How to Prepare Your Grill for the Outdoor Season

As temperatures begin to rise, it’s time to prepare your outdoor space for seasonal relaxation. This of course includes showing off your culinary skills on the porch, on the deck or in the yard for guests. Over the winter, your grill likely hibernated, so you’ll need to tune it up before it’s ready for heavy use from spring to fall. Even if you’ve left the grill running in the cold, now is the perfect time for a thorough cleaning before the official outdoor cooking season begins. Here are some tips and tricks that will hopefully make things easier.

Disassemble, scrub, reassemble

A good rule of thumb when it comes to cleaning anything you haven’t used in a while is to take it apart as much as you feel comfortable and wipe it down thoroughly. For grills, this means removing the grates and any burner bars or covers – basically anything you can remove that isn’t the heating element. This gives you the opportunity to inspect the burners of your gas grill or the firepot of a pellet model for unsightly wear. If these components are worn or too rusty, most companies offer replacements that you can easily replace with a few basic tools.

Once all parts are removed, start by scraping excess debris from all sides of the interior – with the help of a cleaner if necessary. For a gas grill, that probably means letting everything out through the grease trap. On a pellet grill, you will need to scrape the grease chute clear and out into the drain pan, but you will also need to vacuum the inside with a workshop vacuum cleaner – as you would after a few hours of use. And while you’re at it, go ahead and empty the hopper of all the old pellets left over from Labor Day. Fuel that has been sitting in the grill for months won’t give you the best results when it comes time to cook, so you might as well start from scratch.

Fortunately, pellet grill manufacturers have made easy cleaning a key part of their designs. The Weber SmokeFire has a set of metal bars inside that can be quickly removed to open the bottom of the chamber. It’s also a design feature of the company’s gas grills. Simply vacuum or push debris out of the grease chute. The collection tray where all the waste ends up is also easy to access from the front of the grill, and you can remove the aluminum liner and replace it with a new one in seconds.

The latest pellet grills from Traeger have also been redesigned to improve cleaning. Most notably, grease and ashes end up in the same “drum” that is easy to detach from the front of the grill. The company also allows you to quickly remove all the interior components, although they are larger than what you find on the SmokeFire. Finally, Traeger has moved the pellet chute to the front of the new Timberline and Ironwood, making it much more convenient to swap out varieties of wood or empty out an old stash.

You will want to remove as much leftover food from your grill as possible for several reasons. First, these products are old and significant buildup over time can harm cooking performance and impact flavor. The last thing you want is old food or grease burning right under an expensive ribeye. Second, in the case of pellet grills, improper grease and dust removal can be dangerous. It’s easy for grease fires to start at scorching temperatures and if there is enough pellet dust in the bottom of your grill, it can ignite or explode. This is why companies ask you to vacuum every few hours of use.

To actually clean the surfaces, you’ll need an all-natural grill cleaner. There are tons of options here, and it may take a while to find one you like. I generally use The Traeger formula as it is readily available at the places I buy pellets and have found it works well for cutting through stuck-on mud. You prefer an all-natural grill cleaner over a regular household product because it is safe to use on surfaces that will come in contact with your food. They are also safe to use outside of your grill without damaging chrome, stainless steel or any other materials.

Spray the inside and leave to act for a few minutes. Wipe everything dry and come back to heavily soiled areas if necessary. The same goes for the grids, bars and any other parts that you have removed. I like to place them on a garden waste bin bag (they’re bigger than kitchen bags) so that all the things I scrape or clean don’t end up all over my patio. You can use shop towels if you want to recycle or paper towels if not, but just be aware that whatever you choose will be covered in black gunk, so you won’t want to just throw them in the washer when you’re done. Pre-washing in a bucket or sink is necessary to ensure you don’t transfer dirt from your grill to your casual belongings.

In terms of tools, you don’t need much. I tried this robot grill it claims to do the work for you, but I’ve found it’s more effective to stick to the basics. And honestly, once you get the hang of it, it doesn’t take that long. It’s a good idea to have a metal brush specifically for racks that you don’t use to clean anything else. After all, it will touch the same surfaces you put food on. I recommend another smaller wire brush – those that look like big toothbrushes – to clean the burners of a gas grill. If you notice that the flame is not coming through one of the holes, you can use it to clear the path. Finally, plastic is the way forward for a scraper, anything else and you risk scratching the surfaces of your grill. Of course, any damage caused would be internal, but it’s still not a good feeling to destroy your previous investment.

Check for updates before your first cook

If you own a smart grill like Traeger, Weber, or another company, you’ll want to plug it in and check for software updates well before your first grilling session. Chances are you haven’t done much cooking since last fall, which means companies have had months to update their devices. Trust me, there’s nothing worse than spending an hour cutting and seasoning a brisket only to then go out to start the grill and it immediately goes into the updating process. This could significantly extend the total cooking time depending on the extent of firmware additions and the strength of your WiFi.

Fortunately, checking for updates is quick and easy. All you have to do is fire up your grill and open the company’s app on your phone. If a download is ready for your model, the mobile software will let you know and it is usually quite visible. If no pop-up alerts appear immediately, you can check the settings menu to make sure. Sometimes for smaller updates a company may not beat you to update. However, booting a new firmware version is always a safe bet and will ensure your grill performs optimally when it comes time to cook.

To have a good time every time, clean after each use

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t adhere to my own advice here, but it’s good to have goals. I will also be the first to tell you every time I smoke a Boston Butt or other super fatty cut of meat that I wish I had done at least a quick clean up right after the meal. Grease buildup is not only highly flammable, but it is also much more difficult to clean once it cools and solidifies. Ditto for the sauce or stuck cheese that’s left on your grills after the chicken or burgers. It’s best to attack these things while the grill is still hot, but cooled from cooking.

You don’t necessarily need to break out the shop vacuum every time for your pellet grill or empty the grease trap. But you need to make sure that these foods are kept away from the main cooking area for safety reasons and that any burns will not impact the flavor of your food. A few cups of hot water can clean grease spills, while the wire brush I mentioned is best for grates. It also doesn’t hurt to lightly clean with an all-natural cleaner so everything is ready when you want to cook again.

New grids to come

A number of grilling companies have already announced their product lines for 2024. If you’re looking for something new for summer, some of these are already available while others will arrive over the coming weeks . Recteq announced a robust group of grills in October, all of which are Wi-Fi connected pellet models. The company also updated its family of “regular” pellet grills while removing the SmokeStone 600 griddle and the Dual-chamber DualFire 1000.

Weber also announced plans for 2024. At CES, the company unveiled a redesigned pellet grill, the Searwood, which will replace the SmokeFire in North America. Part of Searwood’s feature set is a special mode that lets you use the grill when the lid is open for things like searing and flat grilling. Weber also launched a new gas hob, the Slate, featuring a specially designed cooking surface that the company says won’t rust and a digital temperature gauge. Plus, there’s a new premium Summit Smart Gas Grill with a huge color touchscreen and a top-mounted infrared grill. The smart features here help with everything from gas flow and individual burners to monitoring fuel supply and selecting the cooking process. All new Weber grills are expected to arrive this spring.

We haven’t heard much from Traeger this year and there’s a good chance the company won’t have any new grilles in 2024. It overhauled the Timberline in 2022 and brought some of the latest features, including touchscreen, to the Ironwood in 2023. Never say never, but if you’re in the market for another all-new Traeger grill, you could be waiting several months.