How to Clean Your Grill with a Pressure Washer
Your grill turns into a sleeping beauty during the winter, waiting for the next barbeque season to come. During this time, many grill parts can wear down quickly, especially if they were not cleaned before storage.
When you use it back for summer, the fat and grease will start accumulating again. They will add up to the thick grime deposited mainly in the flavorizer bars and the grill itself. This grime causes flare-ups which leads to uneven cooking or even fire incidents. If you notice a funky smell or burnt color on the food, it’s more likely because of the grime on the grill.
Removing those nasty carbon build-ups and fat deposits is the worst part of having a grill. But with the help of a pressure washer, this task can be less taxing than manual cleaning.
Table of Contents
Steps on How to Pressure Wash a Grill
Of course, you need to have a gas pressure washer ready. If you don’t have one yet, you can go to https://cleanup.expert/gas-pressure-washers/ to see the best models to choose from.
Preparatory Procedures
Once you have a pressure washer ready, make sure that you do the following precautionary measures first:
- Disconnect the electricity line. Science tells us that water and electricity don’t get along well. Unplug the device from its electric source to prevent electrocution.
- If you have a propane grill, disconnect it first from the tank and move the latter away. Take out the connection hose to ensure it doesn’t take any water inside.
- For natural gas connection, simply disconnect it from the line.
- Prepare the following: degreasing detergent, wire brush, wire mesh, and heavy-duty scrubber. If you prefer a non-toxic solution, you can use warm water with white vinegar and baking soda. The detergent is recommended for tough stains, while the more natural formula can treat milder grease. If you choose the former, you need to ensure that all parts are rinsed properly before putting them back.
Cleaning Procedures
At this stage, you need a pressure washer with at least 2000 PSI. You can connect a turbo nozzle to create narrower jets that rotate to remove those deep-seated greases and stains. Here are the steps for cleaning your barbeque grill:
- Start by removing the parts to be cleaned like the grates and the flavorizer bars. Depending on the type of grill you have, the flavorizer bars sit underneath the cooking grates.
- Create a solution to soak grates and flavorizer bars. Use warm water and a grease-stripping detergent and let that solution break the grease and grime to make it easier to scrape off later.
- Cover the burner tubes with tin foil to prevent water from getting inside them. Use a pressure washer to pre-rinse the cooker box. Avoid aiming the nozzle at the burner area.
- Start scrapping loose debris from all corners of the cooking box, including the cover.
- Spray cleaning agent in all dirty parts of the cooking box except the burner area. Let the solution set in for a few minutes to melt and break down all the grease.
- Do the scrubbing and scrapping and repeat these processes until you get most of the build-up off the cooker box.
- Use a pressure washer for a final rinse. Again, try to avoid the burner area as much as you can. The pressure can destroy the tin foil cover and let the water and chemicals get inside the burner.
- Remove the tin foil and let the cook box dry out.
- Now it’s time to clean the grates and flavorizer bars. Use a hard wire brush or steel wool to scrub the grates and bars. Use a pressure washer for final rinsing.
- Wipe the grates and bars to dry, and place them back in the cooking box. You can apply some cooking oil to the grates for protection.
Final Words
Every ounce of fat and grease cooked from the meat on your barbecue made its way into your grill. A heavy grease deposit is not suitable for your food and can cause accidents too. You also need to be aware of grilling safety tips for a worry-free barbeque session. For cleaning the grill after the gathering, a simple wash will not eliminate all the grease. A thorough cleaning using a pressure washer is a great help.