How do you safely extinguish a charcoal barbecue?
In short: extinguish your barbecue
- Step 1. Leave the barbecue where it was.
- Step 2. Make sure no one can burn themselves on the BBQ.
- Step 3. Close the ventilation holes of the barbecue.
- Step 4. Remove the grill rack.
- Step 5. Pour sand over the smoldering charcoal.
- Step 6. Put the lid on the barbecue and wait for a night.
Step 1. Leave the barbecue where it is
Don't carry around a warm charcoal barbecue. That's asking for trouble. The barbecue can fall over, with all its consequences. In addition, the bowl is often too hot to touch at all. Best to leave the barbecue where it is. You shouldn't move a barbecue on wheels either. The charcoal or briquettes can slide, so the weight in the bowl moves There's a chance the barbecue will fall over.
Step 2. Keep children and pets away from the BBQ
The barbecue was very hot when you were barbecuing, so it's warm now. Very warm. Too warm to let children and/or pets come into contact with, because that would be unsafe. Avoid this by warning your child, dog, cat, etc. Do you have young children or over-enthusiastic pets? Put something in front of the smoldering charcoal barbecue, like a fence. This way, you can avoid unnecessary accidents.
Step 3. Close the ventilation holes of the barbecue
Does your charcoal barbecue have ventilation holes? Make sure to close them when you want to extinguish the barbecue. By closing the ventilation holes, oxygen can no longer get to the charcoal or briquettes. As a result, charcoal or briquettes slowly stop glowing.
Step 4. Remove the rack and put the lid on
Ready to cool your barbecue? Always remove the grill rack from the barbecue. Stuck food remains won't cake on the grill rack that way. In addition, the grill rack isn't unnecessarily exposed to the heat of the barbecue this way, so it will last longer. Tip: get most of the coarse remains off the grid the same day.
Step 5. Let the barbecue rest or extinguish with sand
Let the barbecue cool down for at least 24 hours. Charcoal keeps glowing for a long time. No time or patience? Carefully pour sand over the charcoal or briquettes to extinguish them. Do this at a leisurely pace and spread the sand evenly. Note: sand doesn't absorb heat, so both the sand and the charcoal be hot for a while.
Step 6. Check if the charcoal has cooled down completely
Even though charcoal or briquettes sometimes seem to be completely extinguished, appearances can be deceiving. For this reason, always check it's fully extinguished before cleaning up the barbecue. You can do so by touching the charcoal or puncture it with heat-resistant barbecue tools. That's the only way to see whether charcoal or briquettes are no longer glowing from the inside out.
Step 7. Reusing BBQ briquettes? This is how you do it:
If you're working with heat-resistant barbecue tools anyway, make a distinction between the charcoal or briquettes you want to reuse and the charcoal or briquettes you want to throw away. It's a shame to throw away unused fuel. Are you going to reuse BBQ charcoal? Always put more fresh than used charcoal in your barbecue. Throw away ashes by wrapping them in aluminum foil and then throwing them into the trash can (preferably a metal one).
