I don't clean the flavorizer bars until end of summer when I give the whole grill a good cleaning for winterizing. Otherwise, I burn off the grates with a super hot fire and then use a wire brush to finish. The flavorizer bars will burn off anything remaining or at least I don't see much there to worry about. Good luck with your grill, you are going to love it and get many years use.

I pull mine out and scrape them off maybe 3-4 times a year. I also just replaced mine after 3 years because they were getting rusty. I grill year round and maybe 3-4 times a week this time of year and one a week during the winter months so it gets a lot of use.

Like wheely boy, I grill year round. Maybe 2-3 times a year I take everything out of the grill and scrape it down. Flavorizor bars, inside walls of the grill, the slide out bottom... Clean out as much stuff as I can. But other than that I pretty much just de-coke and brush the grills after cooking.

I did replace both my grills and my bars with stainless steel replacement about about 3-4 years or so. I'm sure the porcelain parts would have lasted longer if I had cleaned them more often.

I use mine to much to clean,but I really love it.
You need to check out this site if you really love to
bar-b-que. Just go to www.grilltrap.com

cajun cat

Weber recomends that you do not do a burn off when you are finished cooking. This is per their manual for the Sumit Platinum D6 which I just bought.

Instead, they recommend that you do the burnoff right before the next time you cook. They say leaving the "stuff" on the grills between cooking sessions prevents them from rusting.

I just brush off the bars when done cooking, but I never heard of what pesto sauce just recommended. It seems to make a lot of sense. Other than rusting I have not heard of Webers having many problems, maybe this is the solution!

Here is a link that might be useful: Weber Propane Grills