You have no idea how much I love grilling, especially
on a beautiful sunny day like this,
where you're just spending it with friends, that smell
of the burgers and hot dogs.
There's really nothing like it.
I had a great afternoon grilling for the Consumer Reports' crew.
I thought my work was pretty much done when grilling expert
Paul Hope stopped by.
Hey, Paul.
How you doing?
Hey, Jack.
I suspect you know what comes next, right?
I'm thinking of just taking a nap.
I've been here all day long.
Not so much.
It's actually the perfect time to clean the grill.
A clean barbecue should mean safer food and less risk
of a sudden flare up.
And it turns out, Paul is a real grill sergeant.
You actually want the grill to be a little warm
while you do it.
It helps the food come off.
All right, so the first thing we're going to use
is a wire grill brush like this.
Want to give it a try?
Sure.
Absolutely.
All right.
OK, so just go up and down with it, right?
Just go up and down with the grate.
We flip the grates like a burger and do the other side.
Look at that, Paul.
It's looking great.
It's looking really good.
The grates look great.
We put them aside, turn off the propane,
and hit up the rest of the grill.
Oh, yeah.
That looks really dirty.
So what do you call these triangular things?
A lot of companies call them flavorizer bars.
They're actually designed to protect these burner tubes here
from fat dripping down.
That's also marketed as something
that improves the flavor of your food
because if when fat hits these hot bars, it sizzles,
and the smoke rises up and goes on your food.
We're just going to set these aside.
The next thing we're going to use are these toothpicks.
Toothpicks?
This is good to clean out these little holes in these burner
tubes, here.
And just get in there with our little toothpicks.
I can't believe we're using toothpicks to clean a grill.
We're just going to make our way down each of the burner tubes.
You certainly don't have to do this every time you grill.
Once, maybe twice, a season is plenty.
I think we've finished.
Absolutely.
These are looking pretty good.
So the next step is we're going to use our brush again,
but this time we're going to use this scraper.
If you want to give it a try.
You know, I always wondered what this was for, but now I know.
Wow.
Look at all that dirt that comes out of there.
Yeah, this is going to heat the grill cooking nice and safe
because there won't be anything that
can catch fire and flare up.
OK.
Well, how's that looking like?
All right, that looks great.
So now we're done with the brush.
And we're to use our soapy water here,
and we're going to start to clean the inside of our grill.
Yeah, there's a lot of gunk here.
You want to use a good dish soap,
and really we use a lot of it to wipe down the inside.
All right.
Let's start at the top and work our way down.
So we're just going to wipe down the inside of the fire box,
here.
OK.
And you want to really get off all that residual fat
and grease.
You can see it's been caked on the sides there.
Anything that didn't get knocked free by the grill brush.
Cleaning a grilled this thoroughly seems
like a lot of work.
Is there an alternative?
There's a family that wants to ask you a question.
Let's ask CR.
OK.
My name is Marco and this is my dad Chris.
And we love to grill all year around.
My uncle says that I should line the grill with tinfoil
to keep it clean.
Is that true?
That's a great question.
So what about aluminum foil?
It sounds like a good idea, but there's a really good reason
you don't want to do that.
If you look at how a grill is designed,
as food cooks, the fat renders, it drips down,
and you really want it to collect in this tray here,
which is called the fat trip tray.
If you line the bottom of your grill with foil,
you block the fat from falling into this.
You can have a major flare up and a fire.
Now, Paul is going to show us how
to check the propane tank for leaks, which
means turning the gas back on.
I'm going to give you some of our soapy water
on a scouring pad here, and just wipe it
down all along the connection where
it hooks up the tank to the hose,
and run it along the hose itself.
OK.
And why is this so important?
Because the gas is super flammable.
Any leak would be a very serious safety concern.
We're looking for really big bubbles.
I'm not seeing any leaks here.
This is a properly connected tank.
All right, so we put it back in?
We put it back in.
There we go.
All right.
OK.
You know what?
Think I've built up an appetite.
Nice, clean grill.
Time to spark it up again.
And that's how you clean it like you mean it.
Anybody want a burger?
On me.