect. I can show you my cast iron pans and various pieces of carbon steel which are well-seasoned and do not impart soapy tastes. Soap does not damage the seasoning on a pan: https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iron.html https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/11/the-truth-about-cast-iro.... Every cleaning solution that doesn't include a surfactant is worse. It's slower, more labor, intensive, more water-intensive, and it leaves baked-on crud behind. The latter two are both much worse for cast iron than soap.
- rdtsc 9y agoLast time I saw this here in 2016 I tossed my wire brush and got wooden scraper. It works pretty well.
- iambateman 9y agoSerious question: how do I clean my grill instead?
- JohnDotAwesome 9y agoI've always used aluminum foil. Just wad it up and scrub
- pbhjpbhj 9y agoI do this on occasions but worry about aluminium contamination on food bearing surfaces. For me it's not a regular thing but if I were bbq-ing regularly then I'd want to research it properly. Eg https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/165315-overview https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/165315-overview
- evanmarshall 9y agoSteel wool works pretty well.
- windexh8er 9y agoTwo reasons not to... You'll end up with particles sticking to residue on the grates - steel wool breaks apart a lot. And because steel wool rusts. Combined with stainless steel you're not doing yourself any favors. If you've ever scrubbed a white wall on a tire with steel wool you'd never use it on a cooking surface like a grate. Maybe cleaning a pan you can wash out, but. I don't know many people who wash grill grates with any level of frequency.
- Moru 9y agoYou heat up the grill real hot and then you use it normally. Heat kills most of the nasty stuff. Real men dont clean grills, or so I hear.
- Moru 9y agoOk, so I do wipe it with an onion or some wood piece after heating it up. Would never dream of using a metal bristle brush...
- overcast 9y agoI switched to using a wooden scraper a couple years ago, when I first read this report. Works great! https://www.amazon.com/Great-Scrape-Woody-Paddle-Natural/dp/B013S1SM4I https://www.amazon.com/Great-Scrape-Woody-Paddle-Natural/dp/...
- Robotbeat 9y agoYeah, it baffles me why they didn't mention any alternative in the article!
- zedpm 9y agoI have that scraper, and found that it really doesn't do a very good job. A balled up piece of aluminum foil works better than the wooden scrapers, in my experience. Unfortunately, the best results come from the bristle brushes.
- overcast 9y agoAluminum is just being wasteful honestly. Not sure how clean you're expecting, but this does a fine job at getting all the big chunks off (which is what you want). Heat will nuke the rest of it.
- jandrese 9y agoDepends on what you're cleaning it for. Some people are paranoid that the bits of carbon left clinging to the rails are known to the state of California to cause cancer and must be completely removed before it is safe to heat food. Or you can be like me and just get the grill hot and give it a quick once over with a metal spatula to remove any chunks that are sticking up. I mean I'm cooking over an open flame here, it's already carcinogen city.
- jcoffland 9y agoI find that an aluminum ball leaves little bits of aluminum on the grill that can get into your food.
- lukewrites 9y ago
- SlugWithLux 9y agoDoes it make a difference how the wire brush is made? I know of two types, let me call one flat and the other wound. Flat is where wire bristles are inset into a flat head on a handle. Wound is were the bristles are held by wires twisting around (which often have a triangle head for BBQ brushes and are made the same as typical bottle brush). Are they equally bad?
- kevinmchugh 9y agoif you're talking about these: https://www.buygrilldaddy.com/assets/images/TriBrush_other2%20GW001506.jpg https://www.buygrilldaddy.com/assets/images/TriBrush_other2%... I think that's just as bad. Small enough to be easy to miss, only attached at one end. There's also this kind of wound one, where the wire is a heavier gauge, and is attached at two ends: https://smile.amazon.com/Clean-Grill-Brush-Bristle-Barbecue/dp/B01MYC1C2D?sa-no-redirect=1 https://smile.amazon.com/Clean-Grill-Brush-Bristle-Barbecue/... those are, afaik safer, though I don't think anyone has studied the issue.
- SlugWithLux 9y agoNice! I had never seen that round kind where the wire is one continuous piece instead of using many small bristles.
- Robotbeat 9y agoIt's infuriating that articles about a problem like this don't spend just one single sentence on possible alternatives, even though the surgeons are begging. Fire the editor. Alternatives I've seen in this thread are a ball of wadded up aluminum foil, a wooden scraper, abrasive pads, and stiff plastic bristles (EDIT: and an onion). This proves once again that the HN comments section is often better than the article itself.
- rdtsc 9y agoA wooden plank works great for me. I was using an onion as well once in a while. Or try both. Try searching "wooden grill scrapers" on Amazon for example. Or if you don't like Amazon there are some other sites that sell those. I got mine from Canada, made from cedar and in addition to scraping the grill adds a tiny bit of cedar aroma.
- navinsylvester 9y ago> Fire the editor. Seriously!. Taking the word out to the public is his paramount duty and he did just the same.
- tarmstrong 9y agoAgreed that they should mention an alternative in the article. Another article on the CBC from last summer has a good list of alternatives that I found helpful: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bbq-cleaning-alternatives-bristles-1.3748040 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/bbq-cleaning-alternatives-bris...
- marpstar 9y agoI let my grill heat up and then use an onion to clean it off. works wonders and adds a bit of flavor, too.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- dsfyu404ed 9y ago>This proves once again that the HN comments section is often better than the article itself. The article put the bar on the floor. HN picked it up an inch. Everyone here is suggesting different things to scrub with that will leave less offensive debris behind. Few are suggesting washing away that debris. You should be able to clean your grill with pretty much whatever you want as long as you wash it properly afterward. Edit: It appears someone did suggest washing.
- slantyyz 9y agoA trick I learned from a friend is to cover all the grills with sheets of foil, close the lid and heat the bbq to a high temperature for a short period of time and then remove the foil. Most of the crud should come off easily after that.
- brandon272 9y agoAll I have ever done is give the BBQ a bit of time to heat up before I plan on actually cooking the food. A few minutes in high heat chars any remnants of the last BBQ session and then I just knock the stuff of the top with a spatula before throwing that day's food on.
- mmagin 9y agoI once found a bit of wire in a sausage I was eating that I'd bought from my favorite local sausage maker. I've been too scared to try their sausages again :(
- conistonwater 9y agoThe caption to one of the photos is priceless: > Kevin Gallant, of Summerside, P.E.I., had part of his small intestine removed after he swallowed a bristle from a barbecue brush. He still uses a bristle brush, but inspects the barbecue thoroughly after using it. He still uses a bristle brush.
- test6554 9y agoWell the surgeon never offered to come over clean his grill all day with a damp rag and some soapy water.
- TomK32 9y agosure sign the canadian health system is about to collapse.
- Relys 9y ago"I too like to live dangerously" hahaha! XD
- robotrout 9y agoI have been paranoid about this for years, and I still use a bristle brush. But I was very selective when I went shopping for my new brush. It has very large bristles that are not likely to come off, and if they do, will be very obvious when eating or chewing. Brushes can be found with bristles of larger diameter wire gauges.
- Spivak 9y agoCan you really blame him? The brushes are so apparently so good at cleaning that it's worth his time to inspect the results after than switch to an alternative. It's not like his approach is unsafe. bristle brush cleaning time + inspection time < alternative cleaning time
- conistonwater 9y agoThat approach sounds wrong to me: bristles breaking off is pretty rare already, and inspecting the barbecue for bristles is only as good as your ability to pay attention while doing it, while not finding anything most of the time. People often overestimate their ability to pay attention, because the cost of missing something is usually low and the consequences manageable. People's intuition regarding very rare events is also pretty bad in general. So attention would be the limiting factor, which is why it still seems unsafe. Also, I felt like the goal is to avoid having a portion of your intestine removed, not really so much to save time.
- pmarreck 9y agoThis entire comment thread is the most Reddit thing that I've ever seen on Hacker News (and I'm not sure how I feel about it)
- korethr 9y agoI am mildly surprised this is a problem. I've used a wire brush to clean the grill for as long as I've grilled and had no issues. But then, I've always combined using a wire brush with pre- and post-cooking heating the grill at full power to burn off accumulated stuff. The wire brush is far more effective at scrubbing things off when the crud is beginning to ash, as opposed to the partially-caramelized state it was in when the food first came off. Edit: I will additionally add that I also scrub the grill plates on occasion, because as mentioned in other comments, the accumulated crud makes food more likely to stick and can also impart a bad taste.
- nvahalik 9y agoI couldn't find a wire brush when I bought my grill but was surprised to discover that the actual grill plates were "Porcelain-enameled cast-iron". I just dump them into the sink and let them soak every couple of weeks and they basically come out nearly spotless. However, I don't normally clean them except for using a plastic brush when they are cold—mostly to get rid of the big pieces. I rather like the "seasoning" :)
- korethr 9y agoIt seems to me that porcelain-enameled grates are becoming more common, even on cheaper grills. And yeah, that style of grate cleans a lot easier than the straight metal wire grate I've seen on older grills.
- joncrane 9y agoI wonder if it's more common in Canada because of colder temps making the metal more brittle. I wonder if there's a higher likelihood of incidence when the ambient temp is low.
- AStellersSeaCow 9y agoWhen this news first came out, I tried practically all the alternatives. My personal experiences: Wadded up aluminum foil: really does not work well. It gets loose grime off, but anything at all burnt on will take very vigorous scrubbing and possibly result in shredded foil everywhere. Also feels like a huge waste of foil. Wooden scraper: works ok, since it's not flexible doesn't get between the slats well, need to put a lot of elbow grease in to get stuck-on stuff, and if you leave it outside in my high humidity region - even under a cover - it will get disgusting fast Abrasive pads/steel wool - work surprisingly well, but need to be replaced constantly and it's fairly disgusting work (you will feel like you need a shower afterwards) because you are basically in the grill Nylon brush - did literally nothing. The solution I'm currently on is a wire brush that is continuous spirals of wire rather than bristles. Available from your preferred online merchant, etc. Does not work nearly as well as a traditional wire brush: have to use quite a bit more force, and very awkward to maneuver it between the slats. That said, it gets the job done very well and it's durable.
- lostlogin 9y agoI wonder if there is a non mechanical way of cleaning it and instead a chemical reaction like oven cleaner. Ideally it would be something that wasn’t seemingly related to a chemical weapon but maybe that’s what it takes.
- odonnellryan 9y agoFire, man. Just let the fire clean it. Never saw the point of wire brushes unless you're leaving food on the grill when you're done with it.
- karlkatzke 9y agoI think a lot of people don’t let their grill get hot enough. I know I have problems with cleaning my smoker racks (and my wife won’t let me run them through the dish washer) so I have to throw them on my charcoal grill when I’m heating it up.
- grill_cleaner 9y agoAfter serving my family a delicious snack, I typically smash into my grill full speed with my Hummer H3, super hemi. That knocks all the nasties away.
- rootusrootus 9y agoMy solution: 1. Use a grill with wide slats instead of round steel bars 2. Run the grill on high for ten minutes after cooking to burn everything to a fine ash 3. Use grill mats when possible so I don't have to clean the grill to begin with I just use damp paper towels to clean up the grill before I use it since I burn everything off after the previous cook session.
- newnewpdro 9y agoI'm inclined to primarily blame the general loss of consumer goods build quality over the past ~25 years. What proportion of these brushes giving up their bristles in sufficient quantities to be on Surgeons' radars were made in China? Growing up we had zero plastic-handled brush options. They were all well-built, wood-handled beasts and the bristles would be mutilated and disgusting prompting replacement long before they were falling out of the holder. You can't even buy a manual can-opener that doesn't deform into a useless paperweight on first use at a big-box store anymore. Why expect their grill brushes to be any better? Edit: To clarify, I've seen many plastic grill brushes on shelves at stores. It has become increasingly difficult to find anything made of wood in the kitchen-related isles of stores like Wal-Mart and Target. There are obvious problems with a plastic-handled grill brush. The tendency is to heat the grill prior to brushing, which softens the plastic, loosening the grip on the bristles over time.
- Havoc 9y agoHad one stuck in my throat. It's absolutely terrifying
- myegorov 9y agoMy wife found a bristle in her burrito last year. Luckily, she noticed it before swallowing. The place kindly offered her a free burrito as a consolation :(
- btbuildem 9y agoI grill probably twice a week. I rarely clean the grill, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference whether there's any buildup on the bars or not. I've read about this some months ago, what a nightmare scenario!
- cbar_tx 9y agothe trick is to brush the grill before it gets hot. you can always rinse the gunk out of your grill brush but you can't un-melt the plastic that keeps the brisles attached. Give it a quick second brushing after it's heated up, if you want. Since it is already mostly clean, you don't spend as much time loosening/melting your brush. I figured this out when I found one of those bristles on some ribs I made. Fortunately, it was before I put it in my mouth.
- odog_ 9y agoI literally just went to an ENT doctor to get a bristle removed from my throat yesterday. It didn't effect my breathing or eating, but it was very uncomfortable. I went a week without getting xrays of my throat. It's not fun.
- solarsavior 9y agoWhat kind of cheap brushes are being used? I've used Weber bristle brushes for years (the spiral ones) and have never seen a single detached bristle.
- nimbius 9y agohaving worked in a commercial kitchen with a grill station, believe it or not the easiest thing to do with dirty grates was to throw them in the dishwasher or soak them overnight with the soda fountain tips in a mild solution of bleach. our grates were mild steel and cast iron. We would start our grills at 5-6 AM for breakfast sausage and ham, which did a great job of re-seasoning the grates if youre curious. day shift would take over from there with the station menu from our chefs. Generally we were careful to avoid sticky marinades or mops for the grill to keep things tidy and sane. Ribs were cooked in the oven, then transferred/finalized on the grill station. When this got too cumbersome we leased a commercial smoker for a few years. speaking from experience though, the sanest way to keep those grates from getting insane was to wipe them down as you go with an oily onion or oily rag in some tongs. Avoid teriyaki or yogurt marinades like the plague and never leave the station "wet." get to things before they set, especially proteins.
- GrinningFool 9y agoI use a chain scrubber to excellent effect - the same that I use for my cast iron. I find it does a better job than the bristle brush, though it does tend to get my hands a little messier. https://www.amazon.com/Ringer-Original-Stainless-Cleaner-Patented/dp/B00FKBR1ZG https://www.amazon.com/Ringer-Original-Stainless-Cleaner-Pat... (This is a direct link)
- bookofjoe 9y agoIs there anything better than finding there are 263 comments here on this article? I'm settling in for while.
- tyingq 9y agoIf the grates are removable, wouldn't the clean function (crazy high heat) of your oven clean them? Basically turns everything into easy to wash off ash.
- drewcon 9y agoCan confirm this is terrifying. Zero out of 5 stars. I once pulled a bristle out from between my molars. Thought about it for 5 minutes...realized it was from the grill (was eating a salad made of leftover grilled chicken). Googled “wire grill brush swallow”. Read horror stories. Immediately freaked out. Even used a metal detector like you would use on a beach on my stomach to see if I swallowed more (didn’t work). Spent the week waiting for disaster to strike (it didnt). Immediately threw out all wire grill brushes forever.
- hkmurakami 9y agoI had this happen once at a Chinese rwstaurant. I should have complained more I guess =\
- honopu 9y agoMy father in law got sick of crappy brushes, so he created one: http://grillbros.com http://grillbros.com It works really well for a "standard" grill.
- bacon_waffle 9y agoWow, such a surprisingly severe consequence for (mis)using an innocuous tool as a wire brush! Incidentally, our household switched away from brushes a few years ago; we stumbled on a very quick and effective solution after dad got in to reloading. A few of the shorter 2.75" shells loaded with rock salt from the 12ga work wonders on the grill.
- xenity7 9y agoI would love to see video of this if you aren’t joking!
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- louprado 9y agoAn acquaintance once told me she had accidentally inhaled a sewing needle as a child. She had loaded it into a straw and was planning to blowgun it at her little brother. But she made the horrible mistake of deeply inhaling after the straw was in her mouth thereby inhaling the needle. IIRC the doctor advised her to eat cotton. She eventually passed the needle in a wad of cotton. Personally I am skeptical of this story. Does anyone feel that this approach might work when a bristle from a BBQ brush is not recoverable by surgery ?