Wow! Thank you. I guess, if you finish up the ol' AB way, you might be ok. He cleans the grill with a rolled up dishtowel, lightly oiled, after the wire brush.

AB's way

Yup that's what I do but I'm even rethinking that.

Thanks for the warning and the AB way. I usually leave making fires outdoors to the menfolk, so I'm glad to be informed.

This type injury has been making the news the last few years, maybe its the quality of wire grill brushes we are being offered ;) And its not just throat, those wires are actually being swallowed where they can require abdominal surgery.

I got rid of my wire brushes years ago. I mostly burn any food off our gas grill by turning it to high when done cooking, follow up with a nylon scrubbie when the grill has cooled - and an occasional soak that it rarely needs.

that's scary and BTW I do not like fish bones either b/c worry about swallowing them or something.

Not that you should not be careful, but worrying can kill you too:

"Choking due to a foreign object resulted in 162,000 deaths in 2013 up from 140,000 deaths in 1990"

Please don't stop eating because you are afraid of choking.

dcarch

Choking on the bristle from a grill brush doesn't seem to be the issue, it's having the wire perforate the digestive system somewhere along its travels that is the bigger concern. Most of the people who inadvertently swallowed one weren't aware they had....

Risk may well be small, but I prefer not to serve foods with risks and no longer use that method cleaning, not for a few years.

What sort of cleaning utensil do you use instead of a wire brush? I had a wire brush a couple of years ago that when the plastic that held the bristles got hot, the bristles would fall out. I replaced it with a heavy duty, and more expensive, brush, but it does lose a bristle once in a great while. I've had the misfortune of tasting a bristle in a kabob, but thankfully did not swallow it.

Like morz, Elery burns the residue off the grill, and when it's cool I give it a scrub with one of those green scrubbie things I use for pots and pans. Before use, we give it the old AB treatment with oiled cloth and tongs.

Like nearly everything we get now, grill brushes are junk and the bristles fall out, the plastic melts, the handles break or come apart. We want things cheap and we got 'em.

Annie

We don't have a large grill - just a couple of small tabletop grills, but I wash & store the metal grates inside the house after every use. They still look like new.

What can I say, get with it! you guys are so old fashioned.

dcarch :-) :-) :-)

haha. I can just see someone putting one of those on a hot grill.

We have always disliked grill kits. Often get left out and fall apart. Had a few given to us as gifts. But we just use the Annie method. Use what we have and use tongs when it is hot. Clean it before starting a fire.

Washing the grates defeats the whole purpose in having a grill. <lol>

I just use a wire brush. I tried one of those kind of "scrunchie" things recommend by America's Test Kitchen but didn't like how it worked. Can't say I have found a wire from the brush anywhere. But now I'm thinking wiping it off afterwards might not be a bad idea.

Buy your grill brushes in the paint supply area of the home big box stores. Professional painters wont use brass or steel brushes where the bristle fall out or the handles break.

From what I learned, it's not big pieces of wire but rather 1/8-1/4" pieces and some even smaller. The pieces get caught in the throat, esophagus, stomach or intestines and cause serious problems most requiring surgery. As for it being a minor issue, we live in an area with a population under 45,000 and the local hospital sees several cases each year so...

Do not buy from the paint dept. They always break down and are not at all good for anything food. Big box stores for a commercial painter use very low end suppliers...they fall apart so easily and are not at all food safe. Even most of the cheap brushes put together with cheap glues fall apart slowly and you will have brush hairs in your food. Metals in your food.

Professional painters/contractors do not use big box stores.

Best to just use the high heat from your grill to burn off the carbon build-up.

Prepped properly you will not have food stuck all over your grill. If it happens, (like me and my fails so often)... take the grill/grate part out and clean it properly when it is cool. Scrub it any way you want, but rinse it well and pay attention.

I've always found that a bit of scrunched up aluminum foil makes a decent scrubby for tough spots as long as the grill is still warmish, followed by a good scrub with a regular plastic scrubby to make sure any overlooked bits of foil are gone along with the rest of the residue. (I have a plain old charcoal grill, so no high heat option, which I would use instead if available.)