Nothing caustic goes near the cast aluminium body, which caustic soda attacks on contact and etches permanently. Use heat, a plastic scraper and hot soapy water. Models with integrated charcoal have a different grease path from gas ones.
Everdure by Heston Blumenthal is the current Everdure barbecue line, and it is worth separating from the older Everdure that made kitchen appliances in Australia, which is a different proposition entirely.
Cast aluminium and caustic do not mix
The bodies and lids on much of the range are cast aluminium, and this is the single most expensive mistake available on the brand.
Caustic cleaners contain sodium hydroxide, which attacks aluminium directly. It is not a matter of leaving it on too long: the reaction starts immediately, it fizzes, and it leaves the surface etched, chalky and permanently whitened. That is not a deposit sitting on the metal, it is the metal itself, and there is no repair because the smooth cast face is gone.
So nothing caustic ever goes on an Everdure body or lid. Not oven cleaner, not a supermarket heavy-duty degreaser, and not a barbecue cleaner that does not say what is in it. If a label warns about aluminium anywhere, believe it; if it says nothing, assume the worst.
What does work is heat, a plastic scraper and hot soapy water. Run it on high with the lid down for ten to fifteen minutes to carbonise what is on the lid, let it cool to warm rather than hot, and flake the carbon off with a plastic scraper.
Integrated charcoal changes the grease path
Some Everdure models carry integrated charcoal, either alone or alongside gas, and that changes what you are cleaning.
A gas barbecue routes fat off the food, across a tray and into a collection cup. A charcoal model routes it into the fuel bed and into an ash system beneath, so the maintenance job is emptying ash regularly rather than clearing a drain. Ash left in place absorbs moisture and forms a paste that is considerably harder to remove than dry ash, so empty it after a cook rather than before the next one.
Our BBQ cleaning guide covers the grease path, burner ports and the spider problem on gas models.
The legacy kitchen appliances are different
If you have an Everdure oven or cooktop rather than a barbecue, that is the older Australian kitchen line and not this range at all. See how to clean an Everdure oven and how to clean an Everdure cooktop.
What actually goes wrong
An etched cast aluminium lid. Permanent, and the defining Everdure mistake.
Ash left to absorb moisture on a charcoal model.
A wire wheel on enamelled parts, chipping through to metal that then rusts.
Should you do it yourself?
Do it yourself with heat, a plastic scraper and soapy water, which is genuinely all it needs.
Get someone in if a caustic product has already been used and you want the damage assessed, or if it has not been touched in a season or more.