Electric Grill Grate Cleaners– are they really the game-changer social media wants us to believe, or are they just a gimmick?

I’ve seen electric grill brushes on Amazon and through various social media channels, looking like they’re the best thing to come across a dirty grill grate ever, but I can’t help but notice the sales images look a little too clean and AI-generated. Cleaning grill grates isn’t fun, nor is it easy, so let’s put the best sellers on Amazon to the test to see what’s real and what’s just fake marketing AI imagery. Do they really work? Today we’re going to find out.

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Here at The Barbecue Lab, Melissa and I test the gear you want, so you can buy the best and forget the rest. We purchased the top 4 electric grill brushes on Amazon, and we’re putting them to the test, cleaning sticky marinades, trying multiple types of grill grates to see if they catch or have a harder time with some over others, testing them on hot and cold grates, and more.

David holding 4 electric grill grate cleaners from Amazon

Disclaimer

We bought these all ourselves on Amazon, and we’re just going to show you the tests and the results. None of the manufacturers know we’re shooting this; we don’t have any notes or marketing jargon, and this content is supported by you, our viewers. Let’s take a look at the models in our roundup and see who’s on the chopping block today.

This Nameless Electric Grill Brush has 3 speed modes, and a removable stainless steel brush head that you can clean in the dish washer. The head will also pivot 90 degrees and was purchased for a price of $39.98. [Check current price]

The Leebien Electric Grill Brush has 3 speed modes as well, and a removable stainless steel brush head that can be cleaned in the dishwasher. The head will pivot, but not in the same way the Nameless does. This one pivots down instead of side to side and was purchased for a price of $49.98. [Check current price]

The Horsepower Giddy Up is a single speed brush with a stainless steel chainmail style rotary brush that’s dishwasher safe. There’s no pivoting with the GiddyUp and we picked it up for $56.99. [Check current price]

The Rubbermaid Reveal Power Scrubber uses a soft plastic oscillating head and says in the description on Amazon that it somehow cleans grills, so we picked it up to give it a whirl at $25.99. [Check current price]

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Should you use electric grate cleaners on a hot grill?

When it comes to instructions, there isn’t much to work with, and the Amazon descriptions are where most of the helpful information is found. The Giddy Up and the Rubbermaid both say you shouldn’t use them on a hot grill, and the other two can be used when the grill is hot.

Test #1: Marinated chicken thighs on the Hasty Bake Legacy 131

To test the brushes, we fired up the Hasty Bake Legacy 131 to cook some marinated chicken thighs. I washed the grates in the sink to get them as clean as I could beforehand, then fired up the grill.

I cooked the thighs around 450 degrees, left the grill running while the kids and I had lunch at The Lab, and after lunch the grill was sitting at 350 degrees for our hot test. The Leebein was up first, taking the left center section of our grate. The Nameless was next taking the right center section of the grate, and gave them both 90 seconds to clean their section.

I left the lid open to burn off the rest of the charcoal, and after a few hours, when things were cool, it was the Rubbermaid’s turn on the left side of the grates. The Horsepower GiddyUp finished the test on the right side of the grates, and when it was all said and done, I would rank the GiddyUp as the cleanest, even though it was cleaning cold grates as a disadvantage.

Test #2: BBQ chicken on the Weber kettle

I wheeled out the Weber 26″ kettle next since this is their pullout grate system that has multiple pieces of grate that lay on top of each other to form a grate. I wondered if any of the brushes would get caught in the different pieces, so I made a mess of the grates with a BBQ chicken topped with cheese for lunch. With sauce and cheese baked onto the grates, I knew this was going to be quite the task.

Leebein was up first with the right center, Nameless with the far right side, Horsepower GiddyUp with the left side, and here’s how everything looked in the end. Giddyup again pulled away as the clear winner, with the Rubbermaid being largely ineffective. I think it’s safe to say that the Rubbermaid says it cleans grills, but it clearly doesn’t mean grates, so I’m calling it for the Rubbermaid in this test since we’re not seeing any meaningful cleaning from it. I think this brush gets bathroom duty from now on.

Test #3: Marinated chicken breasts on square grill grates

For some really thick and substantial grate cleaning, the Renaissance Cooking Systems Premier gas grill is our next target. I marinated a family pack of chicken breasts in Italian dressing overnight, and made a complete mess of the grates on the Premier.

I wanted this to be a cold cleaning test, so I didn’t clean the grates until days after this cook to really let it set in. Each brush got 2 minutes to clean their assigned grill panel, and here are the results. The Rubbermaid came in last (yes, I’m still testing it I guess) but let’s leave that there. Third place I’ll give to the Nameless brush, and second place goes to the Leebein brush, leaving first place once again to the GiddyUp. None of the brushes were flawless in this test, but it was a cold, sticky mess I created for them to tackle, and there was a clear winner.

Question of the Day

In just a second, I’m going to give you my final thoughts, but here’s the question of the day I want to pass off to you. Is the electric grill brush something that we need, or is it just an over-engineering of a product because we can. Sound off down below and let me know if this is the answer to your prayers or a mechanical abomination.

Are Electric Grill Brushes all hype and no performance?

I had more tests designed, but after what we had completed so far, there has been a winner and some clear losers.

The Rubbermaid brush, in my opinion, should take any reference to the word grill out of their Amazon description. Maybe you could use it to scrub the outside of the grill if it’s stainless steel, but this brush shouldn’t go inside of a grill where things have been cooked on by heat.

The Nameless brush did sort of okay, but the 90 degree orientation that you can have takes away some of the push power you miss with this design. The motor drags when you push down as well, so I find the power underwhelming, which gives it third place for me.

The Leebein brush is pretty good, but it really likes to walk all across the grates, which isn’t helpful when you’re trying to focus clean. It says in the Amazon description that “all you need to do is holding the electric grill brush, no more heavy scrubbing.” I don’t find that to be true. To get anything clean, I needed to press pretty hard to make any progress, but it still was the second best in the group.

The winner hands down for me was the Horsepower Giddy Up chain mail electric brush. I told Melissa when we first ordered these brushes that I didn’t want to say HorsePower GiddyUp on camera a bunch, but here they are coming in first in our head-to-head. The design just works, and while I thought I would have problems with grates like the Weber kettle, there weren’t any.

So while I personally don’t have a horse in this race, it turns out the only horse worth riding here is the Giddyup. It’s the 1 electric grill brush that I’d plan on using of the 4, and the rest are going on Facebook Marketplace, so if you’re in Indianapolis and would like an electric grill brush that sort of kind of works, I’ll have 3 options for sale very soon.

If you would like to purchase one of these electric grill brushes on Amazon, you can click our links below. Any purchase that you make after clicking our link helps keep the content coming, and it’s you who make the next video possible. If you’re still on the hunt for a great Father’s Day gift for Dad, check out our Grilling Gift List on Amazon with our winners and favorites from the last few years of testing here on the channel.

Quick Links to the products mentioned in this post and video: