A grill that sat through two winters is not a five-minute spray. Mice nest in the cabinet. Mud daubers pack the venturi. The grease rail is a brick. If you light it “to burn the gunk off,” you can get a grease fire or a flashback.
Triage before you buy cleaner
- Open the lid. Daylight through the firebox floor → stop. Rusted firebox.
- Lid hinge torn out of thin steel → stop.
- Box intact and the cart still rolls → continue.
- Expired or rusty tank → swap at the hardware store, not a cleaning project. Do not deep-clean around a leaking valve.
Order of work
The rule: dry messes out, then chemistry, then gas test. Never hose an assembled, neglected cart.
- Photograph everything: data plate, burner orientation, igniter wire, grease path.
- Tank off and removed. Stand it away from the work. Natural gas: shut the house valve; do not disconnect a hard line.
- Pull grates, flavorizers or heat plates, warming rack, grease cup, and the rail if it unclips. Bag scrap (perforated plates, crumbled cup).
- Lift burners per the port procedure. Shine a light down every venturi. A nest you cannot extract whole is a replace-the-tube event. Do not light a grill with a nest in the inlet.
- Shop-vac the firebox, cabinet, and the underside of the control panel. Crevice-tool the collector box without ripping wires.
- Degrease parts on cardboard using the degrease sequence. Nylon on the box walls. Do not flood the valves.
- Inspect while empty. Surface rust on a thick Weber box is cosmetic. Flaking scale you can push a screwdriver through is structural.
- Clean or replace the grease system. A warped rail that no longer sits under the hole will dump fat on the tank.
- Reassemble burners fully onto orifices. Refit flavorizers so drips hit metal, not ports. New or cleaned cup in place.
- Leak-check every joint you touched. Lid open, light. Dead ignition after the sit: batteries and collector box before you condemn the grill.
Pests and what they cost
- Mud daubers love venturi inlets in late summer. Spider webs do the same in a covered but unused grill.
- Inlet covers (or foil over the open ends during storage) prevent the four-hour teardown.
- Mice chew igniter leads. Shredded insulation and droppings on the valves: vacuum, wipe, and decide whether you want food cooked over that cart.
After the first fire
- Expect smoke. Old fat in seams will burn off for one or two cooks. Stay with the grill.
- Keep baking soda or a Class B/C extinguisher on the patio — not water on a grease fire.
- Flames will not stabilize after a regulator reset and clean ports → regulator or hose may have sat with water in it. Replacement part, not more cleaner.
Search Amazon or BBQGuys for grease cup plus your brand, and for burner tubes only after you measure. We do not invent kits.