In article ,
Tom Gardner mars@tacks wrote:
On 4/1/2012 3:41 PM, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In articlel_Cdnck8xsSdueXSnZ2dnUVZ_o2dnZ2d@giganews. com,
Tom Gardnermars@tacks wrote:
On 3/30/2012 7:34 PM, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In ,
"Tom wrote:
"anorton" wrote in message
m...
Tom, you should publicize this to customers who have switched or are
thinking of switching to cheap imported grill brushes. They can
seriously
harm customers. One emergency room saw six cases in 18 months
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0328142807.htm
Makes you want to chew your burger very well before swallowing.
__________________________________________________ _______
All good restaurants have strict protocols to prevent food from getting
contaminated with wire from brushes. Even the best brushes wear and
shed
wire but imports shed much worse. Home grillers need to be aware of
this
issue and take precautions but most people have no clue and there are no
warnings on consumer brushes.
This may be heresy, but I don't use a brush to clean the grill any more.
Not that I ever had bristles coming loose. I cook burgers very hot,
usually 450 F, and quick (larger burgers get cooked cooler for longer),
and find
that if I scrub the brill bars with a stainless steel curly scour pad
while thr grill is still that hot, the grum comes right off. The scour
pad is held with 18" long tongs, so my fingers don't cook.
I got the idea when I was a kid working at McDonalds, watching the
short-order cook, who was a pro. He used a steel scraper followed by a
wet rag swirled around with tongs. The grill was a big (3' by 4', if
memory serves) heavy (1/2") sheet of mild steel.
Joe Gwinn
You've got the ticket! But, I do have a consumer grill brush in
prototype and testing stage that the likes of which has never been
imagined before! However, at $30+ retail price it's going to be tough
unless I can get costs down. Also, I will last for a very, very long
time...another negative, be dishwasher safe and versions for work on
porcelain, stainless and cast iron grills. It's a spin on a brush
especially developed for "Outback Steakhouse" wood-burning grills.
Are photos yet available?
If there is any plastic used, it must not be much damaged by accidental
contact with metal at 550 F.
My other shop-made grill tool is a scraper with a blade custom made to
fit (by shape and spacing) the grill bars on my Weber grill. I bought a
Hyde paint scraper, the kind with a square steel blade screwed to the
flat end of a steel rod handle for that handle, and made an aluminum
scraper plate that has a tooth that is shaped to fit between adjacent
bars, making full contact on the facing sides of adjacent bars. This is
used to get big deposits off, right down the flanks of the bars. Only
one of the four corners is cut into a tooth, as I have only one grill,
but if produced for a wider market, each corner could be shaped for a
specific common grill type.
There are two problems with this scraper design. First is that it would
be better if the tooth blade were at an angle to the handle axis, so the
blade could be perpendicular to the grill bars without causing knuckles
to touch hot metal. Second is that aluminum on steel makes for loud
screeching noises. Steel on steel would be less obnoxious, I bet.
Joe Gwinn
There is no plastic or wood just plated steel. We are working on
getting a patent-pending before we show it. I keep getting my products
stolen and made in China. (I think our Government encourages this!)
It's first to file now, so don't tarry.
I'm assuming that you seek a design patent, versus a utility patent.
I've seen the scalloped scrapers like yours, they are grill-specific and
don't seem to hold up well, nobody make them very well.
I've seen them. The steel is too thin and springy and oddly angled, and
it's on the back of a brush, making use a bit awkward.
The other difference is that they try to fit over two or three adjacent
bars, versus a single cleverly shaped tooth that fits between any pair
of adjacent bars.
Joe Gwinn