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Memorial Day is behind us and the school year is coming to a close. That means it’s Summer—and Summer means it’s time for outdoor cooking on the grill. One unfortunate consequence of grilling, however, is that you also have to clean the grill eventually. The Grillbot—an automatic grill cleaning robot—wants to simplify that for you.
Grillbot sent us a review unit so we could experience the device firsthand, so here is my review.
Form
From the top, the Grillbot looks similar to a Neato or other robot vacuum. It is roughly circular device—a little smaller than a standard paper plate. It’s about 4 inches tall with a triangular housing on top that holds the battery and acts like a handle as well.
The top has a port for charging the Grillbot—which has a rubber cover to seal it from debris while the device is running. There is also a power button and a small digital display. The bottom of the Grillbot has three rotating wire brushes.
The brushes pop out and can be easily replaced. Grillbot sells replacement brushes in brass, stainless steel or nylon.
Function
First, you have to plug the Grillbot in and get it fully charged. Once it’s charged, using it is very simple. You just press the power button. The display will show how long the Grillbot will run. You can press the power button repeatedly to cycle through 10-minute, 20-minute, or 30-minute sessions, depending on the size and amount of grime on your grill.
After about a 3-second delay, the brushes will start spinning. Just set the Grillbot on the grill, close the lid, and walk away. The Grillbot will bounce around randomly, scraping away all of the grime and debris from your grill with its wire brushes until the timer expires. It will beep to let you know it’s done.
My Experience
There isn’t much to say about my experience. I did exactly as described above—charged it, set it for 30 minutes, put it on the grill, closed the lid and walked away. When I came back, my grill was nice and clean.
I have an added level of cleaning because I have an infrared grill. When the Grillbot cleans it just scrapes all of the debris onto the infrared elements below, so I have to take those out and dump them off and clean those as well.
The Verdict
If you grill, you want one of these. It looks a bit like someone combined a robot vacuum with a medieval torture device, but it works as advertised.
I love to grill, but I have never been great about keeping the grill clean. From what little cleaning I did do, the wire grill brush I used was worn down and more or less useless. With the automated simplicity of the Grillbot, I can now ensure the grill is cleaned properly after each use.
The Grillbot is $120 ($140 if you buy a bundle that includes a hard plastic carrying case). It’s available in black, red, blue, or orange. If you grill relatively often, it is definitely a worthwhile investment.
