Looking after your grill is a lot less hassle than you probably think. Here's a quick guide on how to clean your barbecue and when.

Outside

To keep the outside of your barbecue sparkling clean use one of the Weber cleaning sprays. If your barbecue is a shiny black, use the enamel cleaner, if it's a stainless steel finish use Weber's stainless steel cleaner.

For the outside of your Traeger use either warm soapy water or, if grease has built up, the Traeger all natural cleaner or Weber's grate cleaner.

Grates

You should be cleaning your grates every time you use your barbecue, the easiest way to do this is before you cook rather than after. This means that after cooking you don't have to rush to clean the grates — let the fat crystallise and come back to it later.

Before cleaning light your barbecue and let it come up to temperature with the lid down. This is called the burn-off method. If you want, once the barbecue is hot lift the lid and clean the grates with a wire cleaning brush. Don't be afraid to put your back into it, if your barbecue is of good quality the brush won't damage the grates.

If grease and fat have built up on your grates you can use the Weber grate cleaner or the Traeger all natural cleaner, which is food safe and amazing at dissolving fat and grime.

Grease

All Weber gas barbecues, and the SmokeFire range, have disposable drip trays underneath to collect the fat that drips down whilst cooking, these can be emptied and washed between uses. You don't need to empty your drip tray every time you use the barbecue but keep an eye on fat build-up as it can cause a grease fire if left unchecked.

Weber charcoal barbecues collect fat in the same way the collect ash so you can use the ash cleaning features to clean the fat and grease, as with the drip trays make sure your ash catcher isn't collecting too much fat as this can catch fire if allowed to collect.

The Traeger barbecues will collect fat on the drip tray liners, which can be disposed of depending on how often you use the barbecue and the type of food you are cooking.

Ash/Dust

The Weber SmokeFires will collect ash along with the grease in the drip tray, we also recommend you hoover inside the barbecue about once a season depending on how often you use the grill.

Traeger grills should be hoovered out of sawdust about once a season depending on usage.

Weber charcoal barbecues have rotating blades to help collect ash in the ash catcher pan below. For best results use these blades every other cook or so and empty the ash catcher when necessary.

Cookbox

The inside of your barbecue should be cleaned thoroughly about once a season depending on how much you use it. Charcoal and pellet grills can be hoovered out to clear out ash and dust. Scrape the cookbox using a cookbox scraper and brush, and clean the inside of the barbecue of grease and grime using warm soapy water or a dedicated grease cleaner with a sponge or microfibre cloth.

The Weber Genesis and Summit gas ranges have a removable grease tray underneath the barbecue for easy of cleaning