I know why you’re here the BBQs gleaming in the sun, you go to put the cover on and it’s covered in dirt. Cleaning a grill cover is straight forward and should be part of a good BBQ maintenance schedule.
So you’re here to learn the correct ways on how to clean a grill cover. Before we get into that don’t go getting all of those crazy aggressive chemicals from under your kitchen sink.
The Method, How to clean a grill cover
A very easy way to clean your grill cover that should not discolour or damage your grill cover is to get yourself:
- Washing up bowl
- Washing up liquid
- Warm water
- Dish cloth
- Blue cloth/towel for drying
Remove your grill cover from your BBQ before you start cleaning. Don’t clean it while it’s on the BBQ, the water will get in to the BBQ and rust could appear in the future.
Remove any food residue or hard debris you may have spilt this should just wipe away without the need for soapy water. If it doesn’t remove with a dry cloth don’t agitate it instead start to rub with the hot soapy water and the dish cloth.
Give the hot soapy water a good scrub all over the BBQ cover, most of the easy to remove dirt and debris will clean from the cover with very little effort. Be prepared for a tiny bit of good old fashioned elbow grease to remove set in dirt, i wouldn’t go too crazy scrubbing at the dirt, you also don’t want to damage the cover.
Give it a good pat dry once you are satisfied it’s cleaned thoroughly, or it will dry out in the sun on a warm day. It’s wise to make sure it is fully dry before re-covering your BBQ with the cover.
If you’ve given the grill cover a good clean and you find some stain marks on the cover, read on.
How to clean the inside of a grill cover?
Follow the exact same methods on the outside of your grill cover to clean the inside.
Cleaning the inside is more important than cleaning the outside in my opinion because this is the surface coming into contact with the BBQ. Food residue or sticky substances if left for a long period of time like over the winter could damage the BBQ exterior.
How to get stains out of a grill cover?
Stains are a little tricky to get out of a BBQ cover however it mostly can be done. I found the best product to use was washing machine clothing stain remover suitable for coloured clothes and a clean dish cloth work very well.
Spray a small amount of stain remover to the effected area and give it a little scrub, rinse away the stain remover with warm water. I’ve needed to repeat this process several times to remove stains to a standard I was happy with.
Unfortunately, no amount of scrubbing will completely remove certain stains like red wine from a light colour grill cover. You may be able to dull the stain but not remove it completely.
Can you machine wash a grill cover?
I recommend never putting your grill cover in the washing machine. Certain materials don’t respond well to the harsh chemicals and the heat of a washing machine. Very good quality grill covers are quite heavy duty and the rate at which a washing machine can spin could cause irreversible damage.
I do know some people wash there grill covers regularly on a low heat in the washing machine without any issues.
If the manufacturer of the grill cover doesn’t recommend to do it, then I also recommend that you don’t do it. I’ve always found a good quality grill cover comes at a price and I wouldn’t want to fork out for a new one regularly so I’m sure you don’t either.
Summary
Hopefully you should be clued up on how to clean a grill cover now and as you can see cleaning your gill cover is very straight forward. A good BBQ cleaning schedule helps to keep all of your grilling equipment in the best condition for next time.