How to keep your grill looking spick & span and running like a champ

This year has brought a cold, rough winter. The sun is starting to peek through the clouds and we’re finally seeing hope for Spring. This can only mean one thing ….IT’S TIME FOR GRILLING SEASON!

You may dread washing the windows, sweeping the garage, and working in the yard, but spring cleaning also means you get to shine up your grill! Cleaning your grill is an important part of grill ownership to keep it running at max performance. With some help from the Pitmaster, we’ve got your go-to guide for how to best clean your grill.

Why Clean a Pellet Grill?

Foremost, we should talk about why you need to clean your pellet grill at all. Like any piece of cooking equipment, your smoker grill is destined to get dirty. The more pellet ash and food particles that stick to the inside, the lower the quality and flavor of your cooked food will be.

Besides, cleaning your grill extends its useful lifetime. If you love your Grilla Grill — and we know you do — you owe it a little TLC in the form of some down-and-dirty deep cleaning.

Setting the Stage for a Thorough Cleaning

Before setting off on your grill cleaning adventure, make certain you have enough time. Grill care and maintenance requires an investment of at least an hour, if not longer. If you only have a few minutes, wait until later to thoroughly clean your smoker grill.

Also, gather everything you need before starting. This includes everything from a putty knife to scrape residue from the inside of your smoker cover to a Shopvac to pick up all the loosened dust and crud. By having your tools at your fingertips, you will significantly shorten the time it takes to clean your Grilla grill.

How Often Should You Clean Your Grill?

We are often asked how often you should clean your Grilla Grill. Honestly, it depends on the pitmaster. Some BBQ heroes prefer to clean their smoker grills after just about every use. Others want to wait a while between uses before digging in.

Generally speaking, though, a grill should be cleaned as soon as it starts to get visibly dirty. It should also be cleaned when transitioning from months of little to no use to a time of heavy usage.

Tips for Cleaning a Smoker Grill

Below are some of our all-time tried-and-true favorite tips for keeping your Grilla smoker in tiptop shape. Check out each of them to see how you can maintain the health and well-being of the newest member of your pack: your Silverbac, Kong, Grilla or Chimp!

Remove Everything to Clean

Is a part removable? Then bring it out into the light! Not only does this give you better access to the interior of your smoker, but it makes cleaning those smaller items much simpler, too.

Dirty Grates

Prevention is all fine and well, but what do you do when your grates or heat shield are already caked up and nasty? Thankfully the grates on all the Grilla Grills products are well built, meaning they can take a good scrubbing and will clean up nicely.

To do this, we recommend staying away from chemicals and opt for a wire brush with medium stiffness. This allows for quick cleaning without scratching the grates from deep strokes. Usually a dozen or so swipes knocks off  the worst of the grime, without using any chemicals.

If you want, you can always toss any smaller removable grates or metal parts (not electric) into your dishwasher for a regular wash cycle. Just make sure they have already been deep-scrubbed.

Deep Cleaning

It’s likely that your Grilla has seen everything from ribs to brisket to burgers and wings, creating a thick, charred build over time. To give it a good clean, first you must scrape it off without deeply scratching the metal of the heat deflector. Try using a plastic putty knife. These are flexible enough to not damage the metal but strong enough to cut through the charred mess. You can find a set of these at your local home improvement store.

After about a dozen cooks, your Silverbac or Grilla’s fire pot area is probably covered in ash. All pellet grills will accumulate ash over the course of time. For about every 20lbs of pellets you burn you find that you have accumulated enough ash to warrant a cleaning.

If your fire pot is left unchecked or uncleaned it will eventually cause your grill to not light properly. To clean, we recommend using a shop vacuum. Be careful to make 100% sure that the ash you are sucking up is cold. Use the nozzle on the shop back and suck up all you can from the bottom of the grill and from the fire pot.

If you own a Grilla, the heat window will eventually be obscured by smoke. Since you already have your heat shield out and have vacuumed up all the ash, clean the glass so you can enjoy the unobstructed view of the fire that makes the Grilla so unique.

Take an old rag and some degreaser to work wonders. Squirt some degreaser on the rag and rub the glass until the grime comes off.

Good as New

Spend time cleaning your grill after cooking to keep it looking nice and lasting long. If you’re investing in the best smoker on the market, it deserves the best care. And now that it’s all clean, it’s time to light the grill and start getting it dirty again.

Watch our team show you how to clean your grill start to finish here.

Find Your Dream Grill

Last Reviewed By Mark Graham on September 30th, 2020