A friend of mine says he never cleans his cooking grate, but simply burns off the worst of the gunk at the start of each BBQ. I'm afraid that I am a little uncomfortable with this. At the same time, I am not always of a mind to give it a good scrub after a BBQ, while it is still nice and hot. Moreoften than not, I think of it a couple of days later, when everything is nasty and stuck on.
As my grate is a little too big for the kitchen sink, I was pleased to discover the Tubtrug. The 35 litre one is 57cm wide so takes both my cooking grate and charcoal grate easily, and lets me both soak them and give them a good wet scrub, on the garden table, without getting myself covered in either water or grime.
Am I being too fastidious, do you think? What do you more seasoned BBQ'rs do?