Here on the east coast, as thoughts of Halloween starts to creep into our kids minds, as adults we start to put away our grills. Sure we had a great summer of grilling, but now that it is ending, what do we have to do to make sure that $500-$1,000 grill will work again next summer? This means we need to break it down!

Propane Tanks

This should be your first matter of attention. It's always good policy to run your tanks empty before storing the tanks away for the winter. What does it mean to run your tanks empty? The best bet in my opinion is to have one last cookout or grilling! Get a bunch of steak, burgers or hotdogs and do it up one more time. Now, when the meat is off the grill completely and all cooked up, go ahead and keep the burners going. That way, the fire feeds off the gas completely and you'll know then when there's no more gas left. Call the cook out the ?end of the year I must drain my tank? cookout. If you need some recipes, go ahead and take a gander at http://www.barbecue-recipes.org , they have a good amount.

Once your propane tank is properly emptied, go ahead and store it in a dry, cool place. Garages, and basements are best options. However, depending on where you live, covering the propane tank and leaving it outside will work too. It works in my family, year after year!

With your propane tank properly stored, you need to turn your attention on your grill. What many people fail to do is to correctly scour and clean the grill when putting it away at the end of the year. This only leaves more of a hassle at the beginning of next year, and no one wants to do that. So here is what I do:

Once the propane tank is empty, and once it's cooled down enough to where I can touch it, I break out the metal scrub brushes that get down and dirty in the fight against burnt up meet and charcoal. This is where you really need to scrub and there are different solvents available for this. What I like to do is take a beat up towel that is bound for the refuse pile anyways, wipe it down with a cleaning agent and then proceed to wipe down the grill. This is done so that you're not directly spraying any chemicals on the grill itself. Wipe it down, and then scrub til the grime and dirt and left over food is all wiped away.

Then get ready for next year, because the grilling is just around the corner!