The Best Grill Brush, Tested & Reviewed (2025)

There’s almost no smell as arresting as a burger on the grill. The other day I caught a whiff—caramelized, charred, meaty goodness—and stopped in my tracks, questioning my dinner plans entirely.

Burgers (and lots of things prepared on the grill) come with a pretty light cooking load. Light a fire, throw on some patties, maybe check the temp with a trusty meat thermometer, and you’re nearly done. Compared to cooking indoors, grilling makes for a breezy cleanup too. No sheet pans, no splattered stovetop, no sink full of dishes. The only thing left behind? The grill grates.

Our top picks

To get all that gunk off those grates, you need a grill brush. The challenge is choosing one that works. That’s why we grilled over 20 pounds of saucy chicken thighs and tested a dozen different brushes and scrapers to find out which tools were the most effective, efficient, and easy to use.

The best grill brush overall: Traeger Nylon Grill Brush

It only took one swipe of this brush for me to tell I loved it. Burnt, sticky leftovers quite literally flew off the grates. I’ve never used a nylon bristle brush before, but I was immediately a convert after testing the Traeger Nylon Grill Brush.

What we liked: Nylon bristles are tougher and sturdier than they look and offer a much safer alternative to metal bristles, which can break off and cause serious safety concerns. These are made from rigid, durable nylon that holds up well under pressure, allowing you to really scrub without worry. They’re designed specifically for use on cool grill grates—nylon will melt on high heat—and they’re safe for use on coated or nonstick surfaces. The brush also includes a built-in metal scraper, which came in handy for knocking off especially stubborn burned-on bits.

What we’d leave: This isn’t exclusive to the Traeger brush, but due to the nature of nylon, this brush can only be used on cool or cold grill grates, otherwise, it will melt. Not a dealbreaker, but you may need to tweak your cleanup timing—either before you start cooking or after things cool down.

Best dual-head brush: Oklahoma Joe’s Blacksmith Combo Grill Brush

Oklahoma Joe’s Blacksmith Combo Grill Brush

The Oklahoma Joe’s Blacksmith Combo Grill Brush solves the cool-grate-only problem of nylon bristles by adding a second steel wool head for hot grates.

What we liked: This was the only grill brush we tested with a dual-head design, featuring a nylon bristle side for scrubbing and a steel wool side that can be used on hot grates. Grill brushes can only do so much on their own, but the addition of steel wool takes cleaning to another level. This side of the brush left our grates smooth and shiny, even on the upper racks where smoke residue tends to build up. It made those grates look practically new. The nylon bristles were just as tough on burned-on food as the Traeger brush, and we appreciated the thoughtful design of the metal scraper, which has divots on both edges to better fit between grates.

What we’d leave: After some aggressive scrubbing, parts of the steel wool began to loosen. They didn’t fall off completely, but sections became dislodged with repeated use. The upside is that Oklahoma Joe sells replacement heads for both the nylon bristle and steel wool sides, so you can swap them out as needed. The bigger issue was the handle. While the metal bar is sturdy and the thick end feels solid in your grip, it’s hard to get extra leverage unless you place your other hand closer to the head. That’s where things get uncomfortable—the metal is thin and has sharp edges that dig into your hand. The straight-on head design also doesn’t offer the same angled leverage as the Traeger, making it slightly harder to apply pressure where you need it.

A good steam cleaner: Cuisinart Grill Renew Steam Cleaner Brush

Steam cleaners are a cult favorite among some grillers. This one uses a heat-safe cloth head that you dunk in water and then press against a hot grill to create steam that melts away grime and gunk.

What we liked: The Cuisinart grill brush is quite pleasant to hold. The handle has a gentle curve and an extra knob towards the brush head to give you better leverage when cleaning. The head pops off and is dishwasher-safe, which helps keep it clean and extend its life. Another bonus of steam cleaning is that it can both remove stuck-on food and wipe away the blackened residue left behind by food drippings and even some bristle brushes.

What we’d leave: Steam alone didn’t remove as much grease as a bristle brush. It worked best for surface-level messes, but not so much for deep drippings or stubborn gunk. The cloth pad was stiff, which helped with pressure but didn’t hold much water, so we had to do a few extra passes. Also, if hauling a bowl of water outside sounds annoying, this probably isn’t the right brush for you.

How we tested grill brushes

We grilled a lot of chicken—20 pounds of skin-on thighs, doused in sticky barbecue sauce. (Don’t worry, we shared leftovers with the neighbors.) The goal was to coat our grates with as much caramelized, sticky, hard-to-clean residue as possible. We let the sugary barbecue sauce and rendered chicken fat get good and crusty before putting each brush to the test.

For this initial round of testing, we used the brushes during a single grilling session. Over the next few months, we’ll continue using our top picks, along with a few additional contenders, to see how they hold up with repeated use. We’ll update this article with our long-term findings as we go.

What makes a good grill brush

Other brushes we tested and liked

We were looking forward to trying a bristle-free wire grill brush, but ultimately found that this cleaned just okay. It’s comfortable to hold, but requires many more passes than a nylon or wire brush to clean as well as scrubbing it vertically or using the scraper to reach under the grates. Because the coiled helix was fairly tight, it might be harder to get between cast iron grates that are closer together. We liked the hook-shaped scraper, which dug under grates more effectively than rounded versions.

GRILLART Grill Brush and Scraper Bristle Free

This brush is nearly identical to the BBQ-AID version, but with a plastic handle that screws together in two pieces, which could make storage and cleaning easier. It cleaned the grates okay, but again, it took more passes to get the grates fully clean.

Grill brushes we don’t recommend

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OXO products are always well-made and thoughtfully designed—the chainmail brush head can be removed from the handle for easy cleaning—but this one just didn’t leave the grates as debris-free as the other brushes we tested. It was able to knock off big chunks, but not much more. The scraper on top didn’t have deep enough divots to reach drippings under the grates. OXO touts the brush’s “flexible silicone” core that rests under the chainmail, but we found that the head’s curve meant only the highest point made contact with the grill. The top and tail didn’t hit at all, which felt like wasted surface area.

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While the Grill Rescue functioned similarly to the Cuisinart model, two design choices landed it on our “do-not-recommend” list. There’s no hole in the handle for hanging, so we had to rest it (soaking wet) on the side of the grill when we were done, which made for extra cleanup. It also didn’t have a secondary knob to provide leverage while scrubbing, a feature we really liked on the Cuisinart.

Olivia Tarantino

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This brush has the same helix structure as the other two we tested, but it lacked a top scraper, so we couldn’t reach the drippings stuck beneath the grates.

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If you’ve ever used a wooden scraper, you know they’re good at exactly one thing—and barely that: knocking off big pieces of burnt-on food. This one couldn’t reach any drippings hanging from the bottom of the grates.

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The only redeeming quality of this scraper is its built-in bottle opener, but even that was hard to use thanks to its placement in the middle of an oversized, awkward piece of wood. The wood felt cheap and barely knocked off large pieces of food.

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