PREVENTION
Maintenance guides for 2026
Almost every problem documented on this site is cheaper to prevent than to diagnose. These six routines cover the whole calendar, from the five minutes after tonight's cook to the hour that gets the grill through winter.
EVERY COOK
The 5-Minute After-Cook Routine
Almost every problem on this site is cheaper to prevent than to diagnose, and most of the prevention happens in the five minutes after the food comes off, while the grill is still hot. Residue that wipes away at 500°F takes a putty knife and an hour once it has cooled and set.
5 minutes · 8 stepsSEASONAL
Deep Cleaning Schedule by Grill Type
A deep clean is not the after-cook routine done harder. It means taking the cooker apart far enough to reach the surfaces that the brush never touches: burner tubes, flame tamers, the firebox floor, the inside of the lid and the grease channel. How often you need to do it depends entirely on what you are burning.
90 minutes to 3 hours · 8 stepsSURFACE CARE
Seasoning Grates and Cast Iron the Right Way
Seasoning is not oiling. It is the process of converting a very thin layer of oil into a hard polymer bonded to the metal, and the two things that decide whether it works are how thin the layer is and how far above the oil’s smoke point you take it. Almost every failed seasoning attempt is too much oil at too low a temperature.
2 hours mostly unattended · 7 stepsEND OF SEASON
Winterizing and Off-Season Storage
A grill that comes out of storage rusted, seized or mouse-damaged was almost always put away in that condition and simply given six months to develop. Winterizing is an hour of work in fall that removes an afternoon of repair in spring.
2 hours · 8 stepsGAS SAFETY
Propane, Regulator and Leak Checks
The soapy-water leak check takes two minutes and is the only home test that reliably finds a propane leak. It should be run every time a tank is connected, at the start of every season, and any time you smell gas — and it needs nothing more than dish soap and a brush.
20 minutes · 8 stepsACCURACY
Calibrating a Thermometer With Ice and Boiling Water
Two reference points exist that you can reproduce in any kitchen without equipment: the freezing point and the boiling point of water. Between them they tell you whether a thermometer is accurate at the low end, the high end, or neither — and the whole test takes about ten minutes.
10 minutes · 7 steps