How To Clean A (Weber) Gas Grill: A Beginner’s Guide

It's mid-April here in Connecticut—the weather is getting warmer, we're spending a lot more time outside, which can mean only one thing:

Grilling season is about to crank up into high gear.

Each spring, I like to give my Weber gas grill a deep cleaning, from top to bottom, to make sure it's ready for multiple grilling sessions per week.

In this guide, we'll show you step-by-step how to clean a gas grill, from cleaning the inside, to maintaining the exterior. 

You should give your grill a deep-cleaning like this 1-2 times per year, depending on how often you use it.

Materials You'll Need

To clean your grill, you'll only need a handful of tools and materials:

• Paper towels (a lot of them)
• Goo Gone Grill & Grate Cleaner (an absolute must)
• Stainless steel grill brush
• BBQ gloves

Cleaning The Inside Of The Grill

Let's work our way from the inside of the grill first, and then we'll tackle the outside last.

1. Cleaning the Lid

Open up your lid and spray the inside with some Goo Gone. Use a grill brush and some paper towels to scrape away any buildup and grease.

The lid can accumulate non-toxic carbon deposits that you'll want to get rid of, so they don't fall into your food.

If you want, after each cook, get in the habit of wiping the inside of the lid with a paper towel to help prevent buildup, while the grill is still warm.

2. Cleaning the Cooking Grates

You should be cleaning your cooking grates after every cook. But we'll also give them a quick wipe here too.

With the grates still on the grill, hit them with a generous amount of Goo Gone, and give them a thorough scrubbing with your grill brush.

Then, remove the grates and set them aside for now.

3. Cleaning the Flavorizer Bars

Weber gas grills have these things called "flavorizer bars" which are meant to prevent the burners from clogs and flare-ups. If your grill has these as well, you'll want to give them a good cleaning too. 

Blast the flavorizer bars with some Goo Gone, and get to work scrubbing with your grill brush and paper towels. Then, set aside.

4. Cleaning the Burners

Weber burners consist of the burner ports and the spider screens. 

For the burner ports, clean the outside with your grill brush by brushing across the top of the ports.

You do need to be careful here: you don't want to damage the ignition electrode while brushing. 

For the spider screens, look toward the ends of the burners under the control panel where they meet the valves.

With a soft brush, clean the spider screens on each burner.

5. Cleaning the Heat Deflectors 

Next, on to the heat deflectors, which work to distribute heat evenly throughout the grill.

Give the heat deflectors a good blast of Goo Gone, and then get to work giving them a good scrubbing with your grill brush and paper towels.

As you can see, mine were incredibly filthy and took a lot of scrubbing.

6. Cleaning the Cookbox

Next up, perhaps the most difficult part of the gas grill to clean: the cookbox. You can see how terrifyingly disgusting mine is in the picture above. 

Besides just looking gross, you want to clean the cookbox to avoid having grease accumulate, which can cause flareups.

Use a scraper to push these nasty debris away from the sides and bottom of the cookbox, toward the center, where there's an opening that leads down to the slide-out grease tray.

7. Cleaning the Grease Tray

In the photo above, in the center, you can see where the debris leads into the grease tray.

And here is the tray itself, full of nasty grill gunk:

Yeah, you're gonna want to clean that out, too.

Cleaning The Outside Of The Grill

With the inside all cleaned up, it's time to move to the outside of the grill.

1. Cleaning the Stainless Steel Surfaces

The great thing about Goo Gone is that you can also use it on the outside of your grill—including the stainless steel components.

First, hit the hood of your grill with the Goo Gone, and get scrubbing.

Then, move on to the exterior of the cabinet doors and give them a good scrubbing as well.

Note: Weber specifically recommends using a microfiber cloth for this part of the cleaning. I used a paper towel—which Weber says, oddly, can cause scratching—and I thought it came out fine, but your mileage may vary.

2. Cleaning the Plastic Knobs

Don't forget to clean the grill knobs as well. 

For this, I just used a squirt of Goo Gone and wiped it down thoroughly with a paper towel.

3. Cleaning the Inside of the Cabinet

Next, we're going to clean one of the more disgusting parts of the grill: inside the cabinet. 

Use a soft, damp cloth or paper towel to thoroughly wipe all around the interior of the cabinet.

I had a TON of grease buildup in here, it looked like a living organism!

One note: just be careful not to pull on any wires here, as there is some cabling inside the cabinet.

4. Cleaning the Side Burner

Finally, don't forget about your side burner (if your grill has one).

It's the same deal as usual:

A good amount of Goo Gone, and then wipe it hard with a few paper towels.

Final Steps

With all of your grill parts clean, it's time to put the pieces back together.

1. Replace the heat deflectors.
2. Reinstall the Flavorizer bars.
3. Place the cooking grates back in their proper position.