The Dangers of Wire Grill Brushes

Nothing brings a family together more than enjoying barbeque that's fresh off the grill. And, when enjoying the closeness that grilling brings, you'll want to be sure that your family's safety (and taste buds) are kept in mind.

Every true Grillaholic knows that one of the keys to delicious barbecue is a clean grilling surface.  After all, Picasso wouldn't start painting on a dirty canvas, so why should your masterpieces start any differently?

Many people use traditional grill brushes with stainless steel bristles to keep their grills clean, but over the past few years, you've probably heard horror stories about the dangers of these bristles falling out of the brushes, landing on your grill grates, ending up in your food, and doing serious damage after being ingested. Today we wanted to take some time to talk about grill brush safety, and give some ways you can prevent the worst-case scenario from happening to you and your family.

Grill Safety 101: Traditional & Bristle-Free Brushes

Many experts agree that regularly replacing your grill cleaning brushes could be the solution to a problem that could potentially land thousands of people in the emergency room each year. However, simply cleaning and changing your brushes won't keep the whole ranch safe. It helps, but there's more to grill safety that a master like you should know.

To begin, be sure to re-check your cooking surface for any leftover bristles that might have fallen off the brush while cleaning. Give it a quick wipe down with a damp cloth to ensure nothing gets left behind. And, the next time you start cooking, make sure the area is nicely lit to be able to check for objects on the grill that shouldn't be there and might cause you or your family harm. 

Though unlikely to occur in your household, these are the potential risks associated with grill brushes that offer bristles.  At Grillaholics, we work closely with our manufacturer to ensure that these risks are minimized on our bristled grill brushes.  The coiled design (as opposed to the plug design featured below), greatly decreases the likelihood of bristles wearing down or falling out. We also put all of our brushes through a rigorous testing process to ensure that no weak-bristled brushes ever make it into your hands.  It takes a bit more time, but it's worth it to ensure the safety of our customers.

Still Some Risks Associated with Grill Brushes 

Like we said, it's a little unlikely that this will occur on your grill, but there are still some potential risks in using brushes with bristles (say that five times fast).  While these cases are few and far between, it's still important to familiarize yourself with the risks and potential consequences of using bristled grill brushes.

In 2015, a woman was rushed into emergency surgery to remove a wire brush bristle from her digestive tract. The woman, Cheryl Harrison, was rushed to the hospital by her husband after experiencing sharp pain in her stomach. The cause? A single stray bristle that had fallen off the metal grill cleaning brush and was later cooked into a hamburger. 

Now, the CDC reports that roughly 80,000 people visit emergency rooms every year after accidentally swallowing foreign objects. Wire bristles from grill-cleaning brushes are part of that group, but make up a small number of the cases. Due to the fact that the bristles are so thin, it makes them hard to detect on X-rays, which is why abdominal pain from ingesting a bristle can easily go undiagnosed. 

Don't Skimp On Safety

You're in charge of the grill. Some might even call you the grill master, and with great power comes great responsibility. Make sure that at the top of the list of responsibilities you have the safety of your family and friends in mind.

As we said before, we make sure that our Grillaholics Grill Brushes go through a rigorous testing process to ensure you and your family's safety.  But no process is perfect, and no matter how thorough we are, it's possible that bristles could still fall out of the brush.

For those that want to eliminate any chance of bristles falling out of your brush, we have designed a new model of grill brush just for you and your family: the Grillaholics Bristle-Free Grill Brush.  This brush has a 3-in-1 coiled brush head that replaces the bristled design of traditional grill brushes gives you a supreme clean with no dangers whatsoever.  While we still stand by the design of our bristled grill brush, our new design is for those who want to eliminate all chances of danger completely.