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Rose Maura Lorre is a writer who has reported on turkey fryers, composters, body pillows, and more. water and sewage treatment
A good outdoor grill is designed to withstand the raging flames of an open fire, even when they reach temperatures as high as 600 °F or more. But come winter, that same piece of seemingly invincible cooking machinery is no match against a little ice and snow.
“Moisture from snow, rain, and condensation accelerates the corrosion of any piece of metal equipment,” said senior staff writer Tim Heffernan, who co-wrote our gas grill guide. “Most grills have a lot of painted carbon steel in their construction, but paint wears off and then rust sets in,” he explained. “The nuts and bolts, meanwhile, are usually zinc-plated carbon steel, but the zinc plating is sacrificial. Once it starts disappearing, they will rust too.”
But if you give your grill a little annual TLC before winter sets in, you’ll be able to enjoy it for years and years to come. “It’s a longevity issue,” said senior staff writer Lesley Stockton, also a co-author of our gas grill guide. “If you don’t ever winterize your grill, it’ll simply age much more quickly,” she added. In her guide to cleaning a grill, Leslie notes that her father’s Weber Genesis has lasted nearly 20 years, with routine maintenance and parts replacement.
Fortunately, winterizing a grill—whether it’s a gas, charcoal, or pellet grill—is easier than you probably think. Here’s how to do it.
Every time you use your grill, it’s good practice to give it a quick once-over afterward—by scraping food and gunk off of the grates and, for a charcoal or pellet grill, emptying any ashes. But at least once a year (or more, if you think your grill needs it), a thorough cleaning is necessary to keep your appliance performing at its best. And there’s one good reason for that: “Clean burners work more reliably,” Tim explained.
The perfect time to do this is at the end of the grilling season—ideally on a sunny day—to help the grill and its parts dry faster and more completely. “Even if you grill well into the fall season, it’s a good idea to wipe it clean of summer’s burgers and dogs and start fresh,” Lesley said. Tim agreed and rightly pointed out: “If you wait until winter when it’s genuinely cold outside, you’ll never do it.”
By doing a deep cleaning at the end of the grilling season, you also have the chance to check whether any parts need replacing before the next year. In her grill-cleaning guide, Lesley reports that “burner hoods and cooking grates in particular take a lot of abuse and aren’t meant to last forever.” But, as an added bonus, this actually makes the job easier to tackle.
“Grease hardens as it ages, becoming almost wax-like, so cleaning the thing now will be easier than in the spring,” Tim explained. “It also means you won’t begin the next season with a filthy, possibly rancid grill to deal with, because as your grill sits unused, food bits and grease left on the grill will go bad and possibly attract vermin.”
The grill-cleaning guide walks you through the steps—including what supplies you’ll need—whether you have a gas, charcoal, or pellet grill. Even if your grill is in disgusting shape, you should be able to deep-clean it in about an hour, tops.
We also recommend donning gloves to protect your hands while you work. (We like these dish gloves from Elgood). Grills have a lot of sharp parts. Plus, if you’re working with ash from a charcoal or pellet grill, remember that “ashes plus water equals lye,” Tim cautioned. You don’t want to come into contact with that stuff.
A grill’s metal components (meaning, your entire grill) can corrode from coming into contact with air and water. A great way to prevent this is to treat as much of your grill as possible with a thin coat of oil.
During grilling season, we recommend using any vegetable oil to coat the grates. But for the off-season, Tim said he recommends vegetable shortening (like Crisco) instead. “Because it contains saturated fat, it will not go rancid or get sticky nearly as quickly,” he explained.
On unpainted, non-cooking surfaces, like bolts, screws, knobs, and wheel axles, Tim said he suggests using a bare-metal protectant like WD-40 or Boeshield T-9. (He describes the latter as “WD-40 on steroids.”) Both of these water displacement products ward off corrosion by leaving a protective film on surfaces. They’re also not affected by severe cold, Tim said, and they don’t get sticky and stinky over time, like a layer of cooking oil.
If your grill has a stainless steel body, it’s also a good idea to wipe it with some WD-40 or Boeshield T-9 on a rag. “They’re excellent solvents for grease,” Tim said, “so a wipedown leaves the steel looking nice and shiny again.”
A grill’s ignition is usually charged by a AA battery that should spend the winter indoors, removed from the grill so it doesn’t corrode. The battery is typically located behind or near the igniter button, but check your grill’s manual for its location, if needed.
You can store it in any dry, indoor location. Lesley said she recommends labeling it as your grill battery and keeping it wherever you usually stash batteries. This way you don’t have to go hunting for it come spring.
It’s fine to leave a propane tank outside for the winter (more on that below). But if you plan to keep it stored under your grill through the off-season, you should unscrew it from the grill itself for a couple of reasons.
Lesley said that if the hose isn’t detached and the tank valve isn’t fully turned off, “the propane might seep out, and you’ll come back to an empty tank in the spring.” Tim added that corrosion is another consideration here. “You really don’t want the connections to the tank or any part of the tank itself getting corroded,” he said. “The hose connectors are brass, so they won’t rust, but they can get galvanic corrosion if they’re left on and get wet repeatedly.”
AmeriGas, the largest propane company in the US, states in its safety guidelines that “storing propane tanks outdoors is perfectly safe.” It also notes that “freezing temperatures aren’t a problem for propane—in fact, you don’t even need to cover your tank when storing it outdoors in the winter.”
If you’re leaving your grill outside for the winter, the tank can stay in its usual location underneath the grill body. But if you’re planning to move your grill indoors to hibernate, the propane should not come with it. Instead, it can go in a shed or a detached garage (so long as you don’t park your car there). Otherwise, it’s fine to leave it on a flat surface away from your house, uncovered.
Perhaps the best weatherproofing you can provide for any type of grill is to give it some kind of shelter during the winter. Both Tim and Lesley agreed that storing a grill fully indoors (like in a garage or basement) is ideal. If that’s not an option, you can try putting it in a shed, on a covered porch, or under a deck or awning.
When there’s no indoor or covered space to store your grill, a good grill cover can be a lifesaver.
If your gas grill didn’t come with a cover, we recommend this generic cover from Unicook; it costs about $30 and is designed to accommodate grills from several major brands. Senior editor Chris Ryan has ordered custom covers from a company called Covers & All. This company lets you choose the size and material from a range of options, and it offers some other features (such as if you want tie-downs to keep the cover more secure).
One caveat: “After a spell of wet weather, removing the cover for a day or two to let the grill dry in the sun is a good idea,” Tim said. “A cover will keep precipitation out, but that same waterproof property means it will trap condensation and humid air inside.”
If you’ve made it to the end of this article, and you’re dreading the to-do list that’s been laid out for you, there is another option: Just keep grilling year-round. While you shouldn’t avoid deep cleaning your grill when it’s needed, you can skip the rest if you plan on regularly using the device. Just keep it covered between uses, and, as noted above, be sure to uncover it and air it out after a spell of wet weather.
This article was edited by Megan Beauchamp and Catherine Kast.
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Rose Maura Lorre is a senior staff writer. Her byline has appeared in The New York Times, Esquire, Salon, Business Insider, HGTV Magazine, and many more. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, her daughter, one dog, two cats, and lots and lots of houseplants.
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