Design-wise, it nails that balance between functional and low-fuss. The minimalist curved handle is lightweight and comfortable to maneuver, making it a great option if you want something effective but less bulky than other brushes. It still comes with a built-in scraper for tougher bits, plus thoughtful extras like a hanging loop for storage. And unlike most options, it includes five replacement heads right out of the box, along with a collapsible water bucket, which makes the whole steam-cleaning setup feel a lot more turnkey.
Overall, the Meker brush is very impressive. And for the same price as the BBQ Daddy, you get extra heads and a dip bucket.
It doesn’t quite have the same heavy-duty “oomph” as the BBQ Daddy, especially when tackling seriously neglected grills. If you’re dealing with lots of buildup, you might find yourself wishing for a bit more scrubbing power. But as a daily driver, it works just as well.
Cuisinart Grill Renew Steam Cleaner Brush
Cuisinart
Grill Renew Steam Cleaner Brush
The Cuisinart Grill Renew Cleaner Brush is one of the more comfortable steam-style options we tested, thanks to a thoughtfully shaped handle with a gentle curve and an extra leverage knob near the head. That added grip point actually makes a difference when you’re applying pressure, especially during longer scrubbing sessions. The detachable head is also a plus—it pops off easily and is dishwasher-safe, which helps keep things hygienic and extends the tool’s lifespan. In practice, it does a nice job lifting off surface-level messes and wiping away greasy residue and blackened drippings, especially right after cooking when buildup hasn’t fully set in.
That said, it worked best as a finishing tool rather than a deep-clean solution. The cloth pad itself is fairly stiff, which helps with scrubbing pressure but limits how much water it can hold, meaning we often needed a few extra passes to get the job done.
GRILLART Steam Wizard Grill Brush
The Grillart Steam Wizard stood out for its overall cleaning power and sturdy, straightforward design that feels built to handle serious grill grime. I liked the steel wool heads and built-in scraper on the back for cracking hardened carbon and other crud. When it worked, it really worked, lifting stuck-on residue quickly and efficiently with steam. That said, the Velcro attachment system felt noticeably flimsy, and I had issues keeping the head securely in place during use.
Grillart Steam Wizard with Upgraded Head
Grillart
SteamWizard with Upgraded Head
The upgraded version of the Grillart Steam Wizard steps things up in terms of performance, delivering even more aggressive cleaning power that made quick work of built-up gunk. It swaps the steel wool sponge for a foam head that makes cleaning a breeze, and that is dishwasher safe. However, the removable head mechanism takes some getting used to and isn’t the easiest to get back onto the tool (you have to really line it up and push). It’s expensive too, ringing in at almost $60.
GRILLART Bristle-Free Grill Brush and Scraper
Grillart
Bristle-Free Grill Brush and Scraper
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, and has a plastic handle that screws together in two pieces, which could make storage and cleaning easier; however, it 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 to knock off hard-to-reach drippings.
Grill brushes we don’t recommend
This brush is nearly identical to the GRILLART Bristle-Free Grill Brush and Scraper, but it has a wooden handle, so it isn’t dishwasher safe. It cleaned the grates okay, but again, it took more passes to get the grates fully clean.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
