For many years avid and recreational BBQers have been using wire brushes to clean there grill which is effective way of cleaning a grill. These grill brushes are usually very cheap and easily obtainable. However there’s a real hidden danger in using these wire brushes.
The danger that lots of folks don’t realize is the needle like size bristles that falls off the wire brushes while in use. These small bristles usually gets cough on your grates which then transfers it to your food. This risk extremely higher when using cheap brushes from places like the dollar stores or using pretty worn brushes to save a penny.
If swallowed these little tin size razor sharp bristles can cause lots of damage to your mouth, throats and internal intestines. It’s also extremely painful! Doctors are having lots of difficulty finding these tiny bristle ounce swallowed. There’s also no sure-fire way to remove the thin, razor-sharp metal bristles after they've have been swallowed by accident. Ounce removed they usually leave lots of damage behind. The Canadian surgeons are also urging all backyard cooks to throw out there wire-bristled brushes.
Here’s some safe alternative to using wire brushes:
- Onions: You can cut them in half and use the onion with a set of tongs to clean your hot grill. The acid in the onion loosens and removes most of the residues on your grates but doesn’t work as well as a brush. However it works well enough. It also helps season your grates with a little onion flavor. There’s also a BBQ accessory called the Grillion that you can get to make you cleaning with onion easier.
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- Crumpled up foil in a ball: Crumpling tinfoil into a ball and rubbing it around the grill with a pair of tongs works fairly well as well. The bonus is that most BBQers always have tin foil around.
- Wooden Scrapers: The wooden scrapper’s works extremely well for cleaning your grill it quickly conform to the cooking grates over time. It’s very effective and it pretty much works like a paint scraper and pretty much gets the side of the grates as well. They are pretty cheap to get but must be replaced after a while of heavy use.
- Bristleless brush: These brushes are made from 2 galvanized steel springs that are twisted to form a continual spiral which eliminates the threat of bristles breaking free. Works good but takes considerably more pressure and scraping to get the job done.
- Grillstone cleaning blocks: These are made from recycled glass and look like pumice stones. These are very good at getting tough deposits off cooking grates and will conform to the pattern of the grill grates but take a while to conform to the grates.
Epidemiology of Wire-Bristle Grill Brush Injury in the United States, 2002-2014
As you can see its a very good ideal to get rid of your BBQ wire brush to protect yourself and guest from serious injury. You can get good quality wood scrapers at your local BBQ stores and Costco.
