Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 21, 2010
What'll they dream up next?
Grill Daddy
Misty S. Brown
In theory, the Grill Daddy is a great gift for the person in your life who enjoys grilling because it claims to clean and sterilize a grill with the “power of steam.” In practice, though, the Grill Daddy falls short of its claims, and you would be better off with a spray bottle and traditional brush.
- Misty S. Brown
I am the type of person who usually believes that dispersing chores and household duties should not be based on the sex of the person. I can crawl on my hands and knees to pull weeds out of the flowerbeds, use a push mower to trim the lawn, change the oil in my car and kill spiders all day, if I need to. At the same time, I do not mind cleaning the dishes, making the bed or going grocery shopping. (OK, so I hate laundry, but I do it anyway.) I was just raised with the understanding that when there are chores to be done, everybody who is physically capable should pitch in and help.
But one duty I will always leave to a man, when there is one around, is using the grill to cook food. I realize the grill is not incredibly hard to deal with, but there is a sense of pride a man has when he tosses some shrimp or t-bones on the barbie and grills them to juicy perfection. Nobody should take that pride away from a man, right? Besides, most men are born with barbecue on their brains.
Truth be told, I am always freaked out by grills and open flames. I am terrified of catching my hair on fire or being impaled in the eye by a flaming piece of debris as the meat pops and spews. Not to mention, my klutzy self would probably flip a t-bone right off the grill into the dirt. No thanks – leave it to the guy who knows what he is doing.
I am sure even a pink grill would not entice me to use it, especially if a man is present. I will George Foreman grill the heck out of chicken or beef, but I try to avoid the traditional grill as much as I can.
Because my significant other is always willing to grill something I have prepped and marinated, even after a tiring 12-hour workday, I thought I would be nice gesture to get a gadget that would make the job a bit easier –The Grill Daddy.
What it is
The Grill Daddy is a scrub brush with a water reservoir to help clean and sterilize the racks on a grill before cooking a thick hamburger.
How it works
The Grill Daddy has a main brush head, a scraper brush and scrapers on the sides. The body of the Grill Daddy is a water reservoir that can be turned on and off with a large valve.
The Grill Daddy works best when a grill is preheated for 10 minutes to burn off as much residue as possible. The water trickles out of holes in the main brush head and makes contact with the hot grill to cause steam that helps eliminate the residue and clean the racks of the grill.
Pros and cons
I will just start by noting that the Grill Daddy is not my favorite gadget so far. (And not because I am not into grilling.) On the negative side, I purchased the Grill Daddy believing it would provide its own steam without having to turn on the grill. Instead, I quickly found out that the grill must be on and the water would trickle out to cause the steam as it met the hot racks.
It has a shorter handle than some of the ordinary grill brushes I have seen, which makes the user have to be closer to the heat source. The scraper brush and water valve on the top of the brush bump into the top rack of a small grill and just seem to be in the way.
On a traditional grill brush, there is usually a flat scraper to do some heavy duty scraping, but this one only has small corners that are flat and a scraper brush on top. This is a disadvantage when you accidentally knock the rack out of kilter, because it is difficult to put it back in place since you are not able to use the flat scraper to pick it up.
When we used the Grill Daddy, we did not get much of a steam effect from it, although the water valve was in the on position the entire time. Instead, we had to stop scraping and shake the water onto the grill to let it steam before we could start scrubbing again. On the contrary, I have read that some users have difficulty using the Grill Daddy because of too much hot steam billowing from the grill. It might have been that our grill was not hot enough or we were not holding it at the correct angle, but we did not have much steam at all.
Although it claims to sterilize as it cleans, the reservoir should only contain water, according to the instructions, so I am not sure how well a device that barely steams can sterilize with only a little bit of water. However, the non-use of harsh chemicals feels like it should be much safer on a food preparation surface.
On the positive side, the handle is very ergonomic and easy to grip. Since it is made of NSF-approved plastic materials, it will not cause slivers in your hand like a traditional brush might have the potential to cause. On the other side of this, since it is plastic, it might melt if the flames on a grill are too high.
The brush attachments can be removed for dishwasher cleaning, and replacement brushes are sold separately if they become too worn or are lost.
The Grill Daddy can also be used on all types of grills and has a metal hook for easy storage.
Overall, to get the same affect at a lower cost, I think a traditional grill brush and a spray bottle of water would do the trick.
Where to buy
I purchased my Grill Daddy at Academy Sports and Outdoors for $14.99 plus tax. It is also available at Bed Bath & Beyond for the same price. The replacement brushes are about $6 per package. Better yet, go to a discount store and find a spray bottle to couple with your existing scrub brush – you will get the same effect without spending much money.
Submissions
Have a gadget you would like me to review? Send suggestions to me at misty@dailydata.com.
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