Does grease runoff or washout kill your grass?

[realdocBBQ]

I don't have a good place to dispose of crap. I try to scrape things out. I try to use buckets to capture my grease out of my offsets particularly,but then, of course, I'm faced with what to do with it - trying to liquify it again to put it into gallon jugs (milk, OJ, etc) for disposal.

I'm thinking ahead to when (if???) the weather warms up in a month or two, I am planning on pulling ALL my smokers out on the grass and spending a day scraping, spraying and washing them out, then doing some quick sanding/scraping on my Yoder at least, to spray it and make it look better. But I am sure all the gunk that comes out is liable to lead to some dead grass - and a P.O.'d wife, most likely.

<sigh>

I really need to be out in the country, and I need an area of sand/gravel, etc where I can just let all this stuff out and not worry about it. Dangit.

[Alan Brice]

Gravel, on news paper then into the fire pit. Do not wash til you have the lionshare out with a spatula/wide blade.

[dpearce]

I'm in the same boat. I inherited a stainless steel gas grill, which only needed a few parts inside to make it work right again, and I have a Pit Barrel cooker going on 7 years old that desperately needs cleaned out.

As soon as the weather breaks here, I'm going to thoroughly clean power wash them both. I'm pretty sure doing all that on the paver patio is out of the question, and like you, I don't really want to nuke the grass.

The only thing I can think of is drop one or two of my cheap Harbor Freight tarps down, and just toss them when I'm done.

[Donw]

Saw your interesting question and realized a neighbor who lives about a mile up the road is a retired federal botanist who specialized in grasses so I called him.
The grease probably won’t kill your grass unless it sits under a thick coating but it will eventually hinder the uptake of nutrients from the soil and give you stunted and discolored leaves. It will also attract pests.
The cleaners used during cleaning have the potential to actually kill the grass. He said even Dawn at full strength can kill grass. Make sure whatever you use to catch it, use is diluted, or throughly soaked the grass afterwards.
This really explains to me why the patch of grass I use to clean my smokers always looks patchy and stunted. I always thought that area was that way because our female dog loved to use that area to urinate.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

I try to lineup my deep cleaning with forecasted heavy rain. Never had my grass do more than yellow for a few days this way and I use some aggressive cleaners. I do however scrape and dump all heavy buildup into my firepit first.

[TripleB]

All my cleanup goes to the edge of the property in my bones yard and poured out into the bushes.

[jfmorris]

I've been hosing out smokers and cleaning grills in the same backyard for 30 years now, and it's never been an issue (so far). I just make sure to use LOTS of water and ensure that I've diluted the grease and any Dawn I may have squirted into the smoker. Never noticed the grass dying from it.

Something else I was doing the past several years to help with cleanup of my offset was I would lay down a layer or two of that thick heavy duty wide foil in the bottom, poking a hole at the grease drain through the foil. That tended to make cleanup of the grill easier, as most of the grease from ribs or whatever dripped onto the foil, then ran down the grease drain, dropping into the galvanized steel bucket I kept underneath. I just formed it to the curve of the smoker, and ran it up the sides. A little grease may have missed it, as it was 18" wide foil and a 24" wide cooking grate, but it did help.

I need to send that tip to my nephew, who now has the offset...

[tstalafuse]

I don't want to attract any more animals than we already see, especially the night time visitors (bears, mountain lions, bobcats, foxes, or coyotes) or have the dogs get into it. I load everything up onto our flatbed trailer and take it the DIY car wash. High pressure water, soap, and a fine finishing rinse for a spot free finish.

[Skip]

I use "Floor Dry" quite often to soak up grease when it's still in it's liquid state. It makes clean up much easier as I can scrape up the gunk and put it in the trash. It's inexpensive and available in all Automotive Stores.