I've been using balls of crumpled up aluminum foil held with tongs. My father grills more often than I do and I bought him a dedicated tool for grill cleaning from a craft fair; it's a brass disk on a stick, with various grate profiles cut out of the disk. It works well, but is a little slower than some other tools. Looks like the creator has a web store now[1].

1. https://www.grillgadget.com/

I like this idea but cleaning each little grill bar individually sounds too time consuming.

I was just thinking about this. I’m thinking of laying a wet towel over it and scrubbing it furiously with this mallet looking smashy thingie my wife hasn’t used once in 20 years.

Edit: I’ve been thrown out of the kitchen. I will look into some other peoples suggestions.

A meat tenderizer?

Moments like this are exactly why I came out of my shell and started communicating with people again. I googled that, confirmed you are right, confronted my wife, and now I own a brand new (very old) meat tenderizer in the garage.

Works wonders on fajita meat (flank or skirt steak).

Something like a wooden Cedar scraper https://www.thecedarscraper.com/en/ Over time it will burn to form ridges to match the grill plate

I use a regular plank of wood. It's been 2 years, it already has deep ridges.

Seriously you can clean them the same way you clean any other greasy cooking utensil. Those green plastic scrubbers (like scotch guard) work fine.

I have a small bbq and I just take the grills off and put them in the dishwasher! That has a non-stick coating so I wouldn’t want to use a wire brush anyway. The large bbq just gets a hand wash.

If they're what I'm thinking of the green ones will score stainless steel, so consider testing first. The blue non scratching ones may not be quite as effective, but are a lot less dangerous to your pots, pans and other kitchen equipment.

What kind of nonstick coating survives the high temperatures present in a grill?

Probably a ceramic coating.

Just don't use a scotchbrite on a hot grill.

Ha! There's really little reason to try "cleaning" a hot grill.

I can come up with three reasons. First is to remove beef residue before cooking chicken. Second is to prevent chicken from sticking - a clean grill with fresh oil sprayed on it works best. Third is that, when running a grill for a number of hours at a time, you generally can't afford to shut the grill off to clean it.

I've used balled up aluminum foil, wet newspaper, and wooden scrapers. All of them work but I like the wooden scrapers best because they're easier to apply pressure with. You can use any plank of wood really. Do it while the grill is hot and you'll wear grooves into the wood.

Grill stones: https://smile.amazon.com/Grillstone-Grill-Cleaning-Refill-Pa...

I’ve been using a wooden scraper like this for the last few years and it has worked well:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0728C5VQN

Half a potato, or half a lemon. That is what we usually use.

There are brushes that don't use bristles. For example: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B073VHLQNW/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?ie=U...

FYI that one is a Chinese knock-off of the Kona brush I mentioned in my comment.

The so-called knockoff looks like a much thicker wire is used. And Kona is selling an even more prone bristle brush: https://amzn.to/2GT3GyE

So I'd go with the generic versus a label that is knowingly producing a dangerous bristle brush.

1/2 an onion, potato, or lemon works. You can also take some tinfoil and wrap it around the end of your grill tongs to scrape the grates.

I love using onion as I've found that it (subtly) helps season the food cooked on the grill.

I usually burn off the grill and will scrub it clean using Aluminum foil.

I have been using a wooden one for the last year. It's about 18" x 5" x 1/2", has a oar-like handle carved in one end, and a taper in the other. I think it's made of cedar. It starts to get groves from the grill as you use it, but even without those it is effective, you just have to angle it to get stuff off the sides of each rung/wire (whatever those are called). Compared to a bristled brush it usually only takes one pass.

They sell bristle-less brushes that essentially have interlocking metal loops. They're much safer but they aren't quite as effective. There are also wooden cleaners and funny-looking cleaners that resemble a cross between a sponge and a pumice stone you can use.

Really, if you go to the grill aisle of Home Depot (or whatever similar store) you'll see plenty of choices.

I used the pumice-thingie for years, until it turned black. That and an old butterknife to scrape off the chunkier bits.

There are non-bristle brushes available such as this one. I have one and they aren't as effective as a regular brush but at least you don't have the risk:

https://www.konabbqstore.com/products/safe-clean-grill-brush...

I think if any of the wire loops break you have the same risk.

I use something like this: https://www.napoleongrills.com/accessories/accessory-details...

Not as effective, but safe.

I have a plastic bristle brush, but of course it can't be used when the grill is hot. It works ok for getting off large bits of char, but I think I will explore other alternatives this season.

Get it really hot and pour boiling water on it. That works with my Weber 100. (With my Genesis I just wait until it catches fire then frantically put it out with the garden hose.)

As I remember, they suggested mumbled aluminium foil.

Scrub with a crumpled up a wad of aluminum foil.

This is what I've been using, works great but you have to use quite a bit of it and get a large chunk of it. You can re-use it, though. You don't have to get a new piece every time you clean the grill.

I use the metal scraper on the back side of the brush and then a conventional kitchen scourer pad. Or pop it in the dishwasher.

Foil. Ball it up a bit, rub it on grates, done.

A wooden paddle scraper works well. After a couple uses on a hot grill the wood burns in grooves that fit the grate perfectly.

I use a piece of wood to scrape the grill, once is hot (it makes it easier). You may finish with some old newspaper.

clearly the alternative is a startup for self cleaning grills.

We have found at http://8-food.com/ that sanitation systems are basically the core tech in robotic food prep.

iCLaner (sic), bluetooth grill and scraper that lets you know when to clean, only 19.99 per month

i'm not sure how it would need bluetooth, just a decent mechanical setup would work.

copper sponge