Mr Grill 18 inch grill cleaning brush

 http://www.mrgrillproducts.com/

This was another one of those weird deals that comes along infrequently where someone asked me to review their product.  Most of the time, I just decline.  I am mainly here for the BBQ and because I'm just too lazy to answer the same questions over and over about where we've been lately, what was good, etc.  I'm really not here to get free stuff or because I am going to write a book or sell koozies.  I just like BBQ.  However, as a BBQ lover, and a lover of meat in general, the wife and I do some grilling from time to time.  This looked like an interesting product that we could use, so when Mr Grill asked if we would like a free grill brush in return for a review I said, sure, why not.

This was back in May of this year and they had asked for a fairly quick review here, plus a review post on Amazon.com.  It has taken me much longer than anticipated to get this done and I apologize to Mr Grill for the delay.  Part of the problem has been we have not done a lot of grilling this season.  In order to do a good test of this product I wanted to use it several times under different conditions, not just a one time test and a quick review.  Once again, I was provided this product free of charge by the folks at Mr Grill.

As a practicing carnivore we tried out this grill brush with several different meats and in a couple of different situations.  First off we fired up the box for some good old ribeyes.  The key thing about this brush is the 18 inch long wooden handle.  They recommend that you use it while your grill is still hot for easiest removal of food particles from the grill surface.  We have a simple, heavy wire grate that is probably about 15 years old.  After cooking the steaks I did some scrubbing with the Mr Grill brush while the meat rested.  Here is what the grate looked like before and after.  As always you can click on the photos for larger views.

Now this was done while the coals were still plenty hot.  I think it did a pretty nice job.  The pitting on the close up is just because it is a 15 year old grate that has seen lots of use.  Food particles washed out easily from the brush with the hose.

Next up, several weeks later, we grilled up some hamburgers.  My wife wanted to scrub the grate as usual and she found the pre-cleaning done last time after cooking the steaks saved her considerable time.  All she needed to do was do a quick scrub with a fine brillo and some soap and water and we were ready to go.  No more digging off dried and encrusted food particles.  The Mrs liked this.
One again here's the before and after pictures.

Again, a quick scrub and most of the mess was gone.  With the long wooden handle, I didn't even need to wear a glove, even though the coals were still smoking hot.

Our next use of the product was on our little bullet smoker.  The Mrs decided to smoke some chicken.  Her secret marinade means it does not come out very pretty, but it sure is delicious, moist and smokey.  She has been experimenting with adding glazes to the last part of the cooking in order to make her smoked chicken "prettier".  That meant there was a sticky mess on the grill surface when we finished the smoke.  I have to say this was the one "fail" for this grill brush, however I think that was mostly operator error.  As I had done previously with grilling, I went at it right after we removed the chicken from the grill.  It mostly resulted in smearing out a sticky mess and clogging up the brush bristles with same.  It probably would have been better to leave things alone for awhile and move the grills closer to the hot coals to let them harden up that glaze.  Lesson learned.  I wondered awhile how I was going to get that mess out of the bristles, but I found plugging in the hot tea kettle, boiling some water, and pouring it over the brush worked the miracle.

Our final experiment was back to steaks.  Here's the before and after pictures once again.

Still doing a nice job and the Mrs is very happy with her reduced cleaning time on our grilling projects.  The Mrs is happy so I'm happy.

One key issue is how the bristles hold up.  Below is the before and after, new and following 4 uses.

The trick with a cleaning brush like this is you want bristles stiff enough to do the cleaning but not stiff enough to scratch or damage your grate.  These brass bristles do a good job of getting off the gunk and I doubt they hurt the grate at all.  Sort of hard to tell for sure with our old beat up grate on there though.  It's held up pretty well in four uses and I think we'll get a lot more use from it.

I guess timing is everything because I just looked on Amazon and find this very brush is on sale for just $9.99.   Who knows how long that will last but I think it's a very good deal.  Their regular price is $13.99.    Mr Grill on Amazon

Thanks to Mr Grill for allowing us to test out this fine product.  Again, sorry for the long delay in getting it reviewed.