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Best Grill Brushes of 2024

We took seven popular grill-cleaning brushes to the dirtiest of grates to find out which ones cleaned the most thoroughly and effortlessly.

Paul Hope, Consumer Reports Home & DIY Editor.

By Paul Hope
Home & DIY Editor

Updated May 10, 2024

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CR writer Paul Hope cleaning a grill with a grill brush in CR headquarters. — Armed with a grill brush (shown: Grill Daddy's Grand Grill Daddy Platinum), the author attacks cooked-on crud from cheese, chicken, and salmon skin in our Yonkers, N.Y., lab.

A great grill cleaning brush isn’t just the easiest way to keep your grates immaculate—it’s also an essential tool to keep your grill working at peak performance.

Each time you grill, food residue builds up on the grates and burns in place. Straggling peppers from a kebab or a stray piece of chicken skin can easily get wedged in between grates, too. And before you know it, those items will lock into place as well.

Over time, that buildup can block the flame from hitting your food, preventing you from getting a great sear. And if left long enough, dirty grates can pose a serious fire hazard, since all that grease and residue can eventually ignite and go up in flames. Grill-cleaning brushes are the easiest way to get rid of crud from your grates, and, according to our past tests, they work far better than home fixes like scrubbing with a wadded-up ball of aluminum foil.

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Paul Hope

Paul Hope is a Home & DIY Editor at Consumer Reports and a trained chef. He covers ranges, cooktops, and wall ovens, as well as grills, drills, outdoor power tools, decking, and wood stains. Before joining CR in 2016, he tested kitchen products at Good Housekeeping and covered tools and remodeling for This Old House magazine. You’ll typically find him in his old fixer-upper, engrossed in a DIY project or trying out a new recipe.