Has anyone tried these wooded grill scrapers?  On sale at Coscto for $15.

A buddy of mine has a Weber gasser with nice stainless steel grates.  He swears by that paddle.  I've never tried one before. 

Never tried them, but have heard both ends of the spectrum. Seems to be a love it or hate it product.

I've not used it but have read a bit about it on other sites.  The break-in process is to get the grates extremely hot and allow them to burn form-fitting groves into the paddle.  From that point on it fits precisely and doesn't require unusually hot grates.

The different opinions seem to hinge on whether or not users have carefully burned the groves.

They also seem to be especially useful on those grates of non-typical configurations.

Picked one up at Costco a couple years ago use it on the traeger and now the rectec. No complaints. Have to get the grill ripping hot to burn it in right. Only really scrapes the top of the grate, not the sides so well. Not as well as a bristle but I heard too many horror stories about people swallowing metal bristles in their bbq.

Picked one up at Costco a couple years ago use it on the traeger and now the rectec. No complaints. Have to get the grill ripping hot to burn it in right. Only really scrapes the top of the grate, not the sides so well. Not as well as a bristle but I heard too many horror stories about people swallowing metal bristles in their bbq.

My brother got me one for Christmas.  It works good on the top, but I'm not too impressed with the sides, either.  I didn't get my DB hot enough to break it in right I don't think, so that's my fault.

Works well on my gasser but I’ve never tried it on my RecTec.

As others have said, it requires the grates to be very hot in order to burn in the grooves.

 I find it doesn't remove hard/baked-on crud. A contoured metal scraper is best followed by a wire brush..Wood scrapers became the rage when ingesting wire bristles was played up by the media a few years back.

You all will have to check, was it Firecraft that sent one for the PT on PH?  It seemed like it would take a long time to get the groves, much longer then the PT took, but it seems like once groved it would take the big pieces off.  But it is amazing how well a ball of aluminum foil does too!

A puddy knife works good

Bought the same one at Costco around October last.  Hard to get it grooved and then only takes mostly top and does a poor job for me.  I use the Weber spiral wire and then the Poly mesh to Finnish.  Works great, and after I have done all that I rub off the soot with paper towels.  No chance for metal wire to remain on my grills when I am done.  Also I avoid using the wire brush till it breaks down.  Crumpled aluminum foil also works to some extent, but again must be used when the grill is hot for best results. Wood paddle is gone!

Thanks for the feedback everyone!  Was willing to plunk down $15 to give it a try but I am sure I can find another use for it...

The paddle reminds me of the The Shed bbq restaurant in Mississippi.  They go through so much sauce that they make it in a Navy ship sized cauldron and stir it with a canoe oar. 

I use one, as time goes by, it gets more and more effective as the groves get deeper. I helped the process when I bought mine using a dremel to start the grooves.

Two more thoughts:

 1/ - Wood scrapers will fit only one size of grate.

 2/ - Why not make your own..They are hardwood, usually Oak. The Shape doesn't have to be fancy, just functional.   A 3" wide ( Max* ) x 1" thick tapered at ~ 45º on the scraping end should work well. Length ?? ~ 1'.. * Too wide will spread the load out

resulting in less force being applied to the grate.

 The break-in process can be challenging, so go slowly until it gets mated to the grate rods.

 Weather in an other issue. Must be kept dry.

 Have a look at Traegers accessories. They have a rudimentary shaped wood scraper.