What Happens If Your Grill Isn’t Cleaned?

You’ve come to the correct place if you’re looking for some cringe-worthy stuff! There’s a reason your mother worked so hard to instil in you the habit of tidying up after yourself.

This essay is structured by order of magnitude on the “Disgusting” scale, so if you begin to feel dizzy, stop reading. However, if you have a strong stomach, the last step may cause you nightmares.

Without further ado, here’s what happens if you fail to clean your grill:

MAINTENANCE REQUIREMENTS WILL GO UNNOTICED BY YOU.

Cleaning a barbecue correctly entails more than simply scraping away excess fat and food. It’s also a good time to peek beneath the hood (or lid?) and make sure everything is in functioning order.

Grills, like anything else, do not endure forever. They require upkeep. Burners can clog or degrade, rust can eat away at the metal, and hoses/gas lines can fracture and age.

Professional cleaning is an excellent opportunity to ensure that everything is in good working order on a regular basis. A expert will know how to disassemble the grill without destroying it and will be able to go into nooks and crannies that you were probably unaware of. This, together with regular inspection and maintenance, may substantially increase the life of your grill!

STAINS FROM GREASE

Not all of the oil burns away. Typically, a grease catch is located at the bottom of the grill. If this isn’t cleaned and maintained correctly, there’s a good chance of an overflow.

Aside from being a fire danger, this can result in melted fat seeping and splashing all over your barbecue. If you have your barbecue on a patio or a concrete slab, this might leave a terrible stain that is virtually hard to remove.

YOUR FOOD WILL HAVE A FUNKY TASTE.

This one shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. We’ve all seen how when you’re done cooking, you end up with a slew of leftovers all over the place. Obviously, these don’t last forever.

You’ll be exposing fresh meats to old filth if you don’t clean your grill. When bits of meat stuck to the grill detach and stick to what you’re cooking, this happens. Furthermore, the remaining oil, fats, and meat bits on the bottom of the grill will eventually go up in smoke, giving your meal a new (or not so new) covering.

A LOT OF BACTERIA WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU.

Imagine how much oil and meat pieces could accumulate after a few months of hanging out in the sun. You might believe that cranking up the heat or utilising a “autoclean” option will be enough to get rid of everything, but this isn’t always the case.

Heat is focused in the cooking area of your grill. It doesn’t get nearly as hot underneath the burners, where fats and grease tend to collect. This may not be enough to kill whatever is being grown there.

This is why a thorough cleaning, involving some disassembly and degreasing, can help to keep bacteria away from your food.

CARCINOGENS IN COOKING

Numerous studies have shown that incinerating meat, particularly meats with a high fat content, produces carcinogens.

PAHs are generated in particular when amino acids and creatine are burnt to charcoal. Amino acids and creatine are naturally abundant in red meat, particularly fatty cuts.

When these greases are burned into charcoal on your grill, the resultant smoke is high in cancer-causing PAHs, which contaminates your meal.

If you want to learn more about reducing carcinogens in your grill, read our article about how they get there and what you can do about it:

Is it true that a clean grill is a healthier grill?

YOU COULD START A MOLD FARM.

If you haven’t used your grill in a while, you might be surprised to find white fuzzies growing in patches all over it. This can be extremely hazardous!

Mold like dampness, dark, humid environments, and grease. This implies that if you use a grill cover, you may be producing exactly the greenhouse conditions that mould seeks.

Staying on top of grease accumulation is the key to preventing mould from taking over your barbecue. It’s mould food.

If you need to get rid of mould, you should definitely consider hiring a specialist. Many individuals are allergic to the spores that might be produced as a result of washing, and they can make you quite unwell.

Use no chlorine or solvents. Intense heat is the only thing that will successfully destroy these spores.

After the grill has cooled, you should clean – or perhaps power wash – the entire thing. Everything should be cleaned in hot soapy water and thoroughly rinsed. If you leave any oily patches, the mould will most likely spread again.

Then, give it one more scorching round on max. This will destroy any remaining spores that survived the initial blast and scrub.

RODENTS

I promised I’d keep the best (or worst?) for last.

Grills make excellent mouse houses. They’re the right size, dark, and silent. They’re also stocked with delicious, fatty food in case you forget to scrub.

You may have had tenants if you haven’t used your barbecue in a while.

The truly revolting thing is that rats, mice, and squirrels haven’t figured out indoor plumbing and aren’t known to use outhouses.

That is, they leave excrement and pee wherever they go.

This is why it is essential to thoroughly clean your grill before and after each season. You don’t want to be smoking your meat with rat droppings that have been roasting.

The startling part is that this is not unusual. Rats and mice eat almost exactly what we do. It’s too wonderful to pass up when they smell the fatty goodness of a whole season’s worth of grilling.

You’ve got it now.

Please don’t invite me over for supper if, after reading this, you still don’t feel the need to fully clean your grill.

If, on the other hand, you believe it would be a good idea to hire a professional to manage it, please contact us!