Use a little elbow grease when cleaning with aluminum foil, but it works. Just don’t forget to rinse the grills after this cleaning process so you don’t get bits of foil in your food (which seems less scary than getting a brush bristle in your gut).
I have a fear of grill brushes. It sounds odd–but this phobia came from seeing an older “Medical Mystery: You be the Doctor” television show on ABC where a bristle fell off a grill brush, stuck to the grill, then became cooked into a hamburger patty, and after the burger was eaten, it finally caused chaos in one person’s gut. (For more, see this article.) So, I banned the tool from our house. Instead, I tried a number of items, a grill cleaning cream and a stone-type tool (neither worked), the Magic Eraser (my favorite product, but nope, didn’t work), and finally somewhere I saw a tip to use crumpled up foil to get the gunk off. It works! But, here’s the thing: you have to wipe down (with a damp cloth) or hose off the grills after using the foil technique or else you, too, will be featured on a “Medical Mystery” show.
For more grill cleaning tips, see this article on cleaning a gas grill.