Broilmaster Grill Cleaning & Repair

Broilmaster is made by Empire Comfort Systems, a family-owned company in Illinois that also makes heating products. The classic Broilmaster is a cast aluminum grill head mounted on a post, a cart or a patio base, with a reputation for durability. You'll also find Broilmaster stainless models.

Cast aluminum is the reason these grills last. It doesn't rust like steel, and a well-kept Broilmaster head can see several rounds of new burners and grids over its life.

Aluminum isn't indestructible, though. Left caked in grease and salt, it can pit and discolor, and the steel hardware that holds everything together (hinges, bolts, the post) corrodes the way steel always does. The grills we see in the worst shape are rarely old ones. They're the ones nobody opened up for a few years.

• Worn burners. The head outlasts the burner. After enough years, burners corrode or crack and lose an even flame. See burner replacement and signs burners need replacing.
• Ignition. Igniters that stop sparking or electrodes coated in grease.
• Briquettes or radiants that have crumbled or rusted.
• Cooking grids that are worn or encrusted.
• Post and base corrosion on steel parts, especially near the coast.
• Spiders in burner venturis causing weak or yellow flames.

We remove the grids and heat distribution parts, pull the burner and clear its ports and venturi, and scrape and degrease the inside of the head with a biodegradable cleaner. The grease path gets cleaned. We avoid harsh caustic cleaners on aluminum, which can discolor and pit it. Ignition and flame get tested before reassembly. Grease and rinse water go into our containers. If your grill is near the beach, our salt air guide covers what helps between cleanings.

Broilmaster has a long track record of supporting its grills with parts, which is a big reason so many older units are still cooking. Burners, grids, igniters and briquettes are common orders. The model and serial label is usually on the grill head or the base; a photo of it helps us order correctly. Our model number guide has more tips.

If you're weighing whether to keep an older grill, our how long grills last and repair or replace guides lay out what we look at. With Broilmaster, the answer is usually repair.

Another detail worth knowing: many Broilmaster grills are permanently mounted on an in-ground post with a natural gas line running up through it. That makes them a fixture of the yard, and it means any work on the gas side should include a leak check at the post connection.