It's nearly BBQ season and my BBQ is looking pretty nasty having been left outside all winter. There's grime on the outside, food stuck to the grill and dirty smoke stuck to the lid. Sound familiar?
If you're looking for instructions on how to clean your BBQ for Spring, you will find plenty of videos showing you how to clean your BBQ using chemical cleaners and sprays, but I tend to stay away from those products near heat and fire.
I'm going to show you how to clean your BBQ the natural way - using just fire, a BBQ scrubber and some foil.
How to Clean your BBQ - the Video Guide
I'd love you to watch the whole video showing you how to clean your BBQ (it's only 6 minutes long!) but if you don't want to watch it all, here is the step by step guide.
How to Clean your BBQ - the Step by Step
Step 1
Take the lid off your BBQ, remove the cooking grate and set them both aside - we'll come back to clean them later.
Step 2
We're going to use fire to give the BBQ an initial clean so put some charcoal in the middle of the cooking grate - I used old, unburnt charcoal that was already in there (three points if you spotted my slip of the tongue in the video!).
Step 3
Build a fire around the charcoal in the middle of the BBQ using wood splits - because fire kills everything 🔥
Pop in a couple of Natural Firelighters and get it lit.
The important thing here is that there is an air gap so the fire doesn't touch the side of the BBQ bowl - I don't want anyone calling me out saying it's going to damage the enamel!
Step 4
Let the fire burn hot to bake and loosen all the crud on the inside of the BBQ lid, which we will clean off later.
Step 5
Add the cooking grate back into the BBQ and let the fire continue to burn in the BBQ for around 10 minutes.
Step 6
Time to scrub! Use a BBQ scrubber to scrub all of the gunk and residue off the cooking grate. Start with the central grate, then move it out of the way and clean the outer ring.
Step 7
By this point your cooking grate should be looking pretty clean, but we want to really make it shine.
Scrunch some foil into a ball, hold the foil ball with your BBQ tongs and use the ball to give the grate another scrub.
Step 8
Remove the cooking grate and repeat the process to clean your BBQ bowl and BBQ lid - start with a BBQ scrub then move onto the foil.
A key part of the BBQ cleaning process is removing any stuck on gunk from around the air blades so that they move freely and completely cover the holes, allowing you to control the airflow into your BBQ
Step 9
Re-assemble your BBQ and give it some time to cool down before moving on to cleaning the outside of your BBQ.
Step 10
Empty the ash bucket - it works great mixed with compost on your garden.
Step 11
Using just warm water and a couple of old rags, rub down and clean the outside of your BBQ. Ash is a good abrasive, so dip your rag in the ash and use it to scrub off any tough stains.
Step 12
Once your BBQ is clean enough by your standards, grab a tea towel and wipe it down and you're ready to go!
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