Eco-Friendly Grill Cleaning in Los Angeles

The typical do-it-yourself grill cleaning, and plenty of professional ones, goes like this. Spray the inside with an oven cleaner or a heavy alkaline degreaser. Let it sit. Hit it with a pressure washer or a hose. Watch black water run across the patio, into the planter, down the driveway and into the gutter.

That runoff carries grease, carbon, food residue and whatever the cleaner was made of. In Los Angeles, the gutter leads to a storm drain, and storm drains here aren't connected to the sewer treatment system. They carry runoff through channels and creeks straight to Santa Monica Bay, San Pedro Bay and the beaches. What goes into a gutter in Pasadena or Torrance can end up in the ocean after the next rain. Local stormwater rules also prohibit washing grease and cleaning water into the street.

The strong degreasers and oven cleaners sold at hardware stores are usually based on sodium hydroxide (lye) or similar alkaline chemicals. They work fast on grease. They're also hard on everything else. On stainless steel, harsh caustics and chlorine-based cleaners can discolor the finish, leave a dull, streaky haze, and strip the thin passive layer that keeps stainless from rusting. That's a particular problem near the coast, where salt air is already working on the metal.

Caustics also attack aluminum parts (common in castings, older burners and some heat shields), damage the porcelain coating on some grates, and can crack infrared ceramic burners. And they need thorough rinsing before anyone cooks on the grill again, which means more water running somewhere. Our stainless steel care guide covers what's safe to use at home.

Yes. It takes a bit more time and more scraping, but the results are the same or better, because we're removing the grease rather than blasting it around. Pressure washers are good at moving grease, and not as good at getting it out of corners, port holes and seams where it hides. Hand cleaning and steam get into those spots.

The degreasers we use are the same kind we recommend to homeowners. If you want to know what to buy for your own cleaning between visits, our guide to eco-friendly grill degreasers goes through what actually works.

• Coastal homes. Beach cities from Malibu to Long Beach drain quickly to the ocean, and stainless near the water is the most vulnerable to caustic damage.
• Homes with pools. Grease and cleaning chemicals don't belong in pool water, and pressure washing next to a pool usually sends some in.
• Hillside and canyon lots. Runoff from a hillside patio goes downhill fast, often onto a neighbor's property or into a creek bed.
• HOAs and commercial sites. Shared spaces and restaurants face real scrutiny over grease discharge. See HOA grill service and commercial grill cleaning.

It doesn't mean a lighter cleaning or a surface wipe. Every grill cleaning we do is a full teardown, and this approach applies to all of them, not as an upgrade. It also doesn't mean we never use anything stronger than soap: for heavy rust staining on stainless, we use mild, stainless-safe cleaners as part of stainless polishing, applied by hand and wiped off, never rinsed into the ground.