How To Clean And Maintain Your Barbecue

So summer is knocking on the door once again. And what better way yo celebrate that than with a nice garden barbecue. Eating outside or doing a picnic is a great idea for almost any sunny day. Yet again why not creating an entire kitchen in the garden. Although is great fun, at the end of the day the barbecue needs some good cleaning in order to be ready for the nest wonderful day out. So here are some tips and advices you may find useful when facing that type of cleaning.

First of all check the parts of the barbecue that can be easily disassembled. Gather all the metal parts alongside with the metal tools that can fit in the dishwasher and put them in as soon as they cool down a bit. Put only metal parts and tools in the dishwasher because if there is some wood or other material it can be easily disintegrated. And if those parts are too big to go into the machine simply soak them in some kind of a large bucket. Put them in some dish washing solution and add some abrasive cleaner on the parts. Leave them to soak like that and when the dirt is soft enough it will fall down easily.

Of course as with everything the barbecues are also divided to types. The most common are the gas ones and the charcoal ones. Cleaning them is quite different so let's take a look at some of the methods.

Starting with the charcoal barbecue. Remember to not throw water over the hot charcoals once done with the cooking process. As tempting it may sound, that's the best way to create a big mess. If you want to cool the barbecue quickly you can try by spraying a thin mist of water over it or, try putting on some sand. But if you're not in such of a hurry just leave it as is. The charcoals will cool down by themselves plus you will be able to use them once again for the next meal. To perform a full clean up, wait until the charcoals are completely cold. Then throw them away, or keep them for later. It's really up to you. Then remove the ashes. If your barbecue is fancy enough you should have a drawer underneath when the ashes are gathered so that will definitely make your job quite easier. If not you can just use some kind of a large spoon or a garden trowel to sweep it out. A little tip, if you want to avoid getting covered with ashes simply dampen the business end of the tool that you sweep with and it will just all stick to it.

Next, for cleaning the body use some hot water mixed with soap and a smooth cloth. Most barbecues can handle even some tough cleaners so a commercial oven cleaner can just do the trick. Even so it's not a bad idea to call up some professional cleaners to clean the barbecue for you just in case. They will make it as good as new and ready for the next year of fun in the garden.

When it comes to the gas barbecues things are a lot easier. You don't have to deal with ashes and that's quite an advantage. The lava rocks inside the gas barbecue don't need some special cleaning. Just a few minutes of high temperature after the cooking is done will just do the trick. When they eventually go dirty just turn them over, and after that simply replace them. It's as easy as that. Of course you can still clean the body of the barbeque, but that should be done once a year.

In Conclusion

Cleaning the barbecue sure has some tricks that need to be followed, but having a gas one gives the advantage when it comes to that. Of course some say that the taste of the charcoal is irreplaceable. So it's really up to you.