Nobody wants to cook on a grungy barbecue grill, so Consumer Reports came up with a way to put grill brushes to the test to tell which ones will you give you a clean cooking surface, whether your grates are cast iron or stainless.

To mess up the test grills, testers roasted sticky chicken breasts on stainless and cast-iron grates. Although the experts say hot grate cleans up the best, the brushes were tested on cold, warm, and hot grates using a systematic method of 50 strokes, and then the surfaces were assessed.

“We were surprised in testing to find that a lot of grill brushes have short or flat handles that keep your hand over the hot grates. When you shop for a grill brush, look for one with a long handle and an angled head,” said Paul Hope, Consumer Reports home editor.

Some brushes didn’t perform well.

The Char-broil Cool-clean brush has a nylon head designed for cool to the touch grates. In the tests, it did a poor job of cleaning on cool and warm surfaces.

The Char-griller wood grill scraper is a wooden paddle that becomes notched as you scrape it along hot grates. But it didn’t do a very good job in tests on any of the surfaces, or between the ribs.

But one effective tool, isn’t a brush at all.

Testers were impressed by the performance of the Earthstone grill stone. It’s made of recycled materials, and did an impressive job of removing the cooked-on chicken on cold, warm and hot surfaces.

The downside? It leaves a lot of residue, both on the grates and inside the firebox that must be cleaned thoroughly before cooking. But if you’re tackling a really gross grill, this is the tool to have.

And remember to be aware when using wire brushes.

"It felt like somebody shot me in the gut," said Robert Russo, "I've never experienced pain like this, I digested the wire, it got to my lower intestine and it pierced it."

The wire bristles can break off and like Russo experienced, you can swallow them when eating food.

Check carefully for bristles after cleaning and replace your brush when it shows signs of wear. That’s usually every couple of years.