This $40 Grill Brush Has No Bristles and Is Worth the Extra Money

One thing about testing lots of grills for Epicurious is that you end up with, well, lots of grills. And try as I might, it’s tough to keep up with cleaning them through the multilayered testing process. My grill brush got worked to the point of exhaustion (and uselessness), and while I was perusing online retailers for a new one, I spotted a listing for the Grill Rescue brush in the “compare with similar items” section of a certain website. I was initially struck by the brash you’ve-seen-this-in-your-Instagram-feed style of branding that is all over the Grill Rescue Website. But once you get past the pictures of the fully kitted out firefighter and the muscle man and the guy in the Try My Sausage apron, there is a real actual product for sale—and it’s quite good. 

What is the Grill Rescue?

Grill brushes are typically…brushes. They have bristles made of wire or nylon that dig in and pry gunk loose from a grill. The Grill Rescue is something else. It’s a steam cleaner, really. It looks a sponge and feels like something you might squeeze to build up your grip strength. The head of the Grill Rescue is made of aramid fibers, the same stuff used in lots of firefighting gear. It’s quite heat resistant, so the Grill Rescue can (and must, in order to be effective) be used on a hot grill. That’s good for everyday sorts of cleaning because it’s easier to clean a hot grill than a cold one—the nasty bits will wipe away more freely if they don’t have time to cool and harden. Besides the ease that steam cleaning offers, the company says the other big advantage of the Grill Rescue is that it is a brush without bristles. My colleague Emily Farris covered the dangers of using wire bristles in 2022, and this eliminates those risks entirely.

How do you use the grill rescue?

Because you’re steam cleaning instead of using a more abrasive method, using the Grill Rescue is a slightly different process from using a regular grill brush, which really just involves scraping the bristles against the grate. Give the head a nice long dunk in a bowl of water (it really needs to be soaked in order to work) and then push it over the grate. The gratifying sizzle is your indication it’s working. You don’t need to push nearly as hard as you do with a brush, and you shouldn’t, because you might rip it if you get too aggressive. 

Photo by Travis Rainey, Styling by Joseph De Leo

Is the Grill Rescue better than a normal grill brush?

After using a variety of brushes, I think the Grill Rescue is a better bet for standard grill upkeep. It’s fast, effective, and a lot safer than the wire bristles you’d normally have to use on a hot grill. It can also be cleaned because the head pops off the handle and can go in the dishwasher. If you watch Grill Rescue’s how-to video, the brush head looks brand-new. That was not my experience—once it got dirty it never stopped being at least a light shade of charcoal—but it did clean up more easily than the stiff nylon brush I used alongside it. Replacement heads are also easy to buy online. The company lists a wide range of 25 to 100 uses before a head needs to be replaced, but I used mine more than 20 times and it still seemed to have a lot of life in it, so if your grill isn’t gross, something like 50 uses seems likely.  

In terms of revitalizing a grill grate covered in carbonized gunk, the Grill Rescue will make good progress, but it isn’t a miracle worker. If you’ve let a grate go unbrushed for, say, more than half a dozen uses, you’ll probably need to use the scraper that’s built into the handle and you may still need to take some sort of cleaning solution to the grates. If you’re looking for jaw-dropping before-and-after shots that require no work to achieve, you’ll need to settle for watching old Billy Mays spots on YouTube. 

The one real downside to the Grill Rescue is the cost. At the time of writing, a new Grill Rescue brush costs between $40 and $50, which is just a lot for a grill brush. You can get a serviceable nylon or wire brush for about $15.

The takeaway 

The Grill Rescue is an easy way to keep your grill grates clean and ready-to-use—and steam cleaning generally takes so much less effort than digging in with a bristled brush. This cleaning method is expensive, but it’s also easy to use and clean afterward, so in the long-term the costs may even themselves out. If your brush, like my former cheap nylon one, isn’t ready for this year’s grilling season, the Grill Rescue is worth picking up.

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Grill Rescue Bristle-Free Grill Brush with Scraper

$75

Amazon

$47

Walmart