Cleaning last year’s grease from the grill pan can be an arduous task but scrubbing with onions, beer and coffee are among ten surprising tips for a sparkling summer BBQ.

The gardening experts at GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk have put together their top tips on how to achieve a sparkly grill and clean BBQ.

Steam cleaning with water-soaked newspapers and rubbing the bars of the grill with a raw onion are among the unusual tips.

Others include soaking in coffee, creating your own vinegar spray and pouring half a bottle of beer over a warm grill.

Here are the top tips on cleaning your BBQ:

1. Heat it up If you’re dusting down your BBQ for the first time this year, heat it up to try and remove any stuck-on food. This should burn off the most stubborn remains.

2. Steam clean Once your BBQ has started to cool down, cover the grill with water-soaked newspaper and close the lid. Leave it shut for 30 minutes to give it a god steam clean.

3. Clean with an onion While there’s still some heat in your grill, attach an onion to a fork and rub over the hot bars. The water in the onion steam cleans them and removes any stuck-on food.

4. Vinegar spray Mix 500ml of vinegar and the same amount of water in a spray bottle. Spray the solution onto the grill and leave for ten minutes. Empty the bottle, refill with vinegar, spray on and then scrub to clean the grill and its interior.

5. Coffee cleaner Try soaking your grill and utensils in coffee for hard to remove food remains. The acid in the coffee loosens up the caked-on dirt.

6. Baking soda Sprinkle baking soda on the grill and dissolve some in water. Use a sponge with a scourer to scrub until all the baking soda is gone and the grill is sparkling.

7. A waste of beer? Pour half a bottle of beer onto a warm grill and scrub with some newspaper or a wire brush. In no time, your grill will be sparkling.

8. Scrubbing remains If there are still remains on your grill, scrub them in hot, soapy water. If you don’t have a BBQ grill brush, scrunch up some foil and use that instead.

9. Cleaning the base It’s important to remove old ash and coals before you start cooking again. Tip them into a bucket and use damp kitchen towels to pick up any remains. Then give it a good wash down with warm, soapy water.

10. Scrubbing outside Once the inside of your BBQ is sparkling, don’t forget to give the outside a good wash down. Hot soapy water and plenty of elbow grease is all you will need for this.

A spokesperson for GardenBuildingsDirect.co.uk said: “Cleaning the BBQ grill is one of those jobs we all love to put off.

“After finishing off the food and enjoying a few bottles of cold beer, scrubbing off the greasy food remains is not fun.

“Luckily our hacks will give you a few ideas on how to get the grill sparkling without having to put in too much elbow grease.

“They’re also fun – who knew you could clean a greasy grill with an onion, coffee and beer?”