Grill maintenance
 

I have a SS grill that has three "H-shaped" cast iron burners fed with
natural gas. The grill is about 5 years old and gets used 3-5 times a
week. Over the years, I've noticed that it has become more difficult to
light, that the heat has become uneven and that the hottest setting just
isn't as hot as I recalled it. The changes were very, very gradual, but
I decided it was time to do some deep digging for the problem.

What I found was that the holes in the cast iron burners were plugged.
The plug appeared to be a combination of hardened drippings, rust and
corrosion.

I removed the burners by clipping the pin that held the outer end down,
then pulling them from the orifice on the other end. I took them to the
shop and first wire brushed them lightly to remove any old drippings.
The next step was to locate a drill bit that fit the holes- about 5/32"
in my case, and start drilling. Some holes were open and offered no
resistance. Some were almost like drilling out the cast iron, but most
were just a case of drilling out old rust and corrosion. I then blew
the burners out with compressed air, and man oh man did that make a
cloud outside the shop.

Before reassembly, I scraped and vacuumed out the tub with my shop vac,
then reassembled. All three burners lit perfectly, had virtually no
yellow in the flame after adjusting the air intake, except for the flame
tip, and the heat felt very even again to my untrained hand.

I'm mentioning this to the group because I suspect it's not something
unique to just my grill or cooking style. Even the cast iron burners
need to have their holes cleaned out occasionally and the result can be
almost like getting a new grill.

Nonny
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---Nonnymus---

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