Grilling is a great way to cook food, and can be a fun one too. Cleaning up afterward though? Decidedly less fun. But it needs to be done, and procrastinating is just going to make your life more miserable in the long run; stuff cakes on and you could find yourself spending hours fixing your own mess (or someone else’, if you let them touch your grill).
A good grill brush can make the initial cleanup a snap, letting you get it over with quickly and move on to the next item on your agenda.
We’re going to go over some of the best ones I could find, along with a quick breakdown of how they were chosen.
Our Top Choice
- Perfect for all grill types: Including Porcelain, Stainless Steel and Infrared.
- Easy to use and cleans up easily in dishwasher.
- Great grill brush with no bristles.
- Stiff rigid construction, yet light-weight.
- Great value for your money.
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Kona BBQ Grill Brush BEST CHOICE
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GRILLART Grill Brush And Scraper RUNNER UP
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Alpha Grillers Grill Brush VALUE CHOICE
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How Do I Pick The Right Grill Brush?
Grill brushes don’t have that many components to them. You’re really looking at two main things: the handle and the brush head.
The Handle
A handle typically should be 18 inches for best effect. Note when I say “handle” here I mean the whole length, not just the part you hold (the holdable part of an 18 inch brush will be around 10 inches). It’s easier to say an 18 inch handle since that is how most manufacturers describe it rather than giving the exact handle length.
The Brush
The brush head should come in one of a few styles. Either a bristle brush, a mesh brush, or a coiled brush. Try to avoid the more traditional square bristle brush; they scrub poorly and fall apart more easily than the more modern coiled bristle brushes. These are going to be your more common brush, with mesh brushes being by far the minority (but good for more gentle cleaning ability and getting rid of mold).
On the coiled bristle brushes you want to look for as tight of a weave as possible. The stiffer and tighter the bristles are woven, the more durable and effective the brush will be.
For most products I recommend looking at the price, but the price difference between a top end brush and a low end brush is very small; you’re looking at around $20 for the former and $10 on average for the latter. It’s generally better to shell out the extra money for a vastly superior brush and grill cleaners unless you’re really in a pinch.
Top 11 Best Grill Brushes Reviews of 2023
1. Best Overall – Kona Safe/Bristle Free BBQ Grill Brush
Why you’ll love this:
This is an extremely good bristle free grill brush. Not only does it bring maximum cleaning power with its extra thick steel wire coils, it’s also safe to use on any type of grill surface, including ceramic grills. While it has a higher price than some might consider proper for just a grill brush, it more than makes up for it in how long it will last.
What We Liked
- Size: The length of this brush is perfect; not too long, not too short. It’s easy to clean with while being safe to use and minimizes the chances of scorching your knuckles like a small brush might. It also features a very wide head, making it able to clean most any grill in about 4 passes.
- Head: In addition to being wide (as mentioned) the brush head is bristle free, so no worries about anything falling out or needing to be replaced. It’s also incredibly stiff, so is perfect for that stuck on grease you may have been unable toc lean before.
What We Didn’t Like
- Blocky: If I had to think of one gripe, it’s that this one isn’t as good at attacking rounded surfaces, like many cheaper grills. Its wide head is usually a plus, but in more narrow rounded corners it can miss some spots.
This is by far the best brush I could find. Everything about it brings together what we’re looking for. It’s long, but not too long; an 18 inch handle provides plenty of space to protect your hands from the heat while not making it hard to apply force enough to scrub.
The brush scrubs extraordinarily well, using a design with no bristles, just very rigid steel wires for scrubbing caked on grease off in a snap. It’s easy to clean and if it ever gets ruined you have a 10 year warranty to back you up on buying a new one, making the fairly low price tag even less of a drain.
It’s safe for all grill types, so you don’t need to worry about destroying your ceramic or infrared grill with this, so it’s flexible too. The perfect grill brush for almost any situation.
2. Best Grill Brush And Scraper – GRILLART Grill Brush And Scraper Best BBQ Brush For Grill
Why you’ll love this:
This one is largely notable for being a grill and scraper combo. Though as far as grill brushes with bristles go, this is a solid one. Very durable with a thick, stacked design that makes cleaning grills faster and more thorough than average, though it has a slim profile so you’ll need to make a few extra passes.
What We Liked
- Versatile: Works on any kind of grill (porcelain, ceramic, infrared, you name it) and cleans quickly and efficiently on any surface.
- Head: Brush head is tightly woven and strong, with excellent deep cleaning power. It’s going to take a while before it begins to fall apart.
- Handle: Handle is a good 18 inches long which puts you at the perfect distance to protect your hands while still being able to produce enough force to effectively scrub the grill when needed.
What We Didn’t Like
- Jutting Scraper: Scraper extends beyond the brush, making it annoying to clean near the top of the grill.
This is another good model, of a more traditional variety than our winner. It is a brush and scraper combo brush, which makes it great for pushing off tough caked on stuff from the top of the grill (great for accidentally dripped sauces) and then getting deep in there with the brush.
This is a bristled brush, meaning deterioration is more likely, but the bristles are nicely stiff and very tightly woven, making this a long lasting and reliable brush.
The design makes it easy to clean more quickly than a simply brush might, essentially doing five passes in one with its longer, taller brush structure, though that means for grills with more of a width to it, it may take longer.
The scraper also sticks out a bit too much, making it difficult to clean near the top of the grill. Overall the benefits outweigh the drawbacks, but this is definitely better used on smaller grills.
3. Best Low-Cost – Alpha Grillers 18″ Grill Brush
Why you’ll love this:
A decent option from Kona, though not particularly great compared to our winner or runner up. Similar to the Grillart option, this is a three layer grill brush, though this lacks a scraper. It comes in at a bit cheaper, but overall doesn’t bring enough to the table to justify buying it unless it’s on a steep sale.
What We Liked
- Handle: The handle is a solid 18 inches long and comfortable in the hand, the perfect length for most uses. I like the ridges on it for extra grip so you can scrub more easily without cramping your hand.
- Price: Very cheap and easily replaceable, so you don’t have to feel too bad about its lack of longevity.
What We Didn’t Like
- Head: Both the multiple brushes and their individual bristles are widely spaced, making them less effective at cleaning by default, This will be exacerbated over time as more bristles fall out, leaving “blind spots” and rendering the brush less and less effective over time until you need to replace it.
- Effective over time until you need to replace it.
This is definitely a cheap option, but suffers a bit in quality compared to others.
It has a good handle, to start off positively, that perfect 18 inch length we look for that keeps your hands safe while still letting you get in there and scrub thoroughly. The ridges on it let you get a really good grip when cleaning while remaining comfortable and durable.
The price, as mentioned, is great, being about half of what our winner costs, but the brush head itself is nothing special, really. It’s a standard bristle brush woven in a standard fashion, with a slightly wider than usual stance on the 3 rods. It’s sturdy enough, up until it isn’t, and once a brush like this starts falling apart it rapidly becomes useless.
While it’s good while it lasts, its longevity will likely leave much to be desired, and as it deteriorates it will get worse and worse at cleaning, especially with how widely flared these bristles are.
4. Best For Barbecue – Kona 360 Clean Grill Brush (18 Inch)
Why you’ll love this:
This model has quite an interesting design, essentially acting as two brushes in one. A tightly wrapped bristle brush for the initial pass, then a helix shape (similar to a pad of steel wool) to get everything else. It’s a high efficient cleaner, and well worth the price, though it lacks a scraper
What We Liked
- Head: Bristles are tight and 60% more rigid than other models. This should last a long time, and will perform well for its entire lifespan.
- Handle: Handle is that nice 18 inch length with a surprisingly ergonomic handle and great grip points for easy and thorough scrubbing.
- Warranty: A 5 year manufacturer’s warranty is always nice to have, even for a low end product like a grill brush.
What We Didn’t Like
- Price: While fair in a vacuum, I think it’s weird that this model is more expensive compared to something from the same brand that seems vastly superior in every respect.
Another Kona model, though I’m less impressed with this one. It’s more of a standard bristle brush, albeit a better than usual one. The bristles are tight, as are the multiple brushes that make up its head. The bristles are extra rigid (claimed to be 60% more so than the standard) and scrub quite nicely.
The handle is an ergonomic 18 inch handle with excellent grip to it and is quite comfortable, making it perfect for scrubbing.
The overall quality of this grill brush is perfect for most purposes (working on porcelain and infrared grills, among others) but the sticking point is the price.
It’s weirdly expensive (more so than our winner) and so gets knocked down a peg over where I’d norall put it. The price isn’t exorbitant but when you could buy a better model from the same brand for the same price or less, why bother with this?
5. Best Bristle Free – GRILLART Grill Brush Bristle Free
Why you’ll love it:
A bristle free helix brush that gets the job done well enough, and on the cheap. The main issue is the lack of any straight on grill bristles, making it hard for this brush to get deeply stuck on grime. Great for a second pass, but not as your primary brush.
What we liked
- Head: Nonstandard mesh head gives it a different feel than other grill brushes, and cleans quite effectively. If you find you don’t need an extra stiff cleaning utensil this works very well.
- Scraper: Scraper is raised off the brush nicely, so is less likely to impact the back of the grill.
- Price: This model is priced perfectly for what it provides, though does not come with a warranty, sadly.
What we didn’t like
- Strength: This is a great grill brush for a casual griller or somebody who can clean theirs after cooking a single meal or maybe two or three. It’s not great for something like an industrial grill, which is going to be running all day and will be heavily soiled by the end.
I like this one quite a bit from GRILLART. Rather than bristles it loads you out with a mesh reminiscent of a reusable steel wool, rigid but just flexible enough to really get into those nooks and crannies and deeply clean cake on grunge with a cleaner.
The handle is still a great 18 inch model with a good grip to it, though not my favorite (it’s rounded and tends to roll a bit in my palm) and serves this kind of cleaner well.
It works on several different grill types, though notable nothing with a mesh pattern, this is really for bars and flavorizers only.
The price is quite reasonable too, so if you’re looking for a nonstandard grill brush for a grill you just can’t seem to get or keep clean, this is well worth a shot.
6. Best Safe – Uncle Jeff’s BBQ Pit Grill Brush Bristle Free Safe
Why you’ll love it:
This is another model completely without bristles from Uncle Jeff’s, and reminds me a bit of the GrillArt brush above with the mesh construction. This one is a lot tighter woven, so should be a lot scrubbier, even though it covers a lot less area than the GrillArt brush.
What we liked
- Brush: Brush head is coiled and great for a gentler touch on more sensitive grill surfaces while still being very scrubby.
- Scraper: Scraper is small, but retracted from the brush head very well, keeping it well out of the way while scrubbing.
- Handle: Handle is long and grippy, being easy to clean with; you get a little more scrubbing power in exchange for it only being 7 inches long instead of the standard 18 inches.
What we didn’t like
- Light Duty: While great for most purposes it lacks a bit of oomph when it comes to cleaning truly filthy grills, which is something you really want to have around if you spill some kind of thick sauce and it instantly cakes to the grill.
I also really like the scraper design on this one, though it is a bit small. It’s held very high and angled off the brush as a whole, so it’s not in the slightest in the way.
It’s about an inch shorter than I usually look for, which is a slight problem but nothing huge. It’s a tradeoff of you being a bit closer to the heat, but allows you to get in there and scrub a bit better, which is good with this coiled design.
It’s a great value for the price, and extremely good if you want a model with the coiled brush design.
7. Best Brass – Grillaholics Essentials Brass Grill Brush
Why you’ll love it:
If you want a grill brush that’s easier on your grill, this is a good one to give a try from Grillaholics. The bristles are made of brass, making them a bit softer than the usual steel bristle. This makes them gentler and assured they’re usable on softer materials like ceramic without scratching it, but does reduce its scrubbing power quite a lot.
What we liked
- Unique Material: Brass isn’t commonly used, so it’s nice to see something filling the niche for a smaller, but still durable and scrubby material. Great for more delicate grilling materials.
- Handle: Handle is a perfectly long 18 inch affair with excellent grip points for hardcore scrubbing.
- Warranty: While not very expensive, having a lifetime warranty on your item is always nice to have, especially with how soft this brush is. Being able to replace it at any time makes up for it slack of durability.
What we didn’t like
- Scrubbing Power: Brass is a bit softer, and therefore at least a bit less good at scrubbing. Could be an issue for especially dirty grills. This brush is best used on a regular basis to keep an already clean grill clean rather than using it to scrub down a dilapidated one.
The main thrust of the design is pretty standard, with a good 18 inch handle that’s fairly comfortable in the hand and more rigid so it can take a bit more of a beating. There’s nothing special about the shaping of the brush head, or anything else, and the price is what I’d expect for a brush like this (though the lifetime warranty is very nice).
All told whether you like this or not is going to come down to whether you need the brass head and are good about cleaning your grill regularly; it’s not going to be as good at scraping off caked on gunk as a stiffer bristled brush is going to be.
8. Best Wire – IDoCare 18″ Wire Grill Brush
Why you’ll love it:
Another simplistic brush in the same style as the Kona 360. I’m less of a fan of this one overall. This style of brush isn’t too bad in general but this example of it isn’t that hot. The bristles are the main issue here, being less tightly packed than I’d want. This leaves them passing over spots that would otherwise be scrubbed by a tighter weave and will require you to make multiple passes where a better brush would only need one.
What we liked
- Handle: A solid 18 inch handle with great moisture wicking and excellent grippiness makes it easy to apply force and heavily scrub your grill when it’s needed.
- Price: This is about half the price of our winner, which is good if you’re on a very tight budget but need a grill brush right now.
What we didn’t like
- Head: The brush head’s bristles are too loosely woven to get a proper scrubbing done on a single pass, making this harder than it needs to be. It will also fall apart faster than a tighter weave.
The handle at least is quite good, being a rigid plastic with quite good moisture wicking, leaving it very grippy and easy to use, along with that good 18 inch length you want to look for in one of these brushes.
The main thing this brush has going for it is price…but I’d rather just shell out an extra $10 for the better model.
9. BBQ-Aid Barbecue Grill Brush And Scraper
Why you’ll love it:
This is a very traditional grill brush, of the kind I’ve never been a fan. It has a sort of one piece design, where the grill brush is just kind of tacked onto the scraper as its backing. It makes the brush feel weak, not helped by the very small surface area it covers and being completely square, with the scraper poised perfectly to just bang into the back of your grill and keep that last half inch filthy and needing some other method of cleaning.
What we liked
- Scraper: Scraper is thick, sturdy, and does its job well.
What we didn’t like
- Overall Design: The design is cumbersome when taking all the factors together. Slightly too short handle, flimsy feeling construction, less than ideal bristles in a terrible and inefficient configuration…grill brushes have long since moved on from when this design was all there was out there, and cleaning grills is all the easier for it.
- Overall Design: The design is cumbersome when taking all the factors together. Slightly too short handle, flimsy feeling construction, less than ideal bristles in a terrible and inefficient configuration…grill brushes have long since moved on from when this design was all there was out there, and cleaning grills is all the easier for it.
The handle itself is comfortable enough, but only 15 inches long, meaning on longer grills you’re going to be cutting it close when scrubbing, though it’s fine for ones with less girth in that direction.
If this was an extremely cheap budget model I could even forgive all of this, but it’s not much less expensive than anything else on the list, and there’s no reason to buy it over anything else we’ve looked at today.
10. HollyGrill Safe Grill Brush And Scraper
Why you’ll love it:
This grill is about average for what you can expend to find. A good 18 inch length with decent bristles. The bristles themselves are quite good for this style of brush, being tightly woven and stiff, making for easy scrubbing.
What we liked
- Handle: Handle is a good 18 inches with a decent grip. Not the best around, but well enough for most people.
- Brush: Brush head is tightly woven and great at scrubbing tough caked on grease without breaking your back over it.
- Price: Price is low and quite good for the quality of the brush, making it a more reasonable choice than many of the other cheap options.
What we didn’t like
- Scraper: Scraper is out of the way but small, meaning you’ll need to make quite a few passes to properly scrape the grill.
The scraper is also well designed, being small and out of the way, increasing the area you can scrub without the scraper getting in the way.
It’s one of the best option in this price range which is nice if you need a budget model that comes with some extra brushes for your sauces and enough value in the brush itself to make it worth your while. It’s not the best on the market, but it’s at least good enough to make you think twice about spending the extra $10 to $15 on the best model around.
11. IREGRO 15″ 3-Sided BBQ Grill Brush
Why you’ll love it:
This would be my least favorite grill brush we cover today if it weren’t for the last one we’ll be talking about today. This one almost exemplifies what we’re not looking for.
What we liked
- Price: The brush is incredibly cheap, as befitting something with this kind of construction.
What we didn’t like
- Handle: Handle is short and stubby at only 15 inches for the total length. This makes it hard to get a good two handed grip, and puts you too close to the heat for comfort.
- Brush: Brush head is weak, cheap, and prone to falling apart Bristles are loosely packed and won’t scrub very well, while being attached to a very flimsy frame. Avoid unless you have no other option.
First and most prominently, it’s short. At only 15 inches you get a good grip, but you end up very close to the heat of the grill, and have a hard time getting both hands in there if you need to.
The brush head is likewise terrible, being only a single layer of fairly loosely packed bristles, likely to fall apart within a few months at best, all attached to a flimsy wire which bends easily.
The price, at least, is as tiny as the value of the brush itself, costing about a fifth what our winner does, so at least you can get this one as an extreme budget model, so long as you’re prepared to replace it once it breaks down soon after.
FINAL VERDICT
Given the low price of all of the models on this list, it’s hard to recommend anything but the top end quality brushes. The Kona models (the Safe/Clean and the 360) as well as the mesh brushes (the GrillArt Bristle Free Brush and the Uncle Jeff brush) are my favorites for that reason.
The prices are good, and they provide an excellent range of different kinds of brushes for use in any scenario after you put out your grill. Everything else can be safely passed over with the possible exception of the brass brush above, if you absolutely need something with very soft bristles.
Once you’ve cleaned your grill with the right cleaning tool, you will find that cooking on your grill will become easier for you. In fact, having a clean grill is on the list of the tips for grilling fish and other grilled meat recipes.
Read More: BBQ Tools And Other Grilling Accessories.
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