Charcoal grilling is an exceptional cooking art contrasting from other- an exciting way to enjoy an appetizing smoky bite.
Party lover guys love to use a charcoal grill for cooking, but in the northern guys, only use a charcoal grill during the summer. It is absolutely possible to enjoy this style grill all year round if you know the perfect control of cooking & charcoal grill.
Expert grill lovers have experienced the art of absolutely managing the charcoal grill to cook perfectly—not overcooked or undercooked—all the time they use a charcoal grill.
However, it is so easy to warm up the charcoal grill to top temperatures! But to cool down the charcoal grill is quite nerve-racking & messy.
In this article, we guide you to a couple of options regarding cooling down the charcoal grill safely & quickly. Just remind you not to handle or dispose of the coals until it turns totally cold.
Why is it essential to cool down your Charcoal Grill?
Don’t think that you’ve ended with the grill after completing grilling your food. Not so fast – the charcoal will remain to go up until it’s totally cool down. It will take a lot of time if you cast –off huge charcoal.
- In that time, an unattended mode can be a risk for pets, children, unaware adults, or even your property. How so?
- Hence, many of us can’t easily assume that the charcoal is hot or it’s out if you’re not placed at the grill.
- Hot grill burns can be too much severe. For example, an animal or your pet cracks into it and beats it over, copping out hot coals everywhere. There may cause a serious fire even if little coals are on wood decking or in the grass.
- On the ecological side, this is letting out carbon dioxide & carbon monoxide pointlessly into the air. Also, you’re misusing charcoal even having the chance of reusing.
- Food52 says that charcoal can remain warm for up to 24 hours or longer; if you dump coals before totally out, there lies a risk of fire-making.
- Lastly, save your money reusing your charcoal later, as the lump wood charcoal and the more reasonable briquettes aren’t less costly. So cool down your charcoal grill to use it next time.
Best techniques to cool down charcoal grill?
As the Charcoal grill doesn’t have an on / off switch, it can be lit up for hours, resulting in wasting fuel- a potential hazard.
Follow our write-up to cool down your charcoal grill carefully to save unburned charcoal for use next time.
Cooling down charcoal grill while cooking:
While grilling your charcoal, how acute the coal burns predict the temperature.
To flame, charcoal requires oxygen to combust, which is delivered through the vents. It is particularly easy to Cool down coals while cooking; just close the vents to stop airflows.
Track the temperature for five to ten minutes, and set the vents, then position halfway close or full if the temperature is still higher than you require cooking.
Don’t worry; gradually, you’ll cover an idea to set your vents perfectly at any temperature for cooking. With a hood thermometer, you can restrict the lid to have a perfect signal of the temperature.
Read the user manual to have more ideas regarding this.
On the contrary, if you need to increase the temperature, just set the vent in the reverse direction. Remind that more r airflow creates more high burning, which raises your grill temperature.
Cooling down charcoal grill following cooking sessions:
While grilling is done, before storing it, you have to cool down the charcoal grill. This is the simplest process that can be done by following the steps outlined below:
Suggested equipment:
- Bucket full water.
- BBQ gloves-Heat proof.
- Metal bucket
- Wire brush
- Aluminum foil
- Baking soda
- Grill tongs
- Fire extinguisher (class ABC, B, or K )
Method -1: Cooling down the charcoal grill with a lid.
Cooling down your charcoal grill with a lid may be the best way to have a lid in your charcoal grill. Simply close the lid and vents that kill the oxygen of the coals & make it cool.
Please put on the heat resistance oven mitts and ensure that they are enough to protect you from excessive temperatures.
Slowly pull the rack from the grill and then close the lid. Make sure the vent closure if your grill has it.
This prevents extra airflow from making the fire again as all the oxygen avenues of the chamber are covered.
Almost 48 hours is needed to cool down coals entirely by this method. This safest method grants you to reuse your charcoal next time if you have enough time.
As we mentioned here briefly, this method allows slowing cool down with a lower possibility of buckling metal- we suggest you this best & safe option.
To perfectly cool down your charcoal grill with a lid:
- First, you should close the air vents & the lid.
- Put the grill in a safe place away from children and pets.
- Let the charcoal grill rest until cold.
Note:
You may need to give more than two days to cool down coals fully.
To properly handle burning charcoal, some skill is essential handling it. Pick the following tools, which are mainly essentials:
Method -2: Let burn out all the coals.
This method is perhaps the best one to cool down a charcoal grill without a lid.
Steps:
- Fully open up the air vents of the grill.
- Let burn out all the coals to ash.
- Careful about pets or children touching the barbeque.
There lies no risk of gill damage. Once the burning is completed, make a standard cleanup process.
Method -3: Putting the Coals also the smother out.
Putting the Coals also the smother out grants you to reuse the coal again next time. But it does involve moving hot coals.
Steps:
- Firstly remove your food item or the grates from your grill to have well access to the coals.
- Put on heat-proof gloves to protect you from burning out.
- On the trashcan, Keep the lid and place it safely.
- This will restrict the oxygen flow of the coals.
This will need more than two days to totally complete cooling down the charcoal; confirm the trashcan is safely placed as it gets scalding for a while.
Another confirmation you need is that the steel trash can is heavy & the high quality or the coals have a possibility to burn through it.
Once cooling down, inspect the charcoal & keep it to reuse.
Method -4: Get out the Hot Coals to cool down elsewhere.
Formerly, this method needs more safety with safety items with great care; actually, you will get out the hot coals.
Here, an important talk is that steam will create as you have to use water in this method. Severe burns may happen because of steam- never keep any of your body part over the coals while dousing water into the coals.
Steps:
- After removing the grates or object from your grill, take the hot coals into the bucket (metal), wearing heat-proof gloves.
- Pick out the bucket to a far away area where steam & smoke isn’t a matter.
- Slowly pour water on the coals with a bucket; please don’t put your body part while dousing water.
- You can use a water sprayer to cool down on the hot, slowly spraying water. This option grants you to reuse the charcoal in the future, and this option is actually safer; it takes your time more.
- Slowly add water until the coals total cool down, be careful about directly Watering to your grill/BBQ; it may cause damage to it.
- Must use a Metal bucket instead of the thin one.
What to do after cooling down charcoal?
Step-1: Weep the ashes into aluminum foil:
- Separate the ashes from the charcoal. With aluminum foil, wrap up the ashes, & dispose of them.
- Before throwing away completely, cover up the ashes.
Step-2: Let the charcoal dry:
To reuse the charcoal, leave it out then in the sun for 2 days to dry, as for next time using it requires being totally dry out then cooling down. Choose a non-flammable surface to dry charcoal in the sun, like pavement, until it gets dry & cool and to keep.
This option is most important for wood charcoal than briquettes, as usually, Briquettes vanish after one-time cooking.
The size of charcoal may be longer or shorter, so check out to completely dry.
Avoid patios, porches, and decks to save their color, as charcoal may spot the surface while drying.
Step-3: Store the charcoal:
Before reusing the charcoal, you can store them in a fireproof container like a metal bucket or metal lockbox; Or directly in the grill, just keeping more charcoal while reusing it.
What if any emergency?
Rarely, if the fire gets out of hand, on many occasions even in a barbecue, don’t spray water over it; try best to cover up on the grill to restrict the oxygen and douse the flames.
Short cut to cool down charcoal grill?
Not really; there is no shortcut way at least 48 hours needed. Don’t spray too much water to do fast- imbalance temperature may damage the grill.
Final thought:
With any luck, you can enjoy a thrifty & safe barbecue if you’ve gone through our article before blazing your charcoal grill!
What to do & how to go is easy for you. For more information, leave a comment below, share the link with your friends to get a little inspiration to make a party better!
