Weber and Nexgrill Grill Brush Recall Lawsuits 

In 2026, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced three major wire grill brush recalls, involving a total of about 15.1 million wire-bristle brushes. The CPSC warned that these bristles could detach from the brushes, become embedded in the food, and cause serious internal injuries that may require surgery. 

Many people look forward to the summer season specifically because it means they can break out the grill. According to the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, 80 percent of the nation’s 80.1 million owner-occupied households and 70 percent of the 126.8 million total households owned a grill or smoker in 2021.

It’s common for barbecue cooks to clean their grill grates using Weber, Nexgrill, and Cuisinart wire brushes, all of which have been sold on the American market for years and were supposed to be safe for such use.

Since the recalls were announced, several new grill brush lawsuits have been filed by individuals who used awire grill brush and then suffered a serious injury afterward. If you or a loved one swallowed a grill brush bristle and needed medical treatment, a grill brush injury attorney can help you understand whether you may have a product liability claim.

What is a Wire Grill Brush?

A wire grill brush is a handheld tool people use to scrape grease, burned food, and other residue from barbeque grill grates. It’s often used before or right after cooking, or even while the grates are still warm and the residue is easier to loosen and remove.  

Most wire grill brushes have a long handle made from plastic or wood so the person cleaning the grill can keep their hands away from the heat. At the end of the handle is a brush head containing rows, coils, or bundles of stiff metal bristles, often made from stainless steel. 

Manufacturers usually group several wires into small bundles called tufts and mechanically fasten those tufts to the brush head. One common method of doing this is called “staple setting.” Holes are drilled into the brush head, then a group of wire filaments is folded and gathered into a tuft, pushed into one of the holes, and secured inside with a small metal staple or anchor. That process is repeated across the brush head until it’s covered with rows of wire bristles.  

Other grill brushes use a twisted-wire or woven type of construction. Lengths of bristle wire are placed between heavier support wires, and the support wires are then twisted together, trapping the bristles between them and causing the bristles to spread out around the twisted center. The finished wire section is bent into the desired shape and attached to the brush head. 

However the manufacturer makes the brush, the key is to hold the wires in place while still allowing their exposed ends to flex and scrape against the grill grates for cleaning. The brushes come in different shapes. Some have flat rectangular heads, while others have three-sided heads designed to make it easier to clean the top and sides of the grill grates at the same time.  

What is the 2026 Grill Brush Recall?

In 2026, the CPSC announced three major grill brush recalls. They recommended consumers stop using the brushes immediately and refrain from selling them, giving them away, or continuing to use them while waiting for a refund or replacement. 

Weber Grill Brush Recall 

On February 26, 2026, the CPSC announced the Weber grill brush recall affecting about 3.2 million brushes. It included six models with plastic or wood handles measuring between 12 and 21 inches long:

• 6277 
• 6278 
• 6463 
• 6464 
• 6493 
• 6494 

The CPSC stated: “Small metal wire bristles can detach from the brushes, stick to the grill or food, posing an ingestion hazard and risk of serious internal injuries that could require surgery.” They noted that at the time of the recall, Weber was aware of “at least 38 reports and reviews where small wire bristles detached from the grill brushes, including four reports of consumers who swallowed metal bristles and sought medical treatment to remove the bristles from their digestive tract or throat.”

The recalled brushes were sold from 2011 through 2026 at Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, and Target stores. They were also available online through Amazon, Weber.com, and resale sites such as eBay. They generally cost between $10 and $17.

The recall directed consumers to stop using the affected products and contact Weber for a cold-cleaning nylon-bristle replacement. It also directed consumers to discard the recalled brush after their replacement request was approved.

Nexgrill Grill Brush Recall

On March 26, 2026, the CPSC announced the Nexgrill brush recall affecting about 10.2 million brushes. It included six models with black plastic or wooden handles:  

• 530-0024 
• 530-0024G 
• 530-0034 
• 530-0039 
• 530-0041 
• 530-0042

Again, the CPSC warned that the bristles could detach and become a serious ingestion hazard. At the time of the recall, Nexgrill was aware of at least 68 reports and reviews where small wire bristles detached from the brushes, including five reports of consumers who swallowed metal bristles and sought medical treatment.

The brushes were sold in stores at Home Depot and online at homedepot.com from 2015 through 2026 for between about $5 and $15. Nexgrill advised consumers to immediately stop using the brushes and contact Nexgrill for a refund.

Cuisinart Grill Brush Recall

On July 2, 2026, the CPSC once again announced a major grill brush recall. This time, Conair recalled nearly 1.72 million Cuisinart metal wire-bristle grill brushes after at least 54 reports and reviews involving detached bristles. At the time of the recall, the company was aware of three reports of consumers who had swallowed metal bristles and sought medical treatment.  

This recall covered eight individual Cuisinart brush models, along with brushes included in several grill-tool sets: 

• CCB-100 
• CCB-4125 
• CCB5014 
• CCB-6450 
• CCB-8012 
• CCB4114 
• CCB-W2 
• CSBS-777 
• CGS-2010 (part of the Premium Grill 10 Piece set) 
• CGS-W13 (part of the 13-Piece Wooden Handle Grill Set) 
• CGS-5014 (part of the 14-Piece Deluxe Stainless Steel Grill Set) 
• CGS-5020 (part of the 20 Piece Deluxe Grill Set) 

The brushes were sold from June 2009 through March 2026 at Burlington, TJ Maxx, and Ross stores and online through Amazon and Cuisinart.com. Prices ranged from about $8 to $20.

Conair advised consumers to stop using the brushes immediately and contact the company for a full refund or a credit for use at Cuisinart.com for a full refund plus 20% of the cash refund amount. 

How Can Grill Brush Bristles Detach?

When a person is using a wire grill brush, they’re usually pressing down and moving the brush back and forth so that the thin metal bristles scrape against a hard, uneven surface. Each use bends, twists, and pulls those wires. If they become detached, they may be left behind on the grill, unseen and unnoticed, where they can contaminate food.

The main danger is that once a bristle comes loose, it can be so small and camouflaged against the grate that it remains invisible. The cooker then puts the meat or other food on the grill, and that food can press against the bristle and pick it up.  

A hamburger patty, piece of chicken, steak, or even a vegetable can then carry the wire directly to the person who eats it. The CPSC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have both described this route of exposure in their safety notices and medical reports.

This is one of the reasons why grill brushes can be dangerous. The person who gets injured may have never even touched the brush. They can fall seriously ill and have no idea what’s causing it, making it harder for doctors to pinpoint the issue.  

Who Has Been Hurt By These Wire Grill Brushes? 

Doctors who have documented these cases describe a range of injuries, from painful puncture wounds in the mouth and throat to bristles that travel further down the digestive tract and puncture the wall of the stomach or intestine, sometimes requiring emergency surgery. 

In one case report, for instance, a 50-year-old man arrived at the emergency room with abdominal pain that had started after he ate steak at a backyard barbecue. A CT scan of his abdomen and pelvis revealed a “linear object” extending through the wall of his small intestine. Doctors performed a laparotomy to remove the object, which turned out to be a wire bristle from a grill-cleaning brush.

In other cases, the wire bristle is found in the mouth, the oropharynx (the part of the throat behind the mouth), or the esophagus. Patients often report pain when swallowing in these cases. Again, the wires had to be surgically removed. Others who suffer from the wires puncturing their digestive tracts had to have their intestines repaired after the wire was removed.

Unfortunately, this isn’t a new problem. A 2016 analysis of national emergency room data estimated that nearly 1,700 people were treated for wire-bristle grill brush injuries between 2002 and 2014. A more recent study looking at 2015 through 2023 put the number even higher, at an estimated 3,739 injuries, with roughly one in four requiring hospital admission. 

These cases aren’t limited to adults. A pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital described treating a four-year-old with a two-centimeter metal wire lodged in his throat, which had caused an abscess. Because the boy’s family didn’t connect his injury with the wire grill brush, it took over 10 days for doctors to finally figure out what was wrong. A CT scan ultimately revealed the metal wire lodged in his tonsil tissue. Turns out the boy’s symptoms had begun while he was eating at a barbecue. 

That same doctor went on to tell “Today” that she had seen two kids with the wires in their abdomens. Intestinal perforations are a medical emergency, as they can cause life-threatening complications like sepsis or even death.

What Are Possible Grill Brush Injuries?

A loose bristle can be very small, but it is usually stiff and sharp. It can become embedded in the body tissue almost anywhere from the mouth through the digestive tract.

Possible wire grill brush injuries include: 

• Cuts or punctures in the tongue, gums, tonsils, or mouth 
• A wire lodged in the throat or base of the tongue 
• Pain or difficulty when swallowing 
• Esophageal puncture or infection 
• Stomach or intestinal perforation 
• Inflammation, abscess, peritonitis (infection of the tissue lining the inner wall of the belly), or sepsis (the body’s extreme, life-threatening response to an infection) 
• Injury to a nearby organ after the wire migrates outside of the digestive tract 
• The need for laryngoscopy, endoscopy, colonoscopy, or abdominal surgery 
• Bowel resection when damaged tissue must be removed 

Symptoms After Swallowing a Grill Brush Bristle

Is there any way to tell that you’ve swallowed a grill brush bristle? Often, symptoms will appear, but some can take longer than others to show up and may not seem connected to a wire bristle.  

Warning signs may include:

• Sudden sharp pain in the mouth or throat 
• Pain or difficulty when swallowing 
• A feeling that something is stuck or “in there”  
• Neck swelling or tenderness 
• Chest pain 
• Persistent or severe abdominal pain 
• Fever, chills, nausea, or vomiting 
• Blood in saliva or stool 
• Increasing pain after eating grilled food

If you believe you or a loved one may have swallowed a grill brush bristle, seek medical attention immediately. Tell your doctor that you were eating grilled food and may have ingested a wire bristle. Don’t try to push through by eating more food. Get the issue checked first.  

Did the Manufacturers Know About the Grill Brush Dangers?

The trio of recalls mentioned previously are fairly recent. But evidence shows that the manufacturers of these grill brushes have known for years about the danger. 

A 2005 report, for example, described a child who suffered from a bristle penetrating the esophagus. A 2009 article reported a tongue abscess that was caused by a grill brush bristle. By 2012, the CDC was warning consumers, health professionals, manufacturers, retailers, and food-service businesses about the danger. 

The organization advised people to examine their grills carefully before cooking and to consider alternative cleaning products, noting at that time that the CPSC was already reviewing injury data to “determine if an identifiable pattern of product defect could pose an unreasonable risk of injury or death, necessitating a consumer warning, product recall, or other regulatory action.” The CDC went on to encourage manufacturers to consider developing safer designs.  

In a March 2026 statement concerning Nexgrill, Acting CPSC Chairman Peter A. Feldman said the agency had spent months pressing manufacturers to address the known hazard. He described the problem as “a serious ingestion hazard caused by a dangerous design flaw that allows small wire bristles to detach from the brush and be swallowed without detection.” He added that the Commission’s efforts, paired with the recall, “send a clear message to industry: identify and fix known hazards quickly or face escalating enforcement.” 

Efforts to Make Grill Brushes Safer

The CPSC’s previous actions were evident back in 2024, when—after reviewing more than 100 injury reports—the commission formally asked ASTM International (an organization that writes voluntary safety standards for thousands of consumer products) to create a new standard specifically for grill brushes. 

In response, ASTM formed a new subcommittee to do just that. The goal was to “address safety concerns of grill brushes,” and to create a standard that would “specifically cover concerns about bristles detaching during use and posing ingestion hazards to consumers.”

At the time of this writing, the ASTM has not yet published the proposed grill-brush standard. An update appears in the CPSC’s FY2025 Annual Voluntary Standards Tracking and Reporting report, published in May 2026. According to that report, the CPSC staff had tested grill brushes currently on the market, and the next step was continued product testing and the development of possible requirements.  

The Canadian Standards Association (CSA), however, already published a voluntary safety standard for barbecue brushes in 2019, adding new requirements for how firmly bristles have to be attached and how the products have to be labeled. The association took this action after receiving multiple reports of Canadians swallowing wire bristles.  

So far, the Weber brush recall and Nexgrill brush recall notices haven’t identified one specific manufacturing or design failure that all models shared. Those details may come in the future through testing, CPSC records, expert examination, and the discovery process in litigation. At the very least, the rising reports of problems, the recalls, and the increasing number of lawsuits filed by injured plaintiffs raise serious questions about how the brushes were designed, tested, manufactured, inspected, and monitored after they were sold. 

What seems clear is that with all this going on—injury reports, case studies, CPSC investigations, and more—the brush manufacturers were certainly aware of the hazards.

Grill Brush Recall Lawsuits Filed Against Manufacturers

Soon after the recalls were announced, plaintiffs who had been injured by these grill brushes began to come forward to file legal claims.  

In March 2026, for example, five proposed class actions were all filed in the Northern District of Illinois. The related cases include Challis, Malmstein, Hess, Dushaj, and Hose v. Weber-Stephen Products LLC—makers of the Weber wire grill brushes—and all claim that the manufacturers failed to take the appropriate steps to protect the public from the hazards associated with their products.

“CBS News” reported in April 2026 that three plaintiffs in New York and New Jersey had filed personal injury lawsuits over alleged Weber brush injuries. One man said a metal fragment stuck in his eye and left scarring and limited vision. An attorney for the plaintiffs said a child had undergone two throat surgeries to remove the wire, while another plaintiff had one lodged near his pancreas. 

On June 8, 2026, an Oregon man filed a proposed class action lawsuit against Nexgrill Industries in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. He alleges in his complaint that Nexgrill failed to warn about the bristle-detachment defect and that the recall remedy was inadequate because it required a burdensome claims process and provided compensation in the form of a gift card rather than cash.  

The CPSC recall notice now states that the remedy was updated on June 23, 2026, allowing consumers to contact Nexgrill for a full refund.  

Other cases have been filed in courts around the nation, including one in the Middle District of Florida. In that case, the plaintiff stated that he unknowingly consumed a metal bristle, which traveled to the intestine, where it pierced the intestinal wall, causing a perforation and resulting in the plaintiff becoming septic with a 103-degree fever. He had to undergo surgery and resection of his bowel. A foot of damaged and infected bowel was removed.

There were lawsuits even before these recent recalls, however. Back in 2018, a South Carolina woman bit into leftover grilled chicken and felt a wire bristle lodge in her esophagus. She had to go through emergency surgery to have it removed. A jury awarded her $315,000 in her lawsuit, and in the wake of her case, Bloomin’ Brands, the parent company of Outback Steakhouse—where she had purchased the chicken—replaced wire-bristle grill brushes with a safer alternative across its restaurant chains nationwide. 

What Legal Claims May Be Available After a Grill Brush Injury?

What claims plaintiffs can make against defendants will depend on the product, the injury, the state where the incident occurred, and the companies involved. Talk to your grill brush recall lawyer for advice on what claims you may be able to file.

Potential claims may include the following. 

Defective Design

A plaintiff may argue that the grill brush’s defective design allowed thin wires to detach during normal or reasonable foreseeable use, creating an unreasonable ingestion hazard. Evidence for such a claim may include the brush design, testing records, expert testimony, safer alternative designs, incident reports, and the CPSC’s public statements.

Manufacturing Defect

If a manufacturing error or oversight resulted in bristles that separated from the brush too easily, the plaintiff may be able to make a manufacturing defect claim. Possible problems may include faulty materials, weak bristle attachment, improper assembly, or poor quality control.  

Failure to Warn

Plaintiffs have already alleged that the manufacturer or seller failed to provide clear warnings about the hazard of bristles breaking off, remaining on the grill, contaminating food, and causing internal injuries.  

Negligence

A plaintiff may claim negligence if they can show that the company did not use reasonable care when designing, testing, manufacturing, inspecting, distributing, or recalling the brush. This type of claim may also focus on how the company failed to respond appropriately to previous complaints, reports of injuries, and reviews. 

Breach of Warranty and Consumer Protection Claims

These claims may apply if the brush is found to be unsafe for its ordinary purpose, or if it’s discovered that the company concealed a material risk or marketed the product as safe or durable when it wasn’t.  

Who Could Be Legally Responsible for a Wire Grill Brush Injury?

Claims are typically filed primarily against the brush manufacturers, but they may also be brought against other potentially responsible parties, which may include:  

• The product designer 
• The importer 
• A component supplier (if the component was defective) 
• A distributor 
• A retail seller 
• A restaurant or food-service business that used the brush 
• Another company in the supply chain

What Should You Do After a Wire Grill Brush Injury? 

Always seek medical attention first and let your doctor know that you recently ate grilled food if you did. Keep copies of any imaging reports, procedure notes, discharge instructions, medical bills, and follow-up records.

If you own the brush, hang onto it, as well as any related packaging and receipts. Don’t throw it away before talking to a grill brush injury lawyer. Take pictures of the handle, brush head, model markings, grill grate, and any loose wires.  Store it safely so that the bristles will not be disturbed.

As soon as you can after the injury, write down what happened while the details are still fresh in your mind. Include the date and location of the meal, what food was served, who cleaned the grill, when your symptoms began, where the brush was purchased, and anyone who witnessed the incident.

Finally, contact your wire grill brush recall attorney as soon as possible. Waiting can make any evidence that may support your case harder to find, especially when a brush, receipt, packaging, security video, or restaurant record may be discarded. Hiring a Weber grill brush recall attorney right away can also help you focus on healing while your lawyer handles the details of your case.