Cleaning a commercial-grade grill surface

Question

Here is a griddle.

Most weeks, it's used to cook for a community dinner where I live. And, most of those weeks, I'm the volunteer who cleans it.

Based on instructions I inherited, I've got, for tools, a 4-inch paint scraper and a supply of blades, and then a stack of micro-fiber rectangles with a handle and pad I can use to apply elbow grease.

I warm the thing up, I scrape it with the scraper (leaving, always, some small scratches), and then scrub it until clean. Then a quick rinse and a coating of cooking oil.

Last night, it seems that one of the cooks had gone postal -- there were some metal divots sticking up from the surface that blocked, and dinged, the scraper blade. I eventually removed them with a wad of stainless steel 'wool' that is usually used on pots. But, even afterwards, it seemed to me that the scraping process was causing more scratching than usual.

So, for those of you with actual professional experience, what's the story? Is the main problem here that the Terminator was wailing on the surface, or am I taking the wrong approach in part or in whole?

Answer 1

If you have dinged or scratched grill that is a problem.

I am used to used to starting with something like this: a grill stone / block / brick.
(Skip the paint scrapper - especially if it is scratching the grill.)

If you are using something like this:

Those are also use used but I like a brick.

Then a green scratch pad on grease.
Then a green scratch pad with water.

Then just some very very light oil.

This is how a pro does it. clean a grill like a boss

If you shut it down dirty and fire it up to clean it is twice the work. It should get cleaned as it is being shut down. It kind of like lets the stains set.