After having tried (and been unsatisfied with) a brush, a balled up piece of heavy duty foil, and Grill Floss, I decided to give the Grill Stone a shot.
At someone's request here is my opinion on floss vs. foil vs. stone.
Floss
The Grill Floss product is my least favorite simply because it's such a pain to use. The floss works well enough to clean the grill (in fact it's probably the best product to clean all sides of the bars), BUT it's very time consuming since you have to scrape each side of the bar individually. And the thinness of the handle along with the pressure you need to exert makes it a strain on the hands.
Heavy Duty Foil Ball
I like this one because it's fast and easy. It doesn't clean the best, but it's better than a brush and it does a good job of scraping the sides of the bars. Also, after you hit the grill with the foil ball... you're done. No extra steps. The ball is pretty much the only thing you can do to get a quick, light cleaning in between rounds of cooking.
Grill Stone
This product is pretty good. It's a pumice stone, so it's very soft and light weight. When you brush down the grill with it and apply enough pressure, you'll put some grooves in the stone which will help to clean the sides of the bars. The stone does a good job of scraping every little bit off of the bars, and it's pretty quick since you're not scraping each bar individually. Basically it's like the foil ball but more abrasive.
The only downside is that you can't use it for a quick clean across the top like you can with the foil ball. You pretty much have to do a full clean on both sides and then brush down the grill when you use it. If you only scrape the top, then the remaining char and grease on the sides and bottoms of the bars will be covered in the sandy residue left by the stone. You don't want any of that to transfer to your food. Even if you brush the grill after cleaning the top, I think that you won't be able to get all of it. You'll probably need to scrape both sides and then brush the grill to get all of the sand off.
This is a phenomenal product. It cleans quickly and easily, but the grates do have to be rinsed after cleaning unless you want little grains in your hamburgers.
As another reviewer noted, the pumice is soft and wears away quickly. But this is a real plus for two reasons: first, the grime that's picked up rinses easily off the stone; and second, if you have railroad-rail-shaped bars, you can quickly wear a groove that exactly matches the bar width and lets you clean all surfaces.
Mine came with the handle and a total of three stones. I used up one stone cleaning my three grates: they had not been cleaned in two years and were almost beyond hope.
This is 'way better than the "Grill Daddy" which I bought at the same time.
Buy GrillStone Grill Cleaner Starter Set, with Handle and Two Blocks Now
This item does clean the grill very well, and with minimum effort. I always feel you have to really put pressure on a metal brush to remove the junk on the grill, but with this, I didn't feel that I had to use that much pressure. However, it has only lasted about 3 cleanings, plus I recommend that you wipe the grill off again after using the block. It leaves a fine dust on the grill, and I wouldn't want to consume it. All in all, I will probably purchase the item again, but only use it occasionally to get heavy junk off the grill, and still keep a wire brush handy for the in-between cleanings.
Read Best Reviews of GrillStone Grill Cleaner Starter Set, with Handle and Two Blocks Here
I purchased this product for myself a few years ago and found it to be the best item out there to clean our BBQ grill. I love it so much I purchased several grill blocks for both my son and daughter. Oh, and of course, several more for my husband and I. Can't say enough about it and we are completely and totally satisfied. Our BBQ grill looks brand new after using the grillstone. The Best!
Want GrillStone Grill Cleaner Starter Set, with Handle and Two Blocks Discount?
This item arrived with an extra (beyond the two advertised) replacement cleaning block. I've been using these for several years--they are an abrasive pumice-type stone (created in a high temp kiln from recycled glass) that doesn't clog, rust, or shed bristles like some of the other grill cleaners I've used. I've used it on a couple of grills and found that it is much more effective on grills with wider space bars. It wears down rather quickly (hence the resistance to clogging) and will actually wear grooves to match the grill bars, making it very effective at cleaning between bars on grills with sufficient space between bars. For this reason, I find it much more effective on my charcoal Weber with skinny bars and lots of space than it is at cleaning my gas grill. Besides the fast wearing, the only downside is that the handle design is such that you can't use the last 1/3 of the brick without taking it out of the handle, which sort of defeats the purpose of the handle in the first place.
I bought this at my local Sam's club at a much lower price. I have the pans if the other sizes and I absolutely love them. The removable silicone grip is a wonderful feature since it allows the pan to go into the oven. The older pans that I have are still in great shape and they are approx 5 years old now. Although the nonstick coating on them is not the Eclipse brand they are still in perfect shape. This pan is a wonderful addition to any kitchen.
