Reality Check, Brush Bristles
 

I recently came across a post here on the dangers off bristles breaking of brushes used to clean grill grates. Since I had used brushes to clean my grates for many many years and never had a problem I thought the problem must have been a freak occurrence. Tonight I cleaned my grates on my new offset with a nice long wooden handled brush with brass bristles. Since I remembered reading the post I took a closer look after finishing to verify that no bristles had broken off in the grill. Much to my surprise there are bristles everywhere. The expanded steel grates seem to suck them right off the brush. Not sure this would have happened with the ceramic bar type grates I had used for so many years.

Looks like I will have an extensive interior clean out. Since this is only the second cook on this offset and the first was a pan cook I am pretty sure I didn't bother to brush the grates, so hopefully todays cook was not contaminated.

Glad you caught that! Really scary!

Thanks Marty!
Hopefully no one else will make the same mistake.

its why i switched to ss brushes. no real breakage and you need to remember to apply oil to a rag or paper towl and wipe down the grates anyway. its a problem to think about but considering all the brushes out there that are being used i wouldn't be to worried if you just be a bit carefull.

If y'all read the other thread, I wrote about my experience of a trip to the ER with a bristle stuck in the back of my throat.
Several weeks ago a gal who works with my wife had to take her son to the ER, he swallowed one that got hung up in his esophogus. They got it out OK, but it wasn't a fun process.
Always check your grates before you put food on them and I 2nd the motion to oiling your grates after cleaning them.
One other thing, you can clean them with wadded up aluminum foil... but we all know the dangers that aluminum foil pose :twitch:

What danger does foil pose?

Research "indicates" that exposure to high levels of aluminum can cause dementia.

Of course, you'd have to eliminate some deodorants and antacids from your world, as some of them contain aluminum compounds....

So what is considered high levels of aluminum? Does cooking things in aluminum foil cause harm or do you have to injest it?

Some days I think if they do enough studies they will find about anything can lead to a disease. Its like the warnings of possible side effects from medications, at some point the possibilty of getting these side effects cant out weight the benifit of the medicine.

Studies show that you really don't have to worry about exposure to aluminum foil until it gets to the point to where you fashion a hat of AF and wear it out in public... :loco:

Hell, the O2 in the air you breath will kill you eventually.:becky:

Free radicals!

Damn! Scary stuff! Glad you noticed it visually beforehand! Good safety note, thanks for posting.

Here's a little something I found...
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/...e-health-risk/

Note that the brush I was using was plastic and very worn. As was the brush that my wife's co-worker was using and the same in this video.
I've switched to using the wooden Weber brushes and have not had a problem with losing bristles since...

That's why I went out and threw my brush away. Been using foil, and these grate block thingies ever since.

Thanks for the reminder. A cousin of mine had the misfortune to take a trip to the ER last summer due to a bristle stuck in his throat. Definitely woke me up to the potential, and I switched to SS brushes.